Christian Feminism: Three Reasons Why It is Important

The Picture

Alright, I saw this picture of a woman basically being in chains and behind her were verses such as 1 Timothy 2:12, 1 Peter 3:3, and phrases like "charity should begin at home". The message might not surprise you, it might make you angry, but it might not surprise you. I saw this on my news feed and had two reactions:

1. I was angry, very angry. Angry because as a Christian woman I hated that the message behind this picture told me that my thinking was illogical. I hated that the message behind this picture was wrong and yet, so many believed it to be true. But it did not take me long to have a second reaction.

2. I was sad, very sad. Why? Because if I am honest the deep down truth is that most people, including myself at some point, believed the lie that Christianity is not compatible with feminism. For a very long time, I believed, even if it was subconscious, that God wanted me to be below my male brothers. It is what I was taught and I dared not to test that assumption. I want to give you three reasons why I now believe that assumption to be false.

A little disclaimer, I am not a theologian. I did not go to seminary. I minored in theology at my undergrad university, but I am by no means a biblical scholar. Know that when I use scripture and tell of interpretations, I am not arguing that I am 100% right. I just hope that the tidbits of information over the years that I have learned about women, feminism, and the bible will encourage others to look beyond the surface.

Okay, here it is:

Reason #3 – There are so many powerful women in the Bible, and most in the lineage of Jesus.

This is kind of an elementary reason given as an entry level argument. One to just get your feet wet. It is no secret that there are powerful women in the bible. Deborah, Ruth, Tamar, Mary, Esther, Hannah, Rahab, and Priscilla, just to name a few. These women held their own when it came to being biblical champions. On that list there are warriors, travelers, queens, and close friends of Jesus, etc. Yet, often it is missed that the beauty of those women being placed all through the Old and New Testament, is not simply that they give little girls in church someone to look up to. The beauty is that they are even mentioned at all. It is typically missed that during the writing of the Old and the New Testament, women did not have many rights nor did they have voices. Yet, beautifully woven in scripture, God presents us with countless women who show strength, integrity, and leadership.

The implication of inserting these stories into the inspired Word of God does not stop there. In the Old Testament, there are stories of women who would later become mothers in the lineage of Jesus. I want to focus specifically on Tamar. If you do not know the story of Tamar I would send you to Genesis 38. As a paraphrase, what happens is Tamar marries one of Judah’s sons and he dies because of his wickedness before they have offspring. Following the custom of the time, Tamar then wed another of Judah’s sons in order to have offspring. This son did not want to give her a child because the child would be considered his brothers. He also died because of his wickedness. Afraid of losing another son, Judah did not give his younger son the permission to marry Tamar. Long story short, Tamar poses as a prostitute in order to get Judah to sleep with her and then she has his child. Now this is an interesting story, because from that child we get Jesus. There are also a few other stories of “harlots” in the lineage of Jesus. Okay, so why am I mentioning this? It might seem counterproductive, since I am trying to give a case for feminism. This information, however, is interesting because a sexist God would mention these so called “harlots” in solely a negative tone. Yet, the opposite is in fact true. God values these women, who society at the time (and probably now also) held to such a low disregard, he valued them so much that He put them in the lineage of Jesus Christ.

Reason #2 – The marriage passage on “submission” is more mutual than meets the eye.

This one is usually the golden ticket. “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.”* Ephesians 5:22. If you have been to any marriage seminar or dating Sunday school class, you have heard this verse. We all know it, Christianity calls for women and men to have different roles and the role of the woman is to submit to the husbands. That’s it. Nothing else matters because the role of submission is so clear in scripture.

Except that is not the whole picture. Yes, Paul does say wives submit to your husbands but I want to make two points. One, the submission is as to the Lord. That kind of submission looks a little different than the women have “no rights” submission. The relationship that Christians have to Jesus, our Lord, is one of submission. But because we have free will it is not a relationship of tyranny. God rules over us but in love and mercy. We submit our individuality, in order to be a part of the community, the body of Christ. It is a beautiful thing, that kind of submission. It asks us not to consider ourselves but those outside of ourselves and reach them with the love and hope of Jesus Christ. Now that submission, is a submission of freedom. Second, the verse does not end at female submission. It is followed by a commandment that Husbands love their wives as Christ loved the church. This is the mutuality clause. For you see, the love that Christ had for the church was not a romantic Lifetime special kind of love. It was a love so deep and so strong that He gave his life. Do you hear that? He gave his life, as in death. This is why I call this a mutuality clause. In the same way that God commands women to give up their individuality for the sake of the community, he also requires (if not more strongly) that men give up their individuality for the sake of the community.

Reason #1 – Jesus loved women and elevated them to an equal level.

Okay, this is my favorite reason. It also probably the most important. As a Christian, Jesus is the authority on how we view God. He said that those who have seen Him have also seen the Father.1 It only makes sense that in an argument for feminism and the elevation of women to an equal level, we should look to the life of Jesus. Jesus had quite a few women followers. If you do not believe that look at the story of the woman that washed his feet with her hair in Luke 7. Jesus allowed women to worship Him freely even to the astonishment of the men around. Take for instance the story of Mary and Martha. Again, if you do not know this story I urge you to read it in Luke 10, but I will paraphrase it here. In that story, Jesus is visiting his friends Mary and Martha, which in itself speaks to Jesus’ view of women, and Martha was off preparing things necessary for the visit – such as the cooking. Mary on the other hand was sitting at the feet of Jesus listening to Him teach. When Martha gets mad at Mary for not helping her she asked Jesus to reprimand Mary. But instead, Jesus says Mary has chosen the better path.

Now we have all heard this passage of scripture taught as a message of priorities. However, the story has a much deeper meaning. At the time, Jesus was considered a Rabbi. It was unlawful for women to sit at the feet of a Rabbi and hear him teach. It would have had intense consequences, sometimes even death. Martha was not simply perturbed that Mary was not helping her, she was upset because Mary was breaking the law. Martha went to Jesus, like so many of us, assuming that because Mary was in the wrong legally, that He, the Messiah, would surely correct her. Except Jesus did something magnificent. In five simple words, Jesus broke the chains of female bondage in the church. “Mary has chosen the better.” For us, the meaning may be unclear because we don’t understand the social norms of that time. Essentially, Jesus was saying that women no longer have to go through any man to get to God. We are free to come to Him on our own and when we choose to, we have chosen the better.

I end with this, the beauty of the Gospel is that Christ came and died and loved all. Not just the males, not just the females, not just Americans, not just the heterosexuals, not just those with higher education but ALL. “For God so loved the WORLD that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”2 That is pretty clear, and it means EVERYONE.