Egalitarianism vs. Complementarianism: Evangelical Feminism – (Part 3)

As I was checking out at the local grocery store, I couldnt help but notice a magazine on the shelf. The magazine read “Women of the Bible” ….So I purchased it. This was coincidentally the topic that I had been discussing and dissecting for months now. I thought it was very interesting to see this in a huge Grocery store, front and center. A few thoughts crossed my mind, what was the magazine doing on the shelf, in the most liberal grocery store in town? Was this a God made miracle? Were people finally acknowledging the importance of God?….Not quite, for you see, if this magazine read “Men of the Bible”…or “Jesus of the Bible” there would be no room for this magazine on the shelf. So I cracked it open, and began to read it, it was a magazine written by a woman for the women. But what was wrong with that? Wasnt it okay for women to spread the gospel? Well, that depends on several different factors?

We see a woman that is currently being worshiped within the catholic culture (Mother Mary). Why did people latch on to Mary so badly? Its because the idea of a women being of such significance is very desirable to women. In fact, statistically, women heavily outweigh men in Catholicism. In a idol worshiping culture like Catholicism, the idea of a women having such great divine power also empowers women. That is why they so strongly cling to this belief system. You will notice that in cult based religions that the amount of women always outweighs the men. Because it seems that women are easier to deceive then men. We see this from the original sin in the garden of Eden. Why did the serpent not tempt Adam?

So why is there a huge controversy within the church and why have women started to usurp, even though God is against it. Well below is a statistic collected that explains how women fel within churches and it will help explain why men have relinquished control.

The most common responses relate to women feeling like they were perceived as inferior in the Church and not being allowed to serve in ministry—especially as altar servers. Some representative examples of these experiences are provided below:

 Active involvement in the church restricted to teaching Sunday school, choir, sodality, raising funds for church and school. Never allowed to be an altar server.  All of the translations of the Bible, and the texts of the Liturgy of the Mass are not inclusive of women! We are supposed to believe that when the priest says “men” that includes me. I wonder if Father would then not mind my using the “men’s room”? Technically, women are not welcome in the sanctuary of the Church—except to clean it, of course! So there are parishes that do not allow girls as altar servers or readers.  As a girl, I could not be an altar server.  Dress code for girls at Catholic school.  Every Catholic woman who attends church is viewed as “less than” simply because they have been denied participation in the sacrament of ordination.  Everything about the Catholic Church is sexist. How can a woman not be exposed to sexism as a member of the Church? Just pick up the Bible and start reading. Ugh.

 Felt inferior when priest said husband is in charge.  Growing up girls were not permitted to assist during Mass  I went to Catholic school and actually started altar girls in my parish in 1978—the nuns did not like this at all! It was our deacon at the time that helped bring girls to serve on the altar. Truly a neat time for me and three other girls in my seventh grade class. The nuns acted differently towards me after this event—they bullied me a bit. It is so strange to look back at now—I was only 12 or 13 at the time.  In my youth, priests were waited upon by nuns or other women in the parish. Women were treated as sweet dears but not as equals. Men met and ruled and did not include women in making policy or consider family needs. Homilies do not include same sex partners’ life problems, as if this doesn’t exist. Homilies do not include a singe person’s needs, as if there is only one life track.  In religion classes in Catholic school, motherhood was always presented as a superior vocation when compared to professional pursuits. The teachings regarding birth control and abortion were very regressive  Just considered to do menial jobs around the church such as washing dishes at a Church supper.  Just their outlook and attitude about women has affected me—it feels sometimes like they are still in the “dark ages.”  Many priests, not all, have a fear of single women, or women religious or women period. Many priests have big egos and are more concerned about how they look or work less than actually minister to the people of the parish.  My input was disregarded by priests.  My priest was belittling to me in discussing career aspirations. This was over 30 years ago and had a big effect on me. Again at the Catholic college that I worked at over 25 years ago. Experienced by this behavior had me question my affiliation and experience with religion.  Not allowing women to become deacons.  One example is that I know that male youth ministers in our Diocese being paid much more than the women in the same positions. Also, a male admin assistant in our church was paid more than the female predecessor and it was said that “he has a lot of expenses going to college.”  Only male priests.  Pastor preferred men to women and children who attended the Catholic school to the children who went to public school and hence had religious education classes.  Priests deferentially speaking to my husband instead of me, bishops being surprised that I was in an executive position at a young age and looking younger, my work with the church attorney to get my first marriage annulled, and women can’t be priests or deacons. Disgust with the male hierarchy of the Church covering up child abuse for decades. Priests who participated in abusing children moved into my Diocese and quietly sheltered for decades, being given administrative roles with no public contact, and then found out later.  Routinely as a child, I would ask questions about why I was not permitted to do things classmates and peers were invited to do, and the simple answer was “You’re a girl. Girls don’t do that.” Further inquiry as to why girls “couldn’t” do something as basic as taking up the collection, even, was met with “girls don’t.”  The Church is a patriarchy, after all.  The Church’s official teachings on matter of choice, birth control and ordination are sexist and affect all Catholic women.  Usually from the men in the church who feel women should stay in the kitchen and run fundraisers

