Anyway, back in November she published a post, In Which I Learn to Call Myself a Jesus Feminist, that became one of my favorite posts by any blogger I've read yet. It got me thinking deeply about the concept of Jesus feminism, a concept that I'd known about and even been in favor of but never fully understood. Suckrow's post led me to discover Sarah Bessey, another writer in this lovely day and age in which stories are expressed and heard, who published a book devoted to this entire concept of gender equality within the Church. Her book is titled Jesus Feminist, and you should absolutely read it if you haven't yet.
Before last fall, I merely appreciated Jesus feminism. Perhaps I thought I knew more about it than I did, or perhaps I thought that I indeed was already on board with the whole movement, thinking that to be a Jesus feminist simply meant to be a woman who saw herself as loved by God, as a daughter of the King of glory. After all, I'm a woman. I love Jesus. I'm all for gender equality and all that jazz, because it's not like we live in 1902. Therefore, I must be a Jesus feminist.
And this is what I thought, for a short time at least.
Until I realized I wasn't.
Until I realized that the rising movement of Jesus feminism is far greater, far more detailed and complex than I had thought before.
It means a lot, and it also doesn't. For example, it doesn't necessarily mean being an ecstatic, man-hating, fanatic set on living the single life. It doesn't include looking down at being a mother or a homeschooled parent, and it most certainly doesn't include stomping out the men from the kingdom of God.
It has nothing to do with these things.
It has everything to do with expanding the kingdom of God past cultural boundaries, promoting kingdom equality for every man, woman, and child, and setting captives free in the name of Jesus.
For example, the idea of gender equality is a current issue today. Sure, women in America aren't protesting for the right to vote (though the same can't be said for those in other countries), but more and more females are protesting for the right to preach.
Or how about the thousands of women who are abused each day-physically, emotionally, sexually-because of some sort of distorted doctrine within a patriarchal society or because they've never been taught that Jesus, that the kingdom, is for them too?
Then there's the cultural condition that plagued me for far too long: fear and sexism.
The American society, commonly found within the Protestant Church of North America, tends to condition girls and boys to fit certain molds. Girls are supposed to enjoy shopping and wearing pink while boys are supposed to shoot things and don blue.
Girls are destined to be princesses and boys grow up to be knights in shining armor. Everyone knows that. I could go into depth on the detrimental mindsets that these images and more can and do create, but that content is for another time, another post in which I rant on the gloriousness of Jesus feminism.
And don't hear me hating on Disney movies or fairytales, because I'm a huge fan. It's just that at some point I have to acknowledge that all of these examples and more are simply cultural elements, and when we force cultural elements onto people and turn them into absolute truths, we have suddenly confused what is cultural verses what is Biblical.
I really don't think Jesus cares if I prefer playing video games over painting my nails.
If I get married and have a daughter one day, I hope she's into dinosaurs. Or superheroes. Or American Girl Dolls. I really don't care, as long as she's into what she likes.
More importantly, I'd pray she'd be into the guy who died on the cross so that she could be set free.
Culture is one of my favorite aspects of life to analyze. I mean really, I was an Anthropology major before I began studying Biblical Text. I love culture, it's one of those life things that makes me come alive. There is a danger in it, however, because whenever we confuse cultural elements with characteristics of Jesus we have suddenly left the Gospel behind. We propel culture onto people as if it were saving grace.
But the only saving grace in this world was displayed clearly on the cross.
So we culture our way into conditioning, and this becomes our stumbling block in living out the kingdom oftentimes, or that was how my own personal situation played out. For example, the Church often teaches that the identity of a woman in Christ is to be gracious, merciful, and gentle.
Which is you, know, completely true. I would hope that any man would strive to live out such characteristics as well.
This teaching, however, is absolutely sugar-coated. What about Rahab? What about Deborah? Esther? Mary? The list is endless of women in the Bible who were humble and kind yet bold and fearless, gentle and mild yet confident and zealous.
They were on fire.
Can we talk about Lydia for a second? She was a businesswoman and the head of her household. We don't know if she was widowed or single, but she rocked whatever relationship status she found herself in. So strong was her faith that her entire household was baptized.
These women were not downplayed or seen as inferior. They weren't silenced or demeaned. They were seen as vessels that God was working in, because they were people and God works through all people.
Men, women, children-everywhere, anytime.
So I believed the parts of a me that were supposed to be gentle and kind, but I excluded the parts of me that were meant to be empowered and strong. In contrast, I thought men were supposed to be the warriors, meant to be the brave and courageous ones.
But men can have softness, too.
And women can be fearless, which I was completely missing the mark on. Somewhere along the way, I began to avoid empowering heavenly attributes and began embracing fearful, hellish ones.
Even before I became a Bible major when the idea was still simply a musing, there was fear in the back of my mind, doubt that crept into my soul.
I can't take the call to pursue ministry seriously. Women aren't seen as that vital to the kingdom.
And then once I stopped believing that lie:
Well maybe I can pursue ministry...but I could never major in Biblical Text. My vocation could never be anything outside of leading small group Bible studies. Being a professor is too extravagant a dream. Encouraging the Church is too risky. Writing is putting myself out there too much. I'm not supposed to be asking these theological questions, my voice isn't supposed to be this bold. Guys preach. Men teach. Women lead the two-year olds on Sunday mornings.
(Which is beautiful if that's your calling, by the way).
It just wasn't and isn't mine, and it wasn't until I began to tiptoe the line, the boundary, that I had drawn around myself due to cultural conformity that I began to dance with a God who was far past my limitations.
And as we danced I learned: though I'd always been passionate about women's ministry, it means so much more than I ever could've dreamed. I'd long been captivated by the Gospel, but suddenly the call to die to the self became real and authentic.
It meant that Jesus was calling me past pews and fancy dresses and fanciful fluff. He was calling me to get dirt under my nails and to live the messy.
As I danced with God, I learned that life is full of learning and Jesus doesn't mind if we inquire and ask, if we speak our minds and live our way into answers.
God is bigger than the boxes we place Him inside. The kingdom cannot be confined by man-made limitations. Satan uses our culture, which is meant to be beautiful, rich and full of diversity, to take us captive- body, mind, and soul. Let's embrace culture, most certainly, but in doing so let's remember that Jesus transcends it. Jesus is amidst it, Jesus is defining it.
Not the other way around.
And we are made to walk in freedom, which is the aspect of Jesus feminism that I didn't grasp before last August. It's possible to be gentle-spirited and confident. A person (man or woman) can be kind yet edgy, forward in the best way. In fact, this seems to be the point of Jesus feminism at all: that we are all called to be all good things in the name of Jesus for the sake of love. That we are all made to be people of good spirit, people of virtue and of valor.
Because in all of us is working the same Spirit, setting our souls ablaze. In each of us, God is moving and breathing, drawing us near to Him and molding us into children of light.
Jesus is calling us to equality in Him, calling us to unity in Christ.
In which the kingdom crashes into earth.
In which sons and daughter leave fear behind to walk in love.
In which there is freedom.
For further reading check out Emily Maynard's post on feminism and sexuality (I Will Listen), this eloquent and bold post from Rachel Held Evans ( Patriarchy and Abusive Churches), and the American Civil Liberties Union, because freedom can't protect itself (check it out, yo).
