VoxTheology

creating theology in community

1. Daniel Blomberg 7.9.08 / 10am

   I’ve never written on (or, embarrassingly, even really read) a blog before, but my husband got me interested in this one. So, I thought I’d give it a try.

   Certainly, it is very difficult and often very dissatisfying to be a woman in our culture. While claiming to affirm women and saying very loudly that women should think of themselves highly, society really only celebrates women when they begin acting like traditional ideas of men (wearing suits, financially supporting the family, and kickboxing). In fact, the only cool way for a woman to express femininity is through sexuality, and that often comes across as a desperate attempt to get some kind of scrap of affirmation from men anyway. Many of the very core things that make us women, like feeling the flutter of another life inside you and knowing that you are responsible for the future, or literally giving your strength to another person by feeding a baby with your body, or partnering with a man to combine the strength of two people into one force for making a difference in the world, are generally portrayed as tacky (for people who live with dirt floors) or, often worse than that, as “cute” for some girls but not, generally, the intelligent ones. Our culture says that it’s great to be girl, as long as you don’t act like one. Self-loathing (or, at least, self-pity) is actually kind of a logical result.

   In other words, I think feminist issues and feminist theology are exciting and worthwhile to discuss and definitely believe that no one should be “dehumanized” (in the words of Sue Monk Kidd) because of her womanhood. However, I believe that there needs to be an underlying agreement that our definitions of real humanity and femininity are the ones presented by God in the Bible. I think that Kidd is treading on very dangerous ground when she begins talking about men and a God “like themselves,” as if we should doubt God because He chose to reveal Himself to us through men. The Bible’s teachings for women certainly aren’t easy or even particularly appealing (see 1 Timothy 2:11-15 for one galling example), but neither are its teaching for men (in fact, from talking to my husband, I’m beginning to wonder if they might not actually have it harder). God knew what He was doing when He made us women and when He used self-admittedly flawed men to tell us how to act like women. In fact, it’s always been one of the great miracles and wonders of Christianity that God chooses to use small, broken, malfunctioning characters (including us) to accomplish His perfect plan. We are made in the image of God, male and female (see Genesis 1:27), and I think that we are headed for trouble when we begin re-creating Him in our image or the way we think He should be.

   The only way for women (or anyone) to “go forward…without killing off something deep and vital within yourself” (Sue Monk Kidd’s words again) is to be what God created us to be in Him. God set up a plan (or perhaps it’s better to think of it as a goal or destination) in the Bible for us as women that implicitly and explicitly affirms womanhood; we supposed to encourage and teach each other (Titus 2:3-5), show God’s beauty to others through gentleness (1 Peter 3:1-5), serve others (see Susannah, Mary, Lydia, and others), and, if we are blessed, to marry, submit to our own husbands, and raise children (with pain, thanks to Eve). In addition to that, Lydia, Priscilla, the almost-irritatingly-good Proverbs 31 woman, and others all worked for money and are praised in the Bible. God gives us examples and commands of how to be good wives and mothers, certainly, but also on how to be specifically feminine friends, teachers, sisters, lovers (in the right sense—see Song of Songs), and daughters. The Bible was written by men, but I believe it is God’s word to everyone, regardless of gender, race, or class, and have found it surprisingly fulfilling (or “congruent” to use a word from Rustin Smith’s sermon :) to live like that’s true (I graduated from a non-Christian, liberal arts, women’s college, so it took me a while to come around to this).

   I wish I could have stated this more elegantly (and, for all readers’ sakes, more succinctly), but I’m still figuring it out myself.

   -Ginger Blomberg
2. Daniel Blomberg 7.9.08 / 12pm

   Oops, I didn’t read the “welcome to blog” instructions until after I posted this. I should have asked more questions (although that would have made it longer…). Anyway, here are some questions.
   1. Can we really rely on the Bible to guide us literally in how we should live as women, even when some of the teachings don’t make a lot of sense to us?
   2. Reflecting on that (and this might be too big of an issue for an off-hand question), should women be allowed to preach in church?
   3. Is there such a thing as a Christian feminist? Or are the terms mutually exclusive?
3. david clark 7.10.08 / 1am

   Ginger,

   Welcome, thank you for your comments (and questions).

   You have pointed out a great challenge for evangelical theology. Our contemporary context has distorted the feminine to either mean sex or weakness. We wish to proclaim an alternative story, one that honors and celebrates the feminine. But where we wish to speak this story from, sometimes makes it quite difficult (as you pointed out in 1 Timothy).

   What does a 1st century community, with Jewish roots, placed in the middle of Greco-Romoan culture have to say about a globalized 21st century community struggling with gender roles?
4. Anonymous 7.20.08 / 1pm

   I believe that a 1st century community with Jewish roots speaks to us because God chose to speak through them, but I’m curious what everybody else thinks.
5. Ginger Blomberg 7.20.08 / 1pm

   Sorry, that last comment was left by me, Ginger Blomberg.
6. Rustin 7.31.08 / 1pm

   Sorry everyone, I’m late to this conversation – but I love the tone of the dialog. Thanks for the thoughtful and respectful interaction here. Good stuff.
7. Kris 8.25.08 / 11pm

   “Is there such a thing as a Christian feminist? Or are the terms mutually exclusive?”