What are the motives? What are they teaching? And whats the ultimate goal?

The motives are simple, and even though many will think Im being a bit dramatic, Im pointing out systematic problems within our culture. This is not shear coincidence that a magazine about women was front and center, especially considering that we are living in a feminazi culture these days. What once started as a means of battling for women rights; to vote, to own land, to earn equal wages….has turned into so much more.

We live in a culture that caters to every complaining party. We see how the homosexuals have managed to usurp their roles in our culture to get whatever they want, and what was once a matter of “we just want to be left alone and be happy” turned into an enraged hate culture for the opposing of gays. Gay people started targeting people intentionally to get revenge, cornering Christian bakeries or churches, even Christian schools. More recently, a homo was attempting to become a leader in a Christian organization and when he was told that he didnt qualify, he pursued legal action against the “Christian” school, basically forcing his agenda on the organization. We live in a culture where we arent allowed to dislike values, or lack of. We live in a culture where we are being indoctrinated with the left’s agenda (Satan’s Minions).

So where does this bring the motives of the culture? Well, we know 100% that had this not been about women, that magazine would be buried in the back of the store, more likely never even be published. But because our culture is forcing the idea of feminism on everyone, we are being exposed to these sorts of issues daily. I find it interesting that when talking about the topic of feminism, you constantly have everyone attacking you, even men, calling you things like misogynist, or sexist. People can no longer discuss the topic of females vs males without somehow making men out to be the suspects and the women always victimizing themselves. Its quite condescending in its nature, because the easiest way to attack a topic, is by diverting from the topic and attacking character. We see this in our culture today more than we ever have before. We see someone say that they are not okay with same sex marriage, Black lives matter, or with the feminist movement. And all of a sudden you have become a bigoted racist sexist misogynist! We see this everywhere. What it truly is, is bullying. We see the left trying to force certain values and roles into our society and if you are against them you get demonized.

You are not allowed to question anyone that claims to be a Christian, or a gay Christian…because we are all on our own spiritual journey in life…….ABOMINATION SAYS GOD! We are not our own leaders and we do not create ideologies to help the cause, but to run away from them. Being conservative usually means following certain rules and values, to which authority is often attached to.

Getting deeper to the root of the problem – we as a society hate to be under authority. We since the fall of man, have had problems with authority. This authority may be a judge or a police officer. This may be a mother or a father, this can even be a husband that God ordained to lead the household.

As I am raising a beautiful young boy, I cannot help but notice he is very opposing to my rules. His favorite thing to do is to test his boundaries, throw tantrums and go places he is not allowed around the house. As he gets older and develops more personality I am forced to enforce more rules and regulations. These rules are not because I hate my boy, but because I want him to be safe, and healthy, and grow up to be a good kid. I am forced to apply certain principles of discipline.

