When Religiosity Hurts Women
What do you think it means to be a woman?
Does it feel mostly positive, mostly negative, or neutral to you?
While the Bible certainly pays more attention to men’s stories, women’s stories are interwoven. The fact that women are rarely the main focus of the stories does not negate the importance of their uniqueness.
When we consider the roles of women in the Bible, we can think about them in terms of archetypes. Archetypes are general descriptions that encapsulate a common human experience or narrative. For example, the hero and the villain. The hero is generally knows as having pure motives, even if his execution is flawed. In contrast, the villain has ill motive and gains at the expense of others. There are many others, but these are the two most commonly known and accepted.
There are also archetypes are play specifically to gender and life stage: the maiden (virgin Mary), the lover (the Shulamite woman in Song of Songs) , the mother (Jochebed - Moses’ mother), and the crone (Naomi).
There are also archetypes more representative of giftings: the sage (Anna the prophetess), the warrior (Deborah), the ruler (Queen Esther).
I believe that the US church culture has created a false archetype that both denies and diminishes women. The “good Christian girl” is supposed to be innocent like a maiden, she’s supposed to be nurturing like a mother, and she’s supposed to “make everyone happy”. She’s not supposed to be sexual, she’s not supposed to take charge (except over her children), and she’s not supposed to be wiser than men.
Yikes!
What about how God actually made us?
What about the women I’ve already listed above? The Bible also tells of women who ran their own businesses, who owned property, who were wise and discerning and shrewd.
I think God gives us permission to be those things too.
If cultural and. church experiences have caused you to diminish your natural gifts, I invite you to consider that God made you for a purpose.
Jesus was counter-cultural and still pleased God.
Is God calling you to be more than what others have told you to be?
