Due to being related by marriage, I was privileged to have a private viewing of the new movie, Selma. After my mom died almost 40 years ago, my dad married a lovely woman, Marie Reeb. She was widowed 10 years before when her husband, James Reeb, a Boston minister went to support Dr. Martin Luther King in the civil rights marches at Selma, Alabama in 1965. While he was there, he was bludgeoned to death by white racists as he and a fellow minister were leaving a restaurant.
I was in my early teens when this was happening and I understood the severity of the problem, but was not in the problem. I have an acquaintance who is a little older who was actively involved with what was happening during this time. She accompanied me to the viewing and said it was very accurate. If you get a chance to go to the movie, do. There is much to take in and much to learn. Sometimes I wonder if we ever learn...
I wrote a blog a while back that compared the church’s theology of women, subjection, and domination by men to how blacks were treated in this country for years. Both of these scenarios allow for a particular people group to be subjugated, demeaned, devalued, and seen as less than human. God created humankind in His image. We are all descended from the original “parents”. The DNA of human beings is always the DNA of human beings. It matters not that DNA comes from a black skinned person, a white skinned person, or a yellow skinned person, a male or a female. They are ALL people, human beings made in the image of YHVH. (If you are not familiar with what Scripture actually says about the function of the woman, then read some previous posts for clarity. If you disagree, check for yourself the original languages and contexts.)
I was in my early teens when this was happening and I understood the severity of the problem, but was not in the problem. I have an acquaintance who is a little older who was actively involved with what was happening during this time. She accompanied me to the viewing and said it was very accurate. If you get a chance to go to the movie, do. There is much to take in and much to learn. Sometimes I wonder if we ever learn...
I wrote a blog a while back that compared the church’s theology of women, subjection, and domination by men to how blacks were treated in this country for years. Both of these scenarios allow for a particular people group to be subjugated, demeaned, devalued, and seen as less than human. God created humankind in His image. We are all descended from the original “parents”. The DNA of human beings is always the DNA of human beings. It matters not that DNA comes from a black skinned person, a white skinned person, or a yellow skinned person, a male or a female. They are ALL people, human beings made in the image of YHVH. (If you are not familiar with what Scripture actually says about the function of the woman, then read some previous posts for clarity. If you disagree, check for yourself the original languages and contexts.)
My friend who attended the viewing with me, has been highly involved in the civil rights movement for decades and as she talked, I felt the nudging of the Holy Spirit to take this back to the beginning - the root - what began with the man and the woman in the garden. I am not going to go into a whole big dissertation here. The point I need to make is that all of the support for how women have been denigrated and viewed within the confines of religion has been taken from a few verses of Scripture out of context.
The final word seems to be Genesis 3:16 - ‘and he (the man) shall rule over you.’ So, is this YHVH’s overriding, established, flat out, no holds barred, stamp of approval for men to be able to lord over women? OR is it the stated consequence of their disobedience? You see, the problem I have with the way most of the church interprets this is that it is the final decree for women to be subjugated and controlled by men. The woman was created for a purpose, as was the man, but the problem seems to be that men think their purpose and calling changed for the better after the disobedience whereas the woman’s did not. Scripture is clear that they both sinned. She was tricked into it, but he went along knowing better. If there are degrees of punishment, according to the whole body of Scripture, who should get the larger punishment? The one who got tricked, who did not act defiantly, or the one who knowingly opposed the commandment?
So here’s the rub. Pride and arrogance about who was created first, who sinned first, and ultimately who should rule with an iron fist has completely obscured YHVH’s intent for the man and the woman - who by the way were created simultaneously as one being, as the woman was taken from the man. The mandates given before the separation of the Adam into two beings were given to both of them equally.
What I believe is key is that ANY subjugation of another person of any sex or color is an affront to YHVH who created all of humanity in His image. Each individual comes into this world with a plan for their life that was laid out from before the foundation of the world, and are endowed with a calling and gifts to accomplish that calling, be they men, women, black, white, etc.
Yeshua came so we would have the chance to get back to what was originally intended from the very beginning. If he came to take us only back to the consequences of sin after the disobedience, as stated in Genesis 3:14-19, then what is the point? We are already under that. His purpose is to save and heal us so that we can walk out the intended purpose of our lives, to become transformed into His image from one degree of glory to the next, to be able to become the servants of YHVH as originally intended, not make other people serve us.
I have been going to address Paul’s statements and have not been able to get to them, but think this might be a good time. My next few blogs will look at the texts that are used to validate the subjugation of people by other people. I hope you will stay tuned, especially if you have labored under false teaching in this area. Please, pray for Holy Spirit to direct you and lead you to a correct understanding of this most foundational topic.
The final word seems to be Genesis 3:16 - ‘and he (the man) shall rule over you.’ So, is this YHVH’s overriding, established, flat out, no holds barred, stamp of approval for men to be able to lord over women? OR is it the stated consequence of their disobedience? You see, the problem I have with the way most of the church interprets this is that it is the final decree for women to be subjugated and controlled by men. The woman was created for a purpose, as was the man, but the problem seems to be that men think their purpose and calling changed for the better after the disobedience whereas the woman’s did not. Scripture is clear that they both sinned. She was tricked into it, but he went along knowing better. If there are degrees of punishment, according to the whole body of Scripture, who should get the larger punishment? The one who got tricked, who did not act defiantly, or the one who knowingly opposed the commandment?
So here’s the rub. Pride and arrogance about who was created first, who sinned first, and ultimately who should rule with an iron fist has completely obscured YHVH’s intent for the man and the woman - who by the way were created simultaneously as one being, as the woman was taken from the man. The mandates given before the separation of the Adam into two beings were given to both of them equally.
What I believe is key is that ANY subjugation of another person of any sex or color is an affront to YHVH who created all of humanity in His image. Each individual comes into this world with a plan for their life that was laid out from before the foundation of the world, and are endowed with a calling and gifts to accomplish that calling, be they men, women, black, white, etc.
Yeshua came so we would have the chance to get back to what was originally intended from the very beginning. If he came to take us only back to the consequences of sin after the disobedience, as stated in Genesis 3:14-19, then what is the point? We are already under that. His purpose is to save and heal us so that we can walk out the intended purpose of our lives, to become transformed into His image from one degree of glory to the next, to be able to become the servants of YHVH as originally intended, not make other people serve us.
I have been going to address Paul’s statements and have not been able to get to them, but think this might be a good time. My next few blogs will look at the texts that are used to validate the subjugation of people by other people. I hope you will stay tuned, especially if you have labored under false teaching in this area. Please, pray for Holy Spirit to direct you and lead you to a correct understanding of this most foundational topic.
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