In Defense of Women
“This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” –Adam, Genesis 2:23
Much has been said about what women do in the church, but it's odd that almost nothing has been said about who women are in the Church. Now, I must profess agnosticism when attempting to understand women at all, yet even the angels have been revealed to Man with a veil. And perhaps the last mystery to be revealed to Man is Woman, even as she was the last to be created. Nevertheless, if we are to understand women, whose hands bring us into the world, then perhaps we are to look at the angels. For the angels cover the throne of heaven, as a mother covers her child. The angels carry the word of God, as a woman carries her child. The angels protect the souls of man, as a woman prays for the safety of her son. The angels ministered to Christ in the wilderness, as a woman ministered to Christ with her hair. And I am not surprised at all that both angels and women were the first to see Him rise from the tomb. For if women are to have a role in the Church they must never be held to a standard lower than the angels of God: ministering to needs of Man.
But at this moment, in the vast vista of human history, the modern man is suffering from an acute and amusing form of memory loss. He is like an amnesiac who remembers every fact about his life except the fact that he is alive. He knows every reason why a thing should be done, except that it should be done. He has thought of every number, except for the first one he began with. This is why the modern world can go forward effortlessly into oblivion, but only trace its steps back with strenuous exhaustion.
For a hundred years we have heard diatribe after diatribe on the emancipation of Woman and the progress of Feminism. In ferocity, the modern world marches on into the abyss of gender deconstruction and family reconstruction, but when it desires to turn around, it forgets how to get back. Feminism, like every other modern philosophy, has no direction; for the simple reason that it has no definition. It only has moods and maxims. It says that it desires equality for women, but it never defines what equality actually means. It only acts as though equality meant anything that an ordinary man happens to be doing on any given day. For instance, a man will put on dress pants to attend a wedding, and a Feminist, out of sheer jealousy, will copy his attire only to discover (much to her surprise and embarrassment) that she is the bride. The whole thing is really just an endless exercise in irrationality. But the flaw of Feminism isn't that it desires equality, in the normal sense of human dignity, but that it does not desire equality in the profound sense of human diversity. The Feminist makes the same mistake as the Racist. She wants all humans to be equal in the sense of being identical, just as the old Klansman wanted all humans to be equal in the sense of being Caucasian. Feminism, at its core, is really a rebellion against human diversity in the name of human equality; it does not put the cart before the horse; it rather, pits the cart against the horse. The equality of Feminism never made low mountains equal with high ones; on the contrary, it made all mountains equal with all valleys; that is, it made a plateau. The problem with the Feminist movement is that it forgets. It forgets that women have always worn a dress for the same reason that judges, priests, graduates, and brides do: because it honors the wearer. It forgets that history has always regarded Woman with the honor of a mountain. The whole point of a man getting down on one knee was to have the same startling effect as a climber staring up at some magnificent Swiss Alp. The truth is that when you buy into Feminism you do not gain equality; you instead lose Femininity—you surrender the mountain. But the ultimate error is that the Feminist does not understand what human equality is. Christianity teaches that all men are created equal in value, but not in function. God created Mankind as male and female, but He created Man as Adam and Woman as Eve. The Feminist will acknowledge that Mankind is equal, but she will refuse to believe that Man is not Woman. She will refuse to believe that God created Adam before He created Eve, or that God curses Adam differently than He cursed Eve; and in her stubborn negligence, she compounds the curse upon her own life.
