Christianity and Sexism: The New Testament

In the first part of this series we looked at sexism in the Old Testament. You can find that >here<.
Today we move onto the New Testament.


Signs of Equality:

In the Gospels we see signs of higher regard given to women than was typical of the time.  This included a very positive portrayal of all the female characters as well as the example of Christ breaking down certain social barriers.  To list a few:

• Jesus breaks social taboos in approaching and conversing freely with a woman of ill-reputation.
• Likewise, Jesus takes no offense at being touched by a woman who was ritually unclean.
• Only the female disciples (and John) stayed with Jesus after His arrest.
• They were also are the first witnesses of the Resurrection.

Another great example of sexual equality is found in the theology of Saint Paul. In his letter to the Corinthians he spells out how all the Baptized are intrinsically coequal members of the body of Christ.

This incorporation is how he envisioned the establishment of peace between all human beings.  He saw the barriers which divide humanity being done away with and the creation of one new unified body. So he says:

"For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit." - 1 Corinthians 12:12-13

And elsewhere...

"For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." - Galatians 3:27-28

This is a Hard Saying!

But that is not the end of the story. Despite enjoying essential equality, there is still recognition in the New Testament of different roles and relations proper to the two sexes. The most famous (or infamous) discourse on this subject is found in Paul's letter to the Ephesians:

“Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Savior. Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands." 

"In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they do their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hates his own body, but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, because we are members of his body." - Ephesians 5:21-24, 28-33

The exact same sentiment is echoed in Paul's letter to the Colossians [Col 3:18-19] and again in Saint Peter's first letter. [1Peter 2:24-25 & 3:1-2]

There are generally four reactions when encountering these passages...

1: Ignore it:

"Ummm... I'll just skip those passages."

2: Write it off as historically conditioned:

"Well, that may have been true at the time, but not anymore."

3: Write it off as product of Saint Paul's prejudices:

"Eh, Saint Paul was kinda sexist."

4: Interpret it away:

"OK... I need to find a way to make that not say what it says."

The problem with all those options is that you're not just dealing with an ancient letter written by some sexist Middle-Eastern guy.  You're dealing with Scripture.

And while there are some historical conditioned teachings in the New Testament – (we don’t worry so much about food sacrificed to idols these days) – this is not one of them.  Paul really does present these passages as timeless truths about how God arranged the relationship between husbands and wives.

So how are we to understand it?  I like to approach this issue from two somewhat bizarre directions.



Boys and their Dragons:

First, if you take a young boy to a park and watch him play, what will you eventually see?

What will inevitably occur is the boy will find a stick and begin swinging it. He'll hit things just to see what happens. He'll WOOSH the stick through the air to hear the sound. He'll climb to the top of a hill and use that stick to fight off imaginary dragons... typically to the benefit of some girl he likes.

In other words, there is something innate in a boy that makes him dream of being like Wesley from The Princess Bride, guiding Princess Buttercup through the Fireswamps. He wants to be the brave champion who keeps cool in the face of peril, mercilessly defeats monstrous attackers, and sacrifices his own body for the sake of the beloved. That is the seed of heroism which lies in the heart of a young boy.

The Worst Insult:

Second, What do you suppose, is the worst insult you can give a man?

I've run that question by more than a few of my male counterparts. I propose answers like: "You are stupid." They smile and agree. "You are ugly." They shrug and nod. "You are unlovable." A little bit of a reaction, but not much. How about....

"You are useless."

Suddenly he is at full attention.

That statement penetrates like a bunker-busting bomb into the depths of the male psyche. There is something in nature of a man that deeply needs to be useful. To serve a purpose. His dignity is tied up with being of use.



Leading Through Service:

In the first post I mentioned that the domineering tendencies men have toward women are a "perversion" of the true intent of God. I chose that word carefully.  When something becomes perverted, it means you have taken a good thing and twisted it into a sinister parody of what it should have been. One might compare this to how the Elves of Middle Earth were twisted into Orcs.

The domination of a man over a woman is an example of this sort of twisting. The real virtue of a man should have been leadership, service, protection, and veneration of his wife. He was designed to lead through self-sacrificing love, to honor his wife, and uphold her dignity.

This is the relationship Jesus uses to describe His relationship to the Church. Over and over again He uses the image of a bridegroom who came not to be served, but to serve.  To wit, Jesus is much like that boy mentioned above. He also took up a piece of wood, carried it to the top of a hill, and used it save His bride from the monsters.

So when asking how a man is the head of his family, the answer is to point to Jesus' life, ministry, and death and say, "Like that."

How then does one explain what it means for a wife to be in submission to her husband? The answer is look at the relationship between the Church and Christ.

