From The New Reformation Review
courtesy of Dan Trotter
Printed with Permission
Vol. 8, No. 1 - August 2002
HOUSE CHURCH DIRTY DIAPERS CHRONICLES NUMBER TWO
The
Feminist Mistake
Surgeon General's Warning!!
The Surgeon General has determined that if you are a testosterone-deficient, cojones-challenged, sensitive man in touch with the feminine side of his nature, reading this will cause you to lose what little bit of masculinity you have left.
Women may fail, when there's no strength in men.
- Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet.
Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee,
And for thy maintenance commits his body
To painful labour both by sea and land,
To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
Whilst thy liest warm at home, secure and safe;
And craves no other tribute at thy hands
But love, fair looks, and true obedience;
Too little payment for so great a debt.
Such duty as the subject owes the prince
Even such a woman oweth to her husband;
- Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew
Author's Caveat for Feminists: If you are a feminist, please don't read this. My purpose is not to make you angry, and this article will indeed make you angry. It is very rough, and you are not used to being treated so roughly. Also, the unpleasant things I apply to feminists in general, might not apply to you. I hate to use the old "some of my best friends are feminists" argument, but, as you might not guess after having read this article, I have met some fine feminists, who base their arguments on Scripture, and not on emotion. I disagree with them, but I respect them as people. Many, many of them I have jointly invited as speakers to Southern House Church Conferences. So please, skip this article. It is not intended for you, rather, it is written to help those who have been confused by you, and to give guidance to those who desire to deal with your more obnoxious and aggressive brethren. Thanks...
I first attacked house church feminism in House Church Dirty Diapers Chronicles Number One. I wrote that article eight or nine years after I became involved with the house church movement. Eight or nine years is a long time for me to keep silent about anything that really gripes me, but until that article, I had managed to do so. I figured we have enough on our plate to figure out what the biblical home church is, and then, to go out and do it, without getting involved in the myriad controversies in which the church is always embroiled. But I can't keep quiet any longer. The feminist error is a canker and it will ruin the house church movement (as well as life on this planet) if it's not crushed.
Feminism
is a pathology that's been around since the invention of rebellion. It's latest
modern permutation probably is best dated from the early 1960's, when Betty
Friedan published her seminal book, The Feminist Mystique. The American
feminist movement which then sprang up has completely revolutionized our
society, and has rearranged for at least two lifetimes the always complex and
subtle relationships the two sexes have established with each other. The result:
good men now don't lead, they cry and are "sensitive." Little girls are never,
and I do mean never, praised for wanting to grow up to be good mothers. One can
examine the divorce statistics, and family life in America, to help one decide
whether feminism has been a good thing.
But
I am here concerned about the effect of feminism on the church, and more
particularly, about its influence on the house church movement. Its not
surprising that an aggressive, virulent secular feminism has rutted the
foundations of the evangelical church. Evangelicals are world-famous for sucking
up to the zeitgeist. And it is also not surprising that this feminism has
impacted the house church movement. Leadership in a biblical home church is
egalitarian and consensual in form. This makes it much easier to get close to
the feminist error that the relationship between the brothers and the sisters,
and the husbands and the wives, obliterates God-created gender distinctions in
an egalitarian fashion.
Feminism is a pathology that's been around since the invention of rebellion.
There are two
things that make the feminist attack on the biblical house church movement so
horrible. The first: the authority of Scripture is thoroughly undermined. You
don't have to be a rocket scientist to read the Scriptures to know there are
very sharp, very clear gender distinctions, in both marriage and church
ministry. Reams of bogus feminist exegesis have a hard time getting around clear
statements by inspired, inerrant, Christ-commissioned apostles. For example, I
Pet 3:6 reads: "...Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, and you [Christian
wives, cf. vv 1-5] have become her children if you do what is right without
being frightened by any fear," and I Cor 11:3 states: "the man is the head of a
woman."
The second
repugnant effect that feminism has had on the home church movement is its attack
on the proper functioning of the assembly. If men are not properly taking
responsibility and authority in their homes, how in the world will they do it in
the church? I ask you to listen to the evanjellyfish feminists when they
describe the role of a husband. He's a "partner", never a leader. He "mutually
submits" to his wife, never takes responsibility for her. In short, he's a
castrated wimp. I've been doing biblical home church since 1992, and I've seen
an awful lot of problems, but nothing in my view tops the difficulty we have in
this movement than the difficulty we have with passive males. The one who sits
there catatonically week after week, who won't open his mouth, who won't rebuke
and admonish when necessary, who lets his kids run wild (usually having been
trained in his passivity by pew-sitting in the institutional church).
So what do we do with a movement that tickles our sinful fancy?