Now, in our culture the idea of discipline and consequences is a fairy tale. The idea of raising a child, and putting in work makes people hesitant. Most people allow TV’s or society to raise their kids – and then they wonder why these kids are not being submissive to authority. I was told by my dad that, “love without discipline is abuse”…you can also say, discipline without love is abuse, although I totally agree we are to always do things with love and patience, I rather be disciplined by a parent that lacks love, then be loved and never receive discipline. I say this, because, when you are growing up and you are allowed to do anything you want, whenever you want, and then you are put into an independent atmosphere, what will happen? Will you just magically adapt to your surroundings? Or will you resist? Because we already by nature want to resist – it becomes merely impossible for a person to be in his nature and lack discipline and think he can have will power to follow obey authority.

Why is this such a pressing issue? Well, in my opinion, I dont actually think there is a more important topic in our life then to understand the importance of roles and authorities within our lives. I think the very first God ordained role ever given to us, was “Honor thy mother and father” now lets say if your mother and father are not Christian, would this make it okay to completely smear their name and act disrespectful to them? NO, under no circumstances. God does not give us an option to obey authority but only under “these pretenses?”

Society norms and standards these days will be the opposite of what God wanted. In fact, its the complete opposite. God despises homosexuality – in fact he calls it an abomination! The world accepts it and actually heavily protects it. God protects children, the left kills babies even up to the birth. God does not support drug addictions – we sell legal marijuana (the gateway drug to all other drugs) on every street corner! God wants man to live in unity – the left has created division amount the whites and the blacks (in fact Obama sponsored it). God wanted people to always work hard as if they were working directly for God himself (being a humble servant in the work field). The left push their socialist communism on people- saying things like, “we should abolish millionaires and make everyone equally wealthy, even if they dont wanna work for it…” Does this not remind you of the soviet Russia?

God wants there to be a traditional role in families and in churches (Marriages to be between man and woman) – where men are the authority (not superior to women, just accountable in front of God). Society wants to strip all humans of their genders and make everyone equal. Also if you create a family with 2 moms how do you expect there to be a God ordained balance? There obviously cant be. Although we know that it is impossible for there to be true equality. Even churches are allowing women to become pastors and teach the congregation, even though God did not permit this in the church. Why would it matter if women took lead roles in the church? Well, actually its very simple. When you give a woman a head role in the church, and then go to tell her that she is not the head of the household, what will happen? She will usurp the position (take it by force). Because you cannot create a contradiction. The roles within the church are no different than the husband in the household (In face, God even compares himself in many passages to be to the wife as He is to the Church). You will notice that today, the man is being attacked. Its the ultimate goal of Satan! Satan has plotted to destroy the church from within the family. What better way to destroy a relationship than by doing it through the household?

Since women have been granted full rights (in many cases rights that outweigh a mans right in the household or court) the amount of illegitimate children in the black community has gone from 30% to 72% in the last 50-60 years. Over all the amount of kids being born out of wedlock is 40%. These numbers are astonishing. Is there a correlation between women being granted rights and the amount of kids being born out of marriage?

Did divorce rates climb or drop since women empowerment movements were started? Women gained most of their empowerment during WW2, as the men went off to war women were forced to go to work and started careers, although many say that statistically people stayed together in the 30’s because of the financial burden, I think its because women didnt feel so empowered and still had a respect for the family and God given royal authority.

These are the divorce rates during the war:

1940 – .20%
1941 – .22%
1942 – .24%
1943 – .26%
1944 – .29%
1945 – .35%
1946 – .43%
1947 – .34%
1948 – .28%
1949 – .27%

You can see that after the war ended in 1946 the rate spiked to 46% thats almost half the households. This is when women figured out, we no longer want to take care of kids, we no longer want to be stay at home moms, and the divorce rate spiked. Because men wanted to have traditional roles within the household but women did not. This is not shear coincidence. This was always in Satan’s plan. This is when he started planting his seeds in the families. Once again the serpent had whispered to Eve, “who is this husband, why does he have authority over you, do you not deserve to be treated equally? Do you not deserve to do what you want to do?” Satan had done it again, he deceived eve to believe that the happiness was not in the God given role (raising a child, but it was in the world). So this spread like wildfire.

Divorce continued to rise steadily, taking a big jump in the 1970s. This may have been because, for the first time, couples had the option of a no-fault divorce (annulment) . It was also the first time a spouse could cite irreconcilable differences as the reason for the divorce, making it much easier to obtain. Prior to this point, anyone wanting to end their marriage had to prove adultery or cruelty in the marriage.

