Throughout my life of nearly six decades, I've observed many men dominate women. They've abused them emotionally and physically. I've seen women cower like cornered mice.
I have known men who have taken verbal and physical abuse from women and live in a virtually powerless state in their marriages. I've watched many women rule their households and dominate their husbands with a forcefulness akin to that of my grandson's python when it grabs live mice for its meal.
God never intended male and female relationships to progress to such an aberration of creation. To me, this distorted nature is like the mutation in the pine tree pictured here. The tree burst forth in perfect seed and grew. Over time it developed a fungal invasion that caused a deformity to grow upon it. The tree is still a pine tree, but it's deformity stands out as cause for rejection. This is feminism at its best.
Women have been exploited by men and women, alike. Women have enjoyed the exploitation; women have abhorred it. Women have used their femininity to entice and control. While some of the uses of female persuasion has served a greater end than the means employed, it does not negate the fact that it was used and is ofttimes simply deceitful. Some Christian women have used their knowledge and talents to further a feminist agenda with concentrated effort which undermines, in my opinion, the very core of their Creator's intentions.
I doubt seriously when God removed Adam's rib to create Eve to be his helpmate, He intended for Adam to order his wife about, treat her in a subservient manner or think less of her because of her gender. I also doubt that when Eve was given to Adam that God intended for her to use her feminity to control him, to bait him and deceive him.
I lived through Honeymooners and I Love Lucy. I survived the Happy Days of Ozzie and Harriet, The Cleaver's and Donna Reed. I watched Archie Bunker's chauvinism and Roseanne's feminism. I've witnessed women burn undergarments, and Women's Liberation so invade society that the order which the Lord intended for marriage and home is considered archaic. At one time, before Christ became Lord of my life, I must unfortunately and sadly confess, I bought into the lies of those women.
The very same women are the women who fought for Roe vs. Wade. They continue to uphold it as their choice through Supreme Court Justices such as Ruth Bader Gingsberg. Their mantra is all-about-me.
Feminism has mutated into a pseudo-gender of its own. Many Christian women find their solace, rest, and validation in varying degrees of feminism today. Some embrace it because of equal-work, equal-pay. Others believe it frees them to be what they seek to become in all areas of life. Others see a strange commonality between male and female genders which leaves little room for a man to be a man or a woman to be a woman. The cultural conflict redefines roles and characteristics of each.
I freely admit that there is a bit of Harry in Hariette. But even my "Harry" submits to the authority of my husband and what I consider God's direct authority in my life as a woman. I do not like the mutation of feminism today. It validates to me who I believe is the first feminist recorded in the Bible: Eve.
Eve, who having been created from Adam's side by Almighty God, was wiled by the serpent of evil. She was gullible to the point of allowing him to twist God's words. She gave in to the desires of her heart and mind, then allowed temptation to grow into full-blown sin. She disobeyed her Creator who had blessed her saying, "Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it [using all its vast resources in the service of God and man];..." Gen. 1:28
What a mess Eve made of the perfection of God's earth. She was a catalyst in multiplying her disobedience and rebellion against our Sovereign. Where there is a will, there is another way. Having been given a free will, Eve chose to ignore God. We continue to do the same. selahV
[copyrighted, SelahV Today, 2008]
COULD WE REMEMBER A BLESSED CHRISTIAN WOMAN TODAY? Read her story HERE.