If gender distinctions are so clearly Scriptural, and if feminism's effects on the biblical home church are so obnoxious, how did we get ourselves in this circumstance? How is it that people like me who believe that God knew what he was doing when he created man and when he created woman get put into a minority, defensive position? I think there are several reasons: (1) our natural, sinful rebellion (which evangelical feminism does everything in the world to inflame), (2) obnoxious and aggressive debating tactics used by the evangelical feminists, (3) the prevalent lack of respect for Scripture in all sections of Christendom, and (4) the misguided belief that Scriptural prohibitions against womens' ministries involving authority over men prohibits women from all ministry.
Feminists Inflame Our Rebellion
I
t is often said that no woman naturally likes to submit to a husband (just like no child naturally likes to submit to a parent, and no employee naturally likes to submit to a boss, and no human naturally like to submit to God). It is said less often that men don't naturally like to lead. Both are true, and both phenomena can be explained by one simple, old-fashioned word: sin. Our entire Christian life is a struggle against rebellion from the way God created us to be. So what do we do with a movement that tickles our sinful fancy? The evangelical feminist movement never encourages men to do what they don't naturally do well, which is to lead and to take responsibility. The feministas never encourage the women in their ranks to act like Sarah and submit to their husbands. You don't have to read their literature long to realize that they are highly embarrassed by these concepts. And of course, that means they are also embarrassed by the point-blank clear statements of Scripture. Quite frankly, I'm embarrassed by the feminists.Obnoxious Debating Tactics
W
hen one locks horns with the evangelical feminists, the first thing one notices is that it takes a week or two to get them to deal with their scriptural difficulties. That's because you are digging yourselves out from accusations that you beat women, you hate women, and that you torture women. Every crime that the male sex has ever committed is laid at your door, and God help you if you don't atone for your sin by embracing the feminist cause. This tends to put one of the defensive. I refuse to be put on the defensive. In logic, this typical feminist tactic is a straw-man argument, but unfortunately, the feminists are not interested in logic. Well, they can knock over their straw men till the cows come home. Meanwhile, I will point to the Scripture and ask them: did Peter hate his Christian sisters when he asked them the call their Christian husbands lord? I will ask the feministas: some parents abuse their children, should we do away with parenthood? Some employers abuse their employees, should we do away with jobs? Some prisons abuse inmates, should we do away with prisons?...their feminism runs through their blood like herpes, ready to erupt at any time.
I am not interested in excusing the sins of the male sex, they are plentiful and manifest. But the answer to those sins is not to neuter men, but to encourage them to submit to the Scripture, and to become Christian men. What Christian woman in her right mind would not joyfully submit to a Christian man who would care for her, provide for her, protect her, wash her with the water of the word, treat her with honor, who would spend his waking hours trying to please her, who would, in short, die for her?
W
hen I used to practice law, I was taught that if you can't win on the facts because your case is weak, blow smoke. Obfuscate, talk, talk, talk, appeal to prejudice, anything, to keep the jury's mind off the facts. The evangelical feminists are masters at this. They remind me of how I deal with people who want to present me with Scriptural arguments why I shouldn't listen to country music. I don't even listen. I plug in a Merle Haggard CD, and I turn it up very, very loud.Like most monomaniacs, they assume that the whole world turns on their little piece of gnosis.
B
esides knocking over straw men, the other usual illicit tactic the feminists use to keep you away from the Scripture is an ad hominem argument that typically runs like this: God's using women everywhere in teaching and leadership, so it must be alright. I recently heard tell of a feminist Christian leader who was challenged concerning Paul's restrictions on women teaching and exercising authority over men, who responded in this fashion: "Well, I don't know what Paul meant, but it couldn't have meant women couldn't teach and lead, because they are doing it everywhere all over the world." Ladies and gentlemen, people in the church everywhere are fornicating, but that doesn't make fornication Scriptural.Feminists love to quote the Chinese church as an ad hominem argument for women leading in the churches. Let me point out to you that no matter how fast-growing the Chinese church is, no matter how much persecution it suffers, no matter how many incredible miracles happen in its midst, the Chinese church is not perfectly scriptural, any more than any other church is. If it is true that Chinese women are leading the Chinese church, then the Chinese church has a scriptural problem. But going beyond that, I would like to question the facts assumed by the feminists. I have visited the underground Chinese church on a mission trip, and spent two weeks with several of its chief apostles, and heard stories of many more. And guess what? They were all men. Every last one of them. I guess the feminists eventually will have to go to China and tell the Chinese apostles they are being "oppressive."
I tell you here and now, the feminist case is pathetically weak.
