In society today,
we see a lot of anti-male philosophy being promoted. This ranges from
the thought that women are equal to men to the much radical thought
that the only purpose for men is to donate their sperms.
This is the
world's view of feminism. Indeed, this type of feminism has even
infiltrated the church such that there are moves in the Catholic
Church to pressure the pope to allow women priests for the sake of
equality. There is even a move to remove all male references to God,
some even go to the extent of calling HIM a Mother! Some translations
of scripture already does that!
My purpose for
writing this article is to give my perspective on feminism as defined
in scripture.
Christians have
often been accused of putting down women, yet, if we read scripture,
we see that Christianity has always extolled the value of women in
society. It is only in Christianity, Catholicism specifically, where
we extol a woman over all human beings. Mary is not God but she is
given the highest respect (note, the word is respect and NOT worship)
above all other creatures, even higher than her spouse St. Joseph!
The accusations that the Church is anti-women therefore does not hold
true.
These models of
womanhood did not strive to be better than men. They did not insist
on doing what the men were doing. They did great things because they
were obedient to their Lord and God. Their womanhood comes from
humility before God. Mary called herself a handmaid of the Lord. She
spent her whole being joined to the sufferings of one man Jesus
Christ, her Son.
Yet, if we look at
Mary, we see that she was not a weak woman. He Magnificat tells us
that she is a strong woman. Someone who can proclaim the downfall of
the princes and the proud is not a weak person. She was in fact, a
strong woman who probably played a major part in holding the apostles
together after the death and resurrection of Jesus. This is probably
why she was specifically mentioned in list in the Acts of the
Apostles.
The difference
between Mary's feminism and the secular feminism is that Mary knew
where her strength lies. She knew that her strength lies in the Lord.
“He who is mighty has done great things for me”.
This is true for
the other women in scripture. Deborah, in the book of Judges, Judith
and Esther conquered their enemies by trusting in the power of the
Lord. Ruth had to be a strong woman to leave her nation and live with
her mother-in-law in a foreign land. Hannah pleaded with the Lord and
relied on the Lord to take away her shame.
These women and
Mary show that feminism is not in being better than men. Feminism is
knowing where they stand before the Lord and trusting in the Lord. It
is a willingness to obey the Lord no matter what the cost.
Let us then pray
that there will be more women who will embrace the feminism of Mary
so that they can live their lives in the power of God.
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