Defeater Ethics: Misogyny
Are women treated as equals in Christ's kingdom?
We continue our series defending the beauty and goodness of God by addressing the defeater ethic of Christianity's alleged misogyny. As our society continues to wrestle with the importance of female equality, a question I have received several times is whether Christianity is an anti-woman religion that has likewise perpetuated anti-woman sentiments.
If I am asked to discuss whether Christians have been misogynistic, the answer is admittedly complicated at best and downright lamentable at worst. In many instances, there is no answer to give except a heartfelt apology. But do these actions align with the Jesus Christians claim to follow? Repeatedly in this series, I have admitted that we are often very poor representatives of Jesus. But thankfully, the Christian faith does not depend upon the faithfulness of the followers of Jesus but upon Jesus himself.
I have no problem commending and celebrating Jesus and his treatment of women. Far from being anti-women, Jesus was revolutionary in his treatment of women and, in return, launched a revolution that rescued women from the long-standing bondage of misogynic oppression that dominated human history until Jesus changed human history. Jesus and the movement he established fundamentally remade the female experience in a world with very little category for female personhood, freedom, rights, consent, and even equality with men. This was not the norm until Jesus shattered the norms.
Before discussing the life of Jesus, we need to understand the design of Jesus. Genesis 1:27, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." Here we see both male and female created in God's image, thus equally worthy of honor and dignity. We who live in a society formed by Christian ethics and assumptions take female equality for granted, but we shouldn't. Historically speaking, women were not viewed as equal to men. They were chattel, commodities exploited and subjugated by male domination. And this was justifiable because societies genuinely viewed women as inferior to men. But according to the Bible, women are intrinsically the image of God. Then, as the design further unfolds, we see that not only are women equal as image bearers, they actually surpass men in some ways.
In Genesis 2, God forms his image by first fashioning Adam from dirt like every other living creature, but then God breathes divine life into Adam such that he is now alive in a way different from animals. Adam is now God's image. But again, male and female are God's image, so we would expect God to repeat the process with Eve. Instead, God causes a deep sleep to fall upon the newly formed image bearer, and out of his side forms Eve. The female image bearer is the only living creature formed not from dirt but from God's image, and that imagery has profound significance.
The poetic creation song of Genesis crescendos to the highpoint of God's image, but even further, the highpoint of Eve's creation. She is the apex of God's creative masterpieces, the loveliest creature in all creation. Adam is the root; Eve is the blossom. Adam is the strong foundation nobody notices; Eve is the glorious architecture we marvel over. African Christianity says men are the skeletal system, and women are the skin's beauty. From the beginning, we see that women are not only equal to men but transcend men with innate glory.
However, the fall of Genesis 3 brings harmful disorder to gender. Creation is now subject to the sinfulness of image bearers rather than the righteousness of image bearers, and the consequence of this sinful dominion given to Eve is the haunting decree, "He shall rule over you." Male strength is now profane and abusive. And historically speaking, that is what has tragically transpired in our world. Male dominance is the story of human history, which also unfolds in the Bible's history.
The Bible is a brutally honest and uncomfortable book detailing the devastation of sin in the world. We find polygamy and predation not just in the story's villains but notably in the story's heroes, like Abraham, David, and Solomon. It is the same patriarchal abuse as the rest of human history. But we must never forget that the Bible is often descriptive, not prescriptive. In sharing these shameful details, the Bible is not prescribing such behavior but describing it in a painfully vulnerable way. Like a gritty film or novel, the main characters make poor choice after poor choice as we watch their lives unravel into ruin. The point of honest storytelling is not emulation but repudiation. The Bible teaches us to learn from the folly of its character's destruction, only with one exception. There is one story of one life the Bible holds out as a prescriptive model to admire and emulate, and that life is Jesus.
It is impossible to overstate how counter-cultural Jesus was in every regard, but perhaps most notable was his treatment of women. In his day, women held a status barely above a slave's. Much like children, they were expected to be unassuming, unassertive, and to serve in humble submission. Basic rights were also withheld, such as testifying in court or participating in worship. But this is not the picture that emerges in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, which is precisely the point.
The life of Jesus tells an entirely different story, which, though now customary, was radically different from the customs of his time. He welcomed women as friends, fellowshiping with them publicly and privately. Even the promiscuous and prostitutes who were sorned and cast off by society found friendship with Jesus. He broke every cultural norm because he was more committed to the original norm of transcendent female glory in Genesis, which makes sense of another curious characteristic of Jesus. Not only do we see women treated with equal dignity, Jesus commends them to us as exemplary.
The gospels are not kind to the male disciples. They appear faithless and foolish, which is why they often receive Christ's rebukes. In contrast, you cannot locate a story where women come across this way, with the only exception being Martha, who is corrected for not acting like Mary. Consistently, women are present as a not-so-subtle discipleship example for the disciples to learn from. And nowhere is this more apparent than in the culminating events of Jesus' death and resurrection. While the disciples cowardly abandon Jesus in his arrest and crucifixion, the women courageously remain. And in the most shocking detail, contextually speaking, of Jesus' story, the original witness and testimony of the resurrection upon which our faith rises or falls was entrusted to women. Truly, it is astounding how counter-cultural the gospels are compared to the female experience in that day.
Then, after the assumption of Jesus, the revolution he founded remade the world as we know it with cultural norms that treat women the way Jesus treated women. While I have admitted that individual Christians have failed in this area, Christianity as a whole also launched the first sexual revolution with a different solution to the same dilemma our current revolution seeks to remedy. Our sexual revolution is philosophically grounded in feminism, which argues for the equality of the sexes by offering women the freedom of promiscuity always enjoyed by men.
But there is another way to advocate for equality, which was at the heart of Christianity's sexual revolution. Rather than 'liberating' women, it restrained men. Men are no longer allowed to exploit, abuse, and subjugate women as objects of their gratification. Women, as image bearers, have agency and rights, including the right to consent. The notion of consent that we rightly celebrate in our society is fundamentally a Christian ideal. And so the Christian revolution essentially left men with two choices: celibacy or fidelity. Men can choose between no sex or sex within a lifetime covenant until death. As Glen Scrivener says, Christianity reached down into history and grabbed men by the testicles. In this way, the original sexual revolution achieved equality via chastity rather than promiscuity.
Have Christians always been faithful to Jesus and his ways? Of course not. Repeatedly, we have failed to treat women the way Jesus treated women, and this deserves our utmost contrition. But the underlying argument of this series is not our goodness but the goodness of God. Thankfully, the truth and beauty of the Christian religion do not depend upon the faithfulness of its adherers but the faithfulness of its founder. Candidly, unlike other religious founders who notably used their power to exploit women for selfish pleasure, this accusation cannot be raised against Jesus. Instead, Jesus is the most pro-woman force the world has ever known.