Coming back from a men’s Bible study geared around solving precisely this problem (Jesus, the man), I found the following to be spot-on:
All of the outward facing disciplines within Christianity, such as apologetics, theology, ethics, etc. are de-emphasized, censored or resisted in feminized churches. There is no place for rationality, moral judgments and boundaries, debates and disagreement, confrontations and persuasion, or other manly Christian practices…
Many women believe that the purpose of Christianity is to be happy and to make others happy by not discussing controversial things like religion. They do not attach the same importance to the duty to be an informed ambassador for Christ, trained in apologetics, and able to persuade others about God’s existence and character. They do not believe that the Lord’s reputation needs to be defended in public in the same way that men do.
Many women also don’t want to be confronted about their beliefs by informed men, because their beliefs are based more on intuition and emotion. They would rather be accepted and affirmed – and so they favor men who don’t know much about the details of Christianity.
H/T: The Anchoress
I think that we need to get the idea firmly in mind that “feminism” is not about women’s equality as much as it is a Marxist meme. Marx said that the first exploitation was of women by men, so it must be so. Marx was very ignorant of history, or he would have known that, as the late middle ages segued into the Renaissance, women had a great deal of economic power, gradually losing it, over a couple of generations, with the invention of the lady of leisure, AKA, the trophy wife.
Since Marx thought that the Church was an instrument of oppression, therefore the Church had to be oppressing women. The when and where of church life varies, of course, so the female voting member of a Congregational or Baptist church in 1650 would not seem to have so much in common with the medieval Mother Superior, but both of them brought a balance to church life. In many Latin American countries, church is almost entirely a ‘women’s club’ which the men might attend on Easter and Christmas, under duress. Although the Church in those societies is unbalanced, it does provide a balance to the society at large, because power in those pre bourgeois societies is pretty heavily concentrated in the hands of men. Historically, I’d have to say that even the obsession with ‘women’s themes’, like good feelings, etc, is derived from the above-referenced ‘lady of leisure,’ with women all about romance. I see in many churches very strong women, leading in a strongly feminine way, and men also participating in ways appropriate to us. If you want a picture of ’strongly feminine’ compare or contrast a woman in labor to the girl of your first crush. The woman in labor could crush your hand, or any other part they could grab!
The history of the church is well populated with strong women, who did, in fact teach, and not just some namby-pamby good feelings, either. Julian of Norwich comes to mind, and the Anchoress of our day, and I might also mention three women writers of detective fiction, Phyllis Dorothy James, Agatha Christie, and Dorothy Sayers. While Lady James and Lady Agatha have concentrated more on the morality expressed in their fiction, Mrs. Sayers actually wrote theology.
One final sad reality we need to face is that the feminization of the Church has also been the work of ‘girly men’ in pew, and, most of all, in the pulpit.
There’s a great line in the hymn, Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus, that says:
“Ye that are men now serve Him.” That’s more than just good advice.
By: Michael on March 12, 2009
at 2:43 pm
[...] Your Time; Changing Your Life I want to highlight a comment Tigger made a few minutes ago that fits with a re-design of the right sidebar that I happened to be [...]
By: Redeeming Your Time; Changing Your Life « New Wineskins on March 12, 2009
at 11:47 am
I don’t know that I would lay the blame entirely on a “feminist” agenda in the church. The church as a whole, and especially in the west seems to have entered a Laodicean phase. [Bingo. (link added) -ed.]
The historic remedy for this has been and continues to be a combination of Prayer, Fasting and Study. This combination over many ages of history has lead to revivals.
[It is also notable, that Jesus' prescription for the Laodicean (read: 'of the people') church in Revelation (linked above) is purely individual, not institutional. I.e., what Tigger said: individual activities (which help discern good preaching and build community -- not the other way around. ed.]
For reasons that I do not have time to share, I’ve spent much of my time looking back at things that helped make the church of 150 – 200 years ago what it was. My conclusions to date:
1) Prayer
2) Bible Study
3) Strong Preaching
4) A focus on discipleship as opposed to membership.
To rework a quote that I’ve seen as an e-mail signature: “Three things in life are important, the first is prayer; the second is prayer; the third is prayer.”
By: tigger23505 on March 12, 2009
at 5:28 am
Thanks for drawing our attention to this post. I clicked on your link and read the whole article and encourage others to do the same.
I wonder if one of the reasons we don’t see the exercise of church discipline and the pursuit of cutting edge Christianity in the church is because of this issue. The feminist desire to be “accepted and affirmed” can (on occasion) override a deeper need to be confronted.
The apostles didn’t mince words when the integrity of the Christ following community and the ‘Lord’s reputation needed to be defended’ (1 Cor. 5).
The feminist church might struggle with such an approach and it may well be one of the reasons that most Christians will never have heard a sermon on the above chapter or even a verse from it.
We can only hope that as the 21st Century progresses a new bread of church leaders will emerge who can provide not only the comfort but the confrontation to grow the people of God into a greater exemplar and praise of His name.
[Amen, brother! -ed.]
By: quondampastor on March 11, 2009
at 10:04 pm
Where’s Tim Allan when you need him? AHH!! AHH! OH!
In all seriousness… please take note that much of the recent Catholic church abuse scandals were brought about by the all out rejection of masculine “hope to be” priests for the, shall we say more “feminine” type. 95% of the cases were homosexual related. Since the outing, there has been a notable change in the types of seminarians and new priests. The Wall St. Journal last Friday I think, had an article about how the newer priests are far more conservative and orthodox.
After what transpired in CT this week I really think the battle is joined and the Church will fight back the best way it knows how. Besides, we know who wins.
[links added. -ed.]
By: archangel on March 11, 2009
at 9:26 pm