F
eminists are often highly aggressive. Typically, their feminism runs through their blood like herpes, ready to erupt at any time. I recall admiring a feminist missionary's picture of a Chinese church meeting, not once noticing that a woman was apparently leading the meeting. The feminist missionary pointed out to me, apropos of nothing: "See! It's a WOMAN teaching." They just can't help it. They're on a mission. They've got to let you know how medieval and unenlightened you are.One last comment about feminist debating tactics. They are used to being on the offensive, and unaccustomed to being challenged vigorously. Like most monomaniacs, they assume that the whole world turns on their little piece of gnosis, so how could any enlightened person disagree? Having spend decades in the liberal academy, I began to notice something about them. They are so use to being around liberals, they become intellectually flabby, because they are never challenged in their fundamental assumptions. I suggest that there are many evangelical feminists in a similar situation. Challenge them. Make them tell you what Paul meant when he said "the man is the head of the woman." Laugh when they respond that head means "source" and not "authority", and quote Grudem's research that shows that in some 57 scadzillion places the Greek word for "head" means "authority" and not "source." As an ex-lawyer, I know what a weak case is, having had so many of them. And I tell you here and now, the feminist case is pathetically weak. So don't let them blow smoke.
Lack of Respect for Scripture
L
ack of respect for the authority of Holy Writ is not confined to the feminist camp. This attitude is everywhere, in all sections of Christendom. This is such an important issue, that I intend to devote an entire future issue of New Reformation Review to the topic. So, I don't want to lay all the blame on the feminists for this. I also want to point out that some feminists have gone to great lengths to publish scholarly works, starting roughly at around 1970, to inform us that the church has been wrong in its interpretation of the Scripture for two thousand years concerning gender role distinctions. The specious arguments found in these works are quite adequately dealt with in such books as Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood - A Response to Evangelical Feminism by John Piper and Wayne Grudem (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1991) and at such websites as the Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. However, if you scratch the average feminist, you will find that they can't even begin to deal with the relevant Scriptures. I suspect the reason for this, is they don't even care what the Scripture says.T
he whole conservative church cowers when the feminists crank up with their nonsense. God forbid that we would be called insensitive, or abusive, towards women. And while the conservative church cringes in fear at this latest theological novelty, the feminists become more and more emboldened, and less and less concerned about how to answer those Scriptural passages that stab feminism in the heart. They have been getting away with murder. But whose fault is that? Their's, or the rest of the church that refuses to take a stand against their railery? The feminists will continue to assassinate the truth until the church stands up to them. And the way to stand up to them is to constantly refer to Scripture. I have a standard response to those who complain, but So-and-So is a woman, and she is a fabulous teacher, how dare you say she shouldn't be teaching men? I say: I will listen to any woman teacher upon one condition. She must explain I Tim 2:12 ("I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man; she must be silent") without making me laugh.We better get back to the B-I-B-L-E. We better not be ashamed of it.
Of course, sophisticated feminists have their bogus "cultural" arguments about I Tim 2:12, but the average Christian, who has not even studied the issue, will often just ignore the verse and proceed blithely on, never objecting to women teaching or exercising authority over men. I have seen this error committed countless times, and by Christians who would not at all want to be labeled feminist. There is a working assumption today that if something clashes with one's common traditions and cultural practices, well then, the Scripture can't possibly mean what it says, and let's don't even examine the issue.
The lack of effective authority of the Scripture in the church's life leaves a black hole, into which vacuum today's feminists shovel their egalitarian drivel. We better get back to the B-I-B-L-E. We better not be ashamed of it. And we better demand of the feminists that they justify what they're doing is based on the Scripture.
No Prohibition Against Womens' Ministry think one major mistake that antiegalitarians often make is not to emphasize properly the major role that women play in the church. The issue is not whether women should minister or not, the issue is whether in doing their ministry, women should exercise authority over men. The antifeminists who are institutional churchmen have a problem with this, because all the "important" ministry seems to come from the front at the pulpit, and if women are excluded from that, then women have no "important" ministry. But of course, that situation doesn't hold in the biblical home church, where ministry gifts are spread all over the assembly, and where there are no sermons, and where people don't kowtow to the pastor. So in the biblical home church movement we have plenty of opportunity to make the women (as well as the children) an integral part of church life. So let's do it.There are millions of ministry opportunities for women that don't involve taking authority over men: evangelism for example, or prophesy (and let's don't forget WIFE AND MOTHER!!!!). If we don't encourage the sisters in their ministry, we leave them wide open to the seductive, dulcet strains of feminism. Let's do everything we can to help them avoid the feminist mistake.
I would like to close with a great quotation by an antichristian pagan, to illustrate the point that even infidels have more sense on this issue than do the evangelical feminists. Listen to Jean-Jacques Rousseau: "In every land the men are the sort that women make them; ...restore women to womanhood, and we shall be men again." (Emile, Everyman's Library, p. 230.) Preach it, Brother Rousseau.
-By Dan Trotter
|
The Web of Practical Theology is committed to the inerrancy and infallibility of the 39 Old Testament and 27 New Testament books of the Christian Scriptures. We believe "Theology is Practical."
This is a new web as of December 8, 2003 -- If you have any good links, ideas, articles, or advice for its improvement, please drop us a note at the address below. We hope this web has been edifying to your Christian Faith. |