Does this mean never having one's opinion valued?  No.  In fact, Jesus' public ministry began at the behest of His mother Mary - over what appeared to be a reluctant first reaction.

Does this mean being a passive, subserviant slave?  No.  Jesus came to serve and never treated people like tools.  Does this mean submitting out of fear, or from rote obligation?  No and no again.

Rather, if a man has the innate desire to serve, lead, provide, and protect - the role of the wife (at least, one of the roles) is to allow her husband to be the man he is meant to be. Indeed, she is to foster and assist him in that vocation and see to the fruition of his dignity.  This means at certain critical junctures she will have to trust him and respect his decisions.

Thus Paul concludes:

“This is a very great mystery, and I refer to Christ and the Church.  As for you, let each one love his wife as himself, and let the wife respect her husband.” – Ephesians 5: 32-33

Husbands to the Church:

This pattern of husbandly servant leadership is precisely the pattern Jesus puts forward for the first ministers of that same Church. So He says at the Last Supper:

“The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you; rather the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one at the table? But I am among you as one who serves. You are those who have stood by me in my trials; and I confer on you, just as my Father has conferred on me, a kingdom, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel." - Luke 22 25-30

This similarity between the role of husband/father and pastor was not lost on the Apostles. This bears out in the New Testament in several ways.  For instance, Paul draws a line between the two when instructing Timothy on how to select new elders:

“A bishop must be irreproachable, the husband of one wife, […]. He must manage his own household well, keeping his children under control with dignity; if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how can he take care of the church?” - Timothy 3:2-5

Elsewhere Paul refers to himself as being a “father” to the Corinthians whom he preached to:

"For though you might have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers. Indeed, in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel." - 1 Corinthians 4:15

Likewise the Apostle John refers to the faithful as his "children":

"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth." - 3 John 1:4

From all this we can see that the New Testament presents pastors as being husbands to the Church and fathers to her children - the faithful.



An Intolerable Asymmetry:

This leads us into one of the most contentious areas of New Testament controversy... the male pastorate.

Every time we see the ordination of pastors mentioned in the New Testament, the assumption is always that they will be male. This begins with Jesus Christ Himself, who ordained twelve men.

This continues with the Apostles. Whenever they gave instructions for choosing pastors for the Church, they always specified men:

"What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." - 2 Timothy 2:2

"This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you. If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination." - Titus 1:6

And this is not just an argument from silence. It is coupled with positive commands that women are not to hold positions of teaching authority:

"I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent." - 1 Timothy 2:12

Now, this ought not be seen as an absolute bar against women dissemination religious information to men. We do see an example of a woman being involved in teaching in an informal way in the book of Acts:

"[Apollos] began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately." - Acts 18:26

So one can rightly understand this as not barring women from leading Bible studies or evangelizing. But the text of the New Testament is written with the understanding that the ordained pastorate is a fatherly role reserved to men.  The pastor is to serve as a representative of Jesus Christ, whose bride is the Church.

At this point some people might ask:

"OK, so men get to be leaders of their families and pastors of congregations... what exactly did women get, again?"

The answer might sound (to some) like yet another handicap: Motherhood.

Motherhood is often treated in our culture as The-Thing-That-Gets-In-The-Way-Of-A-Career.  (And it certainly can do that)  There is a temptation in our consumerist, politically charged culture to view money, comfort, power, and honor as the important things of life.  From that perspective motherhood would be seen as a raw deal.  But is that the way God wants us to look at it?

If one views motherhood as being an uneven exchange, perhaps it is due more to a lack of proper perspective.  The real valuable things of life - if one takes a Biblical perspective - are relationships, holiness, and self-sacrificing love.  Therefore, the real question to ask is this:

 “Are men and women both given unique pathways to self-sacrificing love which are not available to the other sex?”

Men and women are both called to self-sacrificing love - but in different ways. Both sexes are offered unique capacities. The vocation of motherhood entails experiences and bonds which men will never be able to enjoy.



Definitions and Priorities:

Where does this leave us in regard to the Bible and sexism?

Well, it depends on how one defines "sexism". If sexism means a denial of equal dignity, or an assertion of intrinsic superiority of one sex over the other - then the Bible is not sexist. However, if sexism means the recognition of different strengths and roles proper to men and women, then the Bible is guilty as charged.

From there it just becomes a question of priorities. Our modern world is philosophically wedded to complete interchangeability between the sexes.  Thus, many people feel a tension between what society teaches and what the Bible teaches – a tension between pleasing God and pleasing human beings.  And in the face of tension, one or the other has to give way.

As Jesus said:

"No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other." - Matthew 6:24