Sexism

I don't know if you remember this commercial. I believe it was for a new computer operating system. It's a family -- mother, father, and a 8-10 year old boy. The boy asks Mom and Dad if he can have a puppy. They turn him down. So he goes off and, with this new operating system, produces a scintillating board-room style presentation complete with slides and facts and figures all about why he should have a dog. Because you have this new operating system, you can do all that even if you're only 9. Well, Mom is so impressed that she gives him permission. The dad picks up on this and runs off to his computer. He prepares an equal presentation on why he should be allowed to play golf on Saturdays. He doesn't get a slide or two into it before she shuts him down. Nope! Denied. The hierarchy is clear here. Mom is kind of the apex, except the kid can top her if he tries. The dad? Fairly useless. No authority. No brains. No real purpose. If you watch much that comes out of Hollywood these days, you'd have to conclude that this is universal. Women and children are wise and vital; men are not.

I think it's a picture of the modern notion of maleness. Where there was once a patriarchal society we've moved on. Little by little, day after day, we have pulled down males as having power and replace them with males as useless. The goal is not equality. It's not to "even the playing field." It is to put males in the trash heap that they've long deserved. For instance, in Sally Fields' Emmy acceptance speech in 2007, she boldly declared, "If the mothers ruled the world there would be no g*****n wars in the first place." Because, as we all know, women do not go to war. Not one. Well, ignoring Queen Boudica (60 AD), Catherine of Aragon (1513), Joan of Arc (1429), Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir, Margaret Thatcher ... and more. (According to a study in 2017, over the last 500 years female leaders have been 17% more likely to go to war than males.) But the point is clear; men are warmongers. Then there's the avalanche started by kicking a rock named Harvey Weinstein that still isn't over. Men fell like boulders everywhere. Because, as we all know, men are pigs. But at least they still need us to make babies, right? Well, it wasn't that long ago that scientists claimed a woman could get pregnant without men. Men! Who needs 'em?

Currently men aren't highly regarded in much of our culture. Feminism dominates. It dominates so much that you'll find it where it ought not be. Recently I sat in an adult study in church. There were 20 of us, perhaps, but only 5 males. It's the older group, so there are a lot of widows and women with unbelieving husbands, so it's probably a lower-than-average ratio of men to women, but I think statistics would show that women outnumber men in church in most settings. Our text of the day was Proverbs 31 -- the famous "excellent wife" text (Prov 31:10-31). Good stuff. It describes essentially a super mom who feeds and clothes her family while buying and selling and bringing home the bacon, so to speak. Halfway through, one dear woman had a question. "If she's doing all this, what's the husband doing?" The answer came a few verses later. "Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land." (Prov 31:23) What's the husband doing? He's sitting at the gate, strutting like a peacock. He's useless. The women in the class largely applauded (not literally) and the men kept quiet ... because we're pretty much useless except for finding a good wife and sitting in the gate. Says so, right there in your Bible.

We are 21st century Christians in 21st century American churches. We live in this world as we should (1 Cor 5:9-10), but instead of being transformed, we are being conformed (Rom 12:2). We don't even notice it. We simply pick up the prevailing wind, so to speak, like everyone else. It is the way of the world, in fact. For instance, conservativism has been described as the shadow of liberalism, following just behind as liberalism moves farther left. The "Left" today is far more left than it was 50 years ago ... and so is "Right." So it is with American churches. We don't stand; we lag. So we don't notice that biblical values place certain responsibilities on men (e.g., 1 Cor 11:3; Eph 5:25-28; Eph 6:4; etc.). We don't recognize that God ordained the patriarchal system, beginning with God as Father. Oh, not that perversion that sinful men have twisted it to where women are demeaned and devalued, but a patriarchal structure (e.g., 1 Cor 11:3; Eph 5:22-24; etc.) just the same. That the world doesn't get this is expected. That the world finds this offensive is understandable. That the people of God reject it is, frankly, heartbreaking, especially since it begins with God as Father.

We live in a sexist society, to be sure. We've made bizarre divisions down male and female lines, shifting their roles and purposes to suit a modern taste, demeaning what was once valued, and calling it "equality." We -- Christians -- are doing this. God told Eve that part of the curse was that she would desire to rule over her husband (Gen 3:16), so this state of affairs is what we should expect, just not what we should embrace. We Christians. It reflects poorly on God. It reflects poorly on God's Word. It reflects poorly on us. We're supposed to be in the world, not of it (John 15:19). So I pray that God would protect us from the world that we are in but not of (John 17:14-15).