Is God Good for Women?

Is God Good for Women?

Yesterday, John McCain announced his choice for a running mate, Sarah Palin. For the first time since the 2008 election process began many months ago, I’m excited about this election. She’s intelligent, articulate, has strong convictions, and does not appear to back down from those convictions even under extreme pressure. At 44, she gave birth to a son with Down’s syndrome. She believes in the sanctity of life and when faced with the option of abortion, she held fast to her convictions. In her acceptance speech she made reference to the 18,000,000 cracks in the glass ceiling that Hillary’s campaign had exposed. We’ve come a long way. Most of us take for granted the privilege of voting. However, many of our grandmothers weren’t born with that right. It was a right women fought for and eventually won through the ratification of the 19^th Amendment on August 20, 1920. In less than 90 years, we’ve had a woman running for the opportunity to become president and now to become vice president. This country has become a very good place to be a woman. The opportunities for women today, and our daughters tomorrow, are limitless. The glass ceilings, even in the most male dominated areas of this country, are being shattered.

That leads me to reflect on a book I have recently finished reading whose bookend chapters address the question “Is God good for women?” That is a question that I have spent many hours pondering. When I study Scripture, I come to the emphatic conclusion that ”Yes, God is good for women!” However, my question is, “Is the church good for women?” I struggle with the answer to this question. From a logical point of view, if God is good for women, and the church is an accurate reflection of God, you would think the church would be good for women. In fact, I would even say that the church should be leading the way for opportunities for its women. But that has not been my experience. The church, at least the fundamental, evangelical, Biblical church, still holds very tightly to the patriarchal, hierarchal tradition of cultures past. In this model, men are the leaders and women have a handful of jobs they are allowed to perform, as long as they don’t interfere with or challenge the leadership of the men. Now I’m in no way a feminist, but I have been liberated, liberated by the power of the Gospel and the realization of the liberating message that Jesus Himself demonstrated in His ministry on earth.

Let’s just look at a few of the examples in the gospels where God reveals His goodness to women. First, He chose a woman to bring His son into the world. Mary was probably only a young teenage girl when she received the news that she, without benefit of man, would become the mother of the Son of God. Now God could have come up with many different scenarios, but He chose a woman, a young one at that. Another Mary, sister to Martha, was given the privilege of learning, learning at the feet of Jesus. Now that doesn’t seem like a big deal to us, but in that culture, women weren’t allowed to learn in the same way men were. If they were taught anything, it would have been from their fathers and /or husbands. There was no formal education for women; Jesus broke with the culture and even suggested to Martha that Mary had chosen the more important thing. When you look at the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman you can’t help but notice all the cultural taboos He broke. Men and women did not socialize in public and she was a Samaritan. But He talked with her, showed kindness to her, and offered her life giving water. She may even have been the first real effective evangelist, according to John 4:39, “Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony.” No doubt in my mind, God was good for women then. Jesus gave opportunities to women that their culture denied them. He’s good to women now; He’s still giving His gifts to His daughters, in fact, He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

So what about the women in the church? Many of them hold high level jobs in the corporate world and education, but when they walk through the doors of the church, their talents and gifts are left unused because of this hierarchal model of thinking. I find it interesting that when the various lists of gifts are given, there are not 2 lists, one for men and one for women. In fact, I see that these gifts are given to “each one” (I Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4) with no mention of gender. If the purpose of the gifts is the common good (1 Corinthians 12) and to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up and mature (Ephesians 4), doesn’t it make sense that the church should utilize those gifts in the individuals that have received them, regardless of their gender? Furthermore, each believer is called to be like Christ. There is no hierarchy here; we’re all called to be equally like Christ regardless of our gender.

I applaud the McCain choice of Sarah Palin as his vice presidential candidate. In so doing, Senator McCain has demonstrated in a secular way what I think are two very important issues for the church to consider:

1. Both men and women were created equal—we were all created to be His image bearers. As His image bearers it is our responsibility to know Him, to be like Him and to represent Him in our dealings and relationships with others.
2. We were created to form a Blessed Alliance—an alliance where both men and women are working together for the same cause. As a church, our cause is the glory and renown of His name.

This is as good a time as any for the church to ask the question of itself, “If God is good for women, are we?”