There’s a video making its way around the Internet which contains derogatory quotes about women made by great men of the church (and Pat Buchanan, Pat Robertson and Plato) and shots of lovely young women in and around a church setting, with Kate Bush singing “This Women’s Work.” I found the video to be manipulative and a poor response to the quotes in the video. I make the case for a biblical response here.
The Christian women of today have never had it so good when you compare our situation to Christian women throughout church history. I should know better than anyone what a blessing it is to be a Christian woman in America who can study the word of God under so many gifted teachers. Women weren’t even allowed in seminaries until the 20th century. I can study and teach others what the Bible says and I can study the word of God in it’s original language. I can also share what I’ve learned with Christians throughout the world. This is a huge gift from God and one I don’t take lightly.
So, even responding to the quotes isn’t worth our time or effort and they have nothing to do with us today. You can fall into the trap of feeling unappreciated and oppressed by this type of thinking which can still be discerned in some church settings or you can choose to not let it impact your service to Christ. I choose not to let it bother me and to prove that it’s false.
And when you think about Islam and some of the other religions of our day, you realize just how much freedom we have. In Islam women are just an extension of the men in the family and can be killed for shaming them. We are not the property of any man and we have the freedom to make our own decisions and we will be held accountable for our actions, not our husbands or fathers. Each of us will give an account for what we do (Romans 14:12). So, we should not let others oppress us but overcome that oppression to serve God by sharing the goodness and mercy of God, who sent his son to die for the sins of both women and men, with others.
We should remember our freedom and the bondage of others and pray that they will one day know the freedom that we have in Christ. The freedom to serve him and to read his word so that we may understand him better and be able to share that knowledge with others.