Women. Are they equal with different
roles, or are they equal with a variety of callings as men are equal
with a variety of callings? How does God see men and women?
We know Jesus chose a woman to be the
first missionary to Samaria. And the first people she brought to
Jesus were men. Was she outside her role to bring men to Jesus? If
Jesus chided her for it, no one recorded that.
We know the risen Jesus showed himself
first to a woman, waiting until John and Peter went away. And he
commissioned her, too.
And Jesus did not rush to Martha's
defense and tell Mary to hurry to the kitchen and do women's work
instead of listening to the teacher like the men were doing. Instead,
Jesus said what Mary had chosen would not be taken from her.
Looking at the life of Jesus, this idea
of women's roles being limited by God to being servants to their
husbands doesn't fit.
Perhaps the words of Paul in I
Corinthians 12 will help solve the disagreement. Does the role that
some say is for women only, make them of less value? How did Paul see
the church?
I Cor 12:21-26: “And the eye cannot
say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the
feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the
body, which seem feeble, are necessary: And those members of the body
which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more
abundant honour, and our uncomely parts have more abundant
comeliness. For our comely parts have no need, but God hath tempered
the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part
which lacked: That there should be no schism in the body, but that
the members should have the same care one for another. And whether
one member suffer, all the members suffer with it, or one member be
honoured, all the members rejoice with it.”
Reading that in “God's Word”
translation: “An eye can't say to a hand, “I don't need you!”
or again the head can't say to the feet, “I don't need you! The
opposite is true. The parts of the body that we think are weaker are
the ones we really need. The parts of the body that we think are less
honorable are the ones we give special honor. So our unpresentable
parts are made more presentable. However, our presentable parts don't
need this kind of treatment. God has put the body together and given
special honor to the part that doesn't have it. God's purpose was
that the body should not be divided but rather that all of its parts
should feel the same concern for each other. If one part of the body
sufferes, all the other parts share its suffering. If one part is
praised, all the others share in its happiness.”
What does this mean? Who are the more
feeble or weak and who are the less presentable? Haven't
complementarians indicated women are the weak and unpresentable?
Women are NOT to be where they are seen, in front of the
congregation. Instead, they are to take their places behind the
scenes. And in spite of their behind-the-scenes positions, they are
still equal to men in the eyes of God. Where they serve has no impact
upon their value.
To make this better understood,
consider which parts of the body are considered unpresentable or
weaker, and which are “comely” or presentable, so they do not
need special honor given to them? Aren't faces and hands the parts
that are seen in public? So eyes, ears, noses, mouths, cheeks, etc
are those that get behind the pulpits. And armpits and anuses are the
parts that remain hidden, along with digestive systems, thyroids,
adrenals, the endocrine system, livers, etc. So complementarians
have said God decrees that males can be faces and hands, while
females are the more disgusting and dishonorable parts. Ok, that is
well and good. All parts of the body are equally needed.
So why are the anuses, armpits,
endocrine systems, digestive tracts and livers complaining? Could
verses 24a to 26a have the answer? “God has put the body together
and given special honor to the part that doesn't have it. God's
purpose was that the body should not be divided but rather that all
of its parts should feel the same CONCERN for each other. If one part
of the body suffers, all the other parts share its suffering...”
Could the whole problem with complementarian rules be that one part
of the body is suffering and the other part is “rubbing their nose
in it?” In body-speak, the anuses are in pain over the sandpaper
that is being used as toilet paper, and the hands and faces are
replying, “That is how God ordained it to be. It is your role.”
The armpits are in agony over the antiperspirant that is being used,
and the hands and faces are replying, “Submit to us! Stop
rebelling, you Jezebel! That is the way God ordained it. Stop trying
to take the role of the hands and faces.”
Complementarians are saying if a person
does not have penis and testicles, they cannot be part of the hands
or face; the Spirit only gifts those with breasts and vaginas to do
anus and armpit type work for the kingdom. Many women are saying
they have NOT been gifted to be an anus. They have been gifted to be
a mouth; God made that very clear to them. But those who claim they
are the comely ones, whether they are or not, insist the Spirit does
NOT gift females with mouth-gifts.
