Woman Wednesday

Before I get to the main characters of "Twelve Extraordinary Women" by John MacArthur, there is one more side trail I want to go on and my summation of Carolyn McCulley's session at NA last week will fit in herely nicely too.

Last time, I discussed MacArthur's preface or the reason why he chose to write this book. This time, I'm tackling the introduction. In the introduction, MacArthur discusses the ways the Bible and culture throughout the ages have regarded women. He gives many examples of women's lives from the Bible and from historical accounts of different cultures. I thought his examples were excellent and were thoughtful to the reader. At the end of the history lesson, MacArthur draws the sharpest contrast between Scripture and culture treating women with this statement, "wherever the gospel has spread, the social, legal, and spiritual status of women, as a rule, been elevated. When the gospel has been eclipsed (whether by repression, false religion, secularism, humanistic philosophy, or spiritual decay in the church), the status of women has declined accordingly."

He goes on to discuss the implications of the feminist movement, which is where I will switch gears and discuss Carolyn McCulley's breakout session at NA entitled, "Don't Try this at Home: Feminism's Wide-Ranging Influence." Please get a copy and listen to it.

Carolyn began the session with a brief introduction of herself and her background. I had heard her story before in her book, but I was glad for the people in the audience who may have been meeting her for the first time. She then explained that she was going to discuss the history of feminism and its' impact over the years as well as discuss what the Bible has to say about feminism. A sheet with some key events of feminist history was passed out prior to the meeting.

As she talked, I looked over her list and noticed the first date was in 1792, not in the 1960's. She must have seen my shocking look because she discussed how feminism really didn't start in the 1960's but in the early 18th century. Carolyn discussed 3 waves of feminism. The first wave from 1792 to 1942; the second wave, 1949 to early 1990's and the third wave from mid 1990's to the present. I must admit at this point, my notes are limited as I was having a hard time concentrating due to lack of sleep, but thanks to Elaine, my roomie, she's got my back with Carolyn's descriptions of the 3 waves of feminism.

The first wave of feminism defiled marriage, the second wave defiled men and the third and current wave defiles women. Carolyn discussed that marriage, men and other women were not the reasons for the birth of feminism but that "feminism comes from females striving for themselves." (A note to interject here, throughout her message, Carolyn kept emphasing the positives of feminism like gaining the right to vote, equal legal status in marriage, the right to own assets, equal or similar pay in the workforce and participation in sports and education through Title IX to which I agree also. Although these gifts have come about from the feminist movement, ultimately, I believe it was God who made these things possible.) Carolyn ended her message with discussing how God sees women and their worth, to which I will switch back to MacArthur's introduction and close this long post with an excerpt on how the Bible views women:

"Scripture never discounts the female intellect, downplays the talents and abilities of women, or discourages the right use of women's spiritual gifts. But whenever the Bible expressly talks about the marks of an excellent woman, the stress is always on feminine virtue (author's emphasis). The most significant women in Scripture were influential not because of their careers, because of their character (author's emphasis). The message these women collectively give is not about "gender equality"; it's about true feminine excellence (emphasis mine). And this is always exemplified in moral and spiritual qualities rather than by social standing, wealth or physical appearance...The faithfulness of these women is their true, lasting legacy (emphasis mine)."

Toodles,