   I believe that Christianity and feminism are pretty compatible, actually. I do think that both terms have uncomfortable history with them – it makes me cringe to think of the Crusades or women burning bras…

   The former feminism, the movement of feminist thought, is based on the notion that we are all created in the image of God and therefore should treat each other accordingly. In college, we had a group of “feminist” individuals who met in a group. We DID throw out the word feminism, and called ourselves synonymously, “Christians for Equality and Social Justice.”

   I suppose, I am inspired more frequently by Jesus than I am by Sue Monk Kidd or Johnson, though these women at LEAST are adding to the conversation (which you have to give them props for, eh?)

   People will argue terms to death, I imagine, but the hope is to live in such a way that reflects upon Christ. It’s easy to get caught up in the details and questions, which I believe are important to wrestle with, but how much more so to be out living the gospel?

   Yes, I’m not a good example. As far as labels are concerned, I believe that I am neither a Christian or a feminist or a Christian feminist, unless another can look at my life and see… Oh, wow! She does the same things Christ did! Or oh… She is definitely an advocate for social justice! Jesus acted justly. I would say that he WAS a feminist… But that’s just me, looking at his life, and saying that for the most part, I think he gets it. :)
8. Kris 8.25.08 / 11pm

   I don’t know if former feminism was the right thing? Latter? More recent? Just to clarify. I’m not talking about burning bras… ;)
9. Ginger Blomberg 8.31.08 / 6pm

   I am so excited that a woman responded (no offence to the men who responded). I don’t actually know that much about the idea of Christian feminism, so I am very interested in hearing others’ opinions on the issue. Like Kris, I like the idea of a “former,” non-bra-burning feminism—something new that acknowledges the inherent value of femininity in the proper context, neither demeaning it nor celebrating something it’s not nor disproportionately inflating just one aspect of it until others are overwhelmed. A woman named Wendy Shalit (a Jewish author) has written a book about modesty called “Girls Gone Mild” (which was a thought-provoking cultural study on issues ranging from Bratz dolls to “cuddle parties,” even for those not particularly enthusiastic about modesty). She includes a chapter outlining a brief history of feminism, from the early social justice feminists, through the bra-burners who said there was no difference between men and women, through the present when many women are trying to reclaim some aspect of femininity through sexuality, to what Shalit calls “Feminism’s Mild Fourth Wave,” a new generation where women can embrace their femininity without selling out to either injustice or pandering. It’s hopeful and appealing.

   On the other hand, the simple term “feminism” carries a lot of baggage with it that is difficult to unload. I have, in fact, labeled myself a Christian feminist in the past, but I have been finding that many Christians whom I respect are wary of this association. In fact, C.S. Lewis writes about the dangers of associating Christianity with anything else that distracts from the main faith. In “The Screwtape Letters” an elder demon tells a younger how to tempt humanity by saying, “What we want, if men become Christians as all, is to keep them in the state of mind I call ‘Christianity And.’ You know—Christianity and the Crisis, Christianity and the New Order, Christianity and Faith Healing, Christianity and Vegetarianism, Christianity and Spelling Reform. If they must be Christians let them at least be Christians with a difference. Substitute for the faith itself some Fashion with Christian colouring. Work on their horror of the Same Old Thing.”

   In fact, I think that the gravest danger of feminism for Christians is the temptation that it causes to bend the Bible to fit the current trend of the movement. Mary A. Kassian (about whom I admittedly know nothing except this quote) wrote “Biblical feminists view the Bible as open to alteration. One of the basic presuppositions of Biblical feminist theology is that the Bible is not absolute and that its meaning can ‘evolve’ and ‘transform.’ Since the Bible presents no absolute standard of right and wrong, feminists maintain that they must decide this for themselves. This basic premise allows them to interpret the Bible in any manner appropriate to their immediate circumstances.” Is this a fair assessment of Christian feminists? I would be interested in some feedback. However, I think that it would be hard to deny that it is sometimes a temptation to gloss over or alter (often circuitously) certain passages in the Bible that are at odds with some aspects of cultural feminism.

   Here are just a couple more quotes to consider. Elisabeth Eliot (whom I have read, and whom I respect and admire very much, even when we are not entirely in agreement) said in essay called “The Essence of Femininity,” “Why must feminists substitute for the glorious hierarchal vision of blessedness a ramshackle and incoherent ideal that flatten all human being to a single level—a faceless, colorless, sexless wasteland where rule and submission are regarded as a curse, where roles of men and women are treated like machine parts that are interchangeable, replaceable, and adjustable, and where fulfillment is a matter of pure politics, things like equality and rights?” Also, Jennie Chancey, a self-proclaimed “former feminist” who is now a mother of eight writes, “Whenever we are coaxed to follow our own understanding and trust our own judgment (or the judgment of a pagan culture), Scripture calls us back. It does not change because God does not change….Feminism is as old as the Garden of Eden and simply recycles the same tired line: ‘God was wrong; taste and see—I can give you something better.’ But Satan’s rotten fruit will not satisfy our deepest hunger.”

   I would love to hear further opinions on this issue and on practical ways on Christian feminism plays out in everyday life and in the church.

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