According to a 1995 Monthly Vital Statistics Report, divorce rates rose steadily during the 70s.

1970 – .35%
1971 – .37%
1972 – .40%
1973 – .43%
1974 – .46%
1975 – .48%
1976 & 77 – .50%
1978 – .51%
1979 – .53%

So, people wanted out. Sin had convinced people that there was not point to stay in a relationship that God ordained.

For the sake of this topic, I have been addressing the issues within the woman given roles. Many might think this is biased, but did you know statistically almost all books written on Egalitarianism were written by women. A few of the most well known women that had pushed the Egalitarianism movement in the 60’s were who many Egalitarians turn to for a credible source. I find this very disturbing, since the idea of Egalitarianism goes against the Bible. Women never took on a teaching role within the Bible, there are a few women that corrected other people within the Bible. Several women that testified but never women that were granted the position of a teaching pastor or apostle.

I bring up all these bits and pieces to try and explain that, Eve was tempted in the Garden and was deceived by the serpent (Satan). Then she deceived man by convincing him to eat of the fruit. And we see this in real time today. Women have taking on the roles of men (women becoming men) in households, and in Churches. And when they arent granted these roles, they scream SEXISTS….misogynist, they threaten with divorce if they dont get their way (thats why you see massive spikes in divorce after the war), they usurp their way to act as the victim to try and take control by force. Satan uses women to write books that deceive more women. Women movement marches are created (meanwhile men sit back and keep quite). These are not God given rights that many believe are part of being a Christian. Being a Feminist is not Biblical. In fact, women have a very traditional role to bear children as an God given ordained right within the household. Men are granted authority over the household to watch and protect the family against any serpents that may enter the household. Men are called to be watchers of iniquity. To make sure the women is submissive in front of Christ. That she burns with a desire to follow Christ.

When we read about men ruling over women, we see this happen when women act ungodly. Very rare will you see a women being like Jesus and a man being cruel to her indefinitely. Most men do not treat their women with disrespect because they just like to be tyrants. Statistically, most men become aggressive or abusive in a household where a women tries to overthrow the household. We know this to be true, because women were cursed with that notion, that their desire will be to object the husband. Most men naturally will want to control the wife. But the entire point to all this, is we are called to a higher calling. We are called to submit to the Holy Spirit. Both man and woman. I hate hearing from women…”well if the man was like Christ we would not have a problem..” Actually, you would. Because many times when men act Godly, Satan seizes the opportunity to tempt man through woman. We see this before the fall. we see this with Jobs wife:

Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.”

We see Abraham listening to his wife as she suggested he sleep with the servant?

We see woman tempting Adam and convincing him to eat of the fruit.

The conclusion and the ultimate goal of this topic is to educate men and women on their roles and responsibilities. Yes, we are all human and we may have a slip of judgment from time to time. And we must always repent in this. Whether its a man being a tyrant, or a women controlling a man or usurping authority. Its important to remember that the only way we can be be free from this nature is to be born again and search for Christ continuously. We must not point blame at each other, for we are going to be responsible in the eyes of God individually. Even though Eve had cause the fall, God did not simply punish her. He also punished Adam, who was accountable for his family. So if you are causing your spouse to fall remember this:

And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck

Even Adam blamed Eve for the fall and told God, it was the woman you gave me caused me to sin. But God did not see this as an excuse. I predict that the further that mankind moves away from God the more infidelity we will see. The higher the divorce rates will climb. And actually, the more people will refrain from marrying. We see this already happening considering 40% of people have illegitimate children. The closer we get to the end of time, the more God ordained roles such as leadership will be stripped from men and given to women. Or women pretending to be men. Its truly a scary time that we live in. Be filled with the Word, and let the Spirit guide you daily, in both prayer and exhortation.

On another topic I will discuss why the statistically the amount of men that believe in God has started to decline. We will discuss that when men are stripped of their God given roles, they are not very effective leaders and role models within the church and family. Stay Tuned.