So who does one believe? Those who say
women can only be anuses, armpits and guts, or those who say God has
called them to be feet or hands or mouths? Does anyone have the right
to tell another what God did and didn't say to them? What if the men
in Samaria had told the Woman at the Well, that of course Jesus would
not have said those things to HER, a mere WOMAN, and ignored all she
told them? Samaria would never have had a sweeping turn to the real
God.
How many people have not come to God,
have not been able to connect the dots to be able to come to
salvation through Jesus because men have forced women to be anuses,
armpits and guts? And on top of that, those same men used sandpaper,
harsh chemicals, and poison to keep the anuses, armpits and guts “in
their place,” resulting in hampering the message of the vessels God
had chosen to proclaim His message, His way, a way that the hearers
could understand and to which they could relate.
Is the church today--the people who have accepted Jesus as Savior--half the size it
would have been if women had been respected, if their cry of pain had
been heard, and if women had not had their wings clipped so they
could not proclaim the gospel as God had called them to proclaim it?
Waneta Dawn is the author of "Behind the Hedge, A novel" See www.wanetadawn.com A Mennonite woman fights to save her family yet keep her faith.
Posts
It seems like a great plan from Satan to convince the church to silence half its members...actually more than half the members. American churches wonder why they are diminishing in our culture and becoming less relevant. Yet it wastes effort and resources and pulpit time defining what women can and can't do. It doesn't bother to equip them for ministry. If there is a women's ministry, its role is mainly to work in the kitchen. Women must figure out how to equip themselves. Fortunately, the Holy Spirit helps us out! But the church has set itself back by not helping women become ministry leaders.
ReplyDeleteI was fairly convinced until recently that I should avoid teaching men because that is what the mainstream church teaches. But what if I came across a man lying in the street dying after being hit by a car. Am I not to teach him about Christ in his final moments of life? My feeling was that I was under no obligation to him and could walk right by. I used to think that if I were teaching at a women's gathering and a man walked in the room for whatever reason, I should order him out. Thankfully, after studying Ephesians a bit more, I no longer agree with the mainstream church's interpretation.
Shoemaker
Shoemaker,
ReplyDelete" Thankfully, after studying Ephesians a bit more, I no longer agree with the mainstream church's interpretation."
I praise God for your deliverance! I am so thankful we not only have bibles, we also have concordances and interlinear bibles to tell us what those Greek and Hebrew words were and what they meant. Katharine Bushnell was right: women need to study the word--including the original languages--for themselves. Do not trust the translators. If the bible said a male was to be a despot, (referring to I Tim 5:14) the translators would have said the male was to be an absolute ruler. But when the bible says a woman is to be a despot, the translator decides he cannot say a woman should be an absolute ruler. Therefore, he says she is to merely guide or manage, and the freedom, equality, authority, respect and value she has as a Christian woman is lost in the translation.
How many people have never heard of Christ because of the church's treatment of women? How many women have become atheists because of the church's stance against women? Truly, Satan is the winner.
I find other "rules" I had picked up because of complementarian teaching. 1). If a man is interested in you, you must say yes because a man must have what he wants. He cannot endure/handle being thwarted. My niece dated a man who thought she must submit to him (non-sexually) even though they were not married. So if he wanted a date, she was to say yes even if she had other plans that evening. I wasn't the only one who understood the teaching that way. (btw, she quit him.)
2. Because of complementarian teaching about female submission, never tell a man he is in error; he cannot handle that, either. A man must always be right. He must be free to do whatever it is he chooses to do, and a woman must not question his judgment or choices. So if he is literally stepping on your toes, and you are in extreme pain, do not tell him and don't make a sound. Endure it, until he chooses to move off your foot. Same goes for if he beats you. Do not scream; the neighbors may hear, and that is NOT acceptable and will make YOU the guilty party. In fact, since he beat you that automatically makes you the guilty party, since a man can never be wrong.
3). If a man is found to be wrong, it is the woman's fault. Secular men and Christian men agree on this point.
4). In spite of all the assurances that women and men are equal, when they say women are equal in the eyes of God, they mean women are NOT equal to men in the eyes of men. Indeed, in the eyes of men, women are secondary or less. Men often consider women to be less valuable, less knowledgeable, less wise, and hold less authority than their 12 year old sons.
Because of these rules, I walked on eggshells around my dad and also around my husband. But the words of Jesus and a better study of Ephesians not only frees women from such bondage, they also help us drink in how extremely valuable and loved we are to God.