God's Feminism

A blog about this subject was inevitable, really, but until yesterday I was unaware of exactly how much I believed these things, and just how contrary they were.

I identify myself as a feminist (a Christian Feminist, like Cotton, Kirk, Dad, etc.) which is not about bra-burning and men hating. It’s about equality, about treating women with the same respect and value as men. But today I realized that it’s so much more than that, and the problem that feminism is trying to mend is so much greater.

You see, a long time ago everything was good. And then people totally messed it up. They sinned, and there were consequences of that sin. To women God said, “your desire will be for your husband, but he will rule over you” (Gen. 3:16.) As a result of sin, our relationship with men was distorted. Beforehand we desired each other, love was received and given, and no one was above another. Now our own desires would be smothered, and we would be forced into not only submission, but a kind of servanthood to man-kind.

Sin is everywhere, everyone is born into a sinful nature that controls the way they think and act. Women function under that sinful nature which has been condemned, cursed. They dress scantily, agree to perform things for men because they desire men. But their desires are not really satisfied, and they always end up bowing down before men, worshipping their rulers, knowing like a broken slave knows that this is the way things are. Men are better, they are more capable, and we need them. We cannot protect ourselves. We cannot be whole without their approval, without their love. So we bow, we cast our eyes down out of reverence, out of humiliation, and give our bodies and our hearts as a sacrifice.

But maybe it can be different. God made things good in the beginning, and he desires to make them that way again. He’s trying to right now. He gave his son as a sacrifice so that our sinful nature can be overturned, so that we can function in a new nature, in a new life. We don’t have to lie anymore, we don’t have to steal, to hurt, to kill, to cause chaos and destruction. We can live in his love and life, and though we will have failures, his forgiveness and mercy is always overflowing, ready to pick us back up so we can keep walking in his light.

The early church got this and they were trying to live it out. They understood that everything they had thought was wrong, and were trying to conform themselves to a totally new mindset. So the women quit acting like servants and started acting like rulers, and the men quit acting like rulers are started acting like servants. Paul shook his head. To the Ephesians he said, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For husbands, this means love your wives just as Christ loved the church” (Ephesians 5.) To the Corinthians he said, “The husband should fulfill his wife’s sexual needs, and the wife should fulfill her husband’s needs. The wife gives authority over her body to her husband, and the husband gives authority over his body to his wife” (1 Corinthians 7:3-4.) Paul said, “No, silly, no one should be a ruler and no one should be a servant. Godly relationships mean mutual submission, sacrificial love and reverence for Christ.”

Something in us knows this. Feminism in the 60’s tried to accomplish it by burning bras and hating men. But God never operates through hate, his idea of feminism included love. Lesbians seem to know that this worship and slavehood to men is a bad idea, so they forgo men altogether. Nowadays feminism is preaching the idea that women can be men, work like men and have casual sex like men. But that’s a distortion of God’s good creation too. Women should be able to be successful women in the workplace. There is nothing in their nature that makes them incapable. It is only society’s perception of women that makes them incapable. And sex without love? That’s men’s problem. If they can have sex without love, it’s not us that should become like them, but them that should be come like us. Sex was meant for love.

So my daughters will always know that they are truly capable of anything they want to do, and that they were created with the same glory as men. Whatever society tells them that they need to do, I will let them know that all they need to do is love God, respect every human being, and keep their hearts in God because he will take care of them. They will get their hearts broken, because that’s what happens when you love, but they will be confident in a greater Love that made them beautiful and strong. My sons will be taught the same thing, and they’ll know that whatever their guy friends tell them, it’s better to treat people like people. He will always respect and love women, always have the knowledge in his heart that he was meant for more than casual sex, meant for more than abused power and kingship over his wife and sisters.

I guess you could say this is my life-thesis, my heart’s mission and my boyfriend application ;) thanks for reading it.