Thus, the Church, when it has been affected by the Feminism of the modern world shows the symptoms of amnesia. It forgets the first things and leaves the ancient landmark. Thus, in the recent ecclesiastic controversies on the ordination of women, the hierarchy of creation is not mentioned. The fact that Man was not created for Woman, but Woman for Man, is not acknowledged. The fact that Christis the head of Man, and Man is the head of Woman, is not discussed. In short, what the modern Church does not recognize is diversity. It will only see equality; or rather, it will only see what it wants to see. But to understand what Woman is, we must understand what Woman was. For since the creation of the world, Woman was a crown upon the head of man. She has always been either a diva or a devil. She has either been the abortionist who stood before Solomon or the mother who pleaded for her child's life. She has always been the thing that tells a man that he can be better than himself, or worse than himself, but she has always been the thing that helps a man to be more than himself. Woman is either a rebellious and clamorous folly calling out to Man from the rooftops, or she is a patient and soft wisdom lifting her delicate voice to him from the street; but regardless, she is always reaching out to him. God created Woman to complete the picture of Mankind, but He fashioned Woman to satisfy the desire of Man. And when God gave Eve to Adam, she was meant to be a gift of grace. Her purpose wasn't to merely assist Adam in his duties, but it was to make his duties better than before. It was to add strength to his arms, food to his stomach thought to his mind, determination to his will, and a heart to his home. Eve was meant to be a well of nourishment to Adam. But more specifically, she was meant to be the thing upon which he depended. When God said, "It is not good for Man to be alone", He was acknowledging His own limitation to satisfy the relationships of Man. Only through the creation of Eve was Mankind made whole; rather, only through the creation of Eve was Mankind made one flesh. Marriage is sacred because it mysteriously reflects the perfection of God. It testifies of God's completeness.
I have always found it profoundly interesting how Feminism could ever say that Woman ever needed to be emancipated. The truth is that Woman could never be anything other than emancipated. For Woman, from the beginning of time, has been free from Man - that is, she has never needed Man. Truly, nothing demonstrates the natural independence of Woman more than their steadfastness in Motherhood. The single mother, who has become the bastion and banner of the Modern Family, is the epitome of independence, and her tenacious ability to raise her children with strength and grace is a testimony to the outstanding soul of Woman. Indeed, the highest honor of womanhood is Motherhood, and the glory of Motherhood is that it is the womb of the world; it is the medium and rite of passage for all of humanity. But Feminism always attacks fertility. In modern society, a woman is discouraged from bearing children. She is told that a child is not something to expect and to cherish from the moment that it is conceived, but rather, a nuisance, inconvenience, and disturbance that should be prevented from being born altogether. The first abortion is not the abortion of the fetus, it is rather the abortion of the process; that is, it is the abortion of fertility. Indeed, the Pill is the first kill. The whole argument against Birth Control is that its entire mission is to abort fertility. For it has no other motive. It is not to control fertility, but is rather a direct attempt to destroy fertility. The irony of Birth control is that it is not meant for the purpose of control. On the contrary, it’s goal is to encourage a woman to lose control. She loses control of her body, so that she may lose control of her sexuality. It is the whole point of Birth Control to obliterate fertility like a nuclear bomb, so that a woman may run free in the arid deserts of lust. It is the whole goal of Birth Control to make the womb barren by suppressing and repressing the gift of Life. Thus, the first battle that the Evangelical church has lost is the battle for fertility. Evangelicals have forfeited their philosophy on fertility and thus crippled their theology on Motherhood. For one cannot remain indifferent to the idea of fertility and expect to be passionate against the idea of Infanticide. And it is blatant hypocrisy for the leaders of the Evangelical church to condemn modern culture as a 'Culture of Death' while embracing that culture's first means of preventing life. In the Old Testament Church, barrenness was considered a curse; in the New Testament Church, it appears that it is considered a blessing. The entire basis of the argument against the murder of the unborn rests upon the ground of fertility; that is, it rests upon the idea that women ought to bear children. As Chesterton said. "There are wives who do not want to be mothers; and there are lawyers who do not want to be judges."
The Feminist objects because she feels that Woman is caged by Man, but she does not seem to realize that the cage is not meant to hinder her movement, just as the rib cage is not meant to hinder the hearts movement; but rather, to protect it. The home is not meant to thwart a woman's movement; but rather to release it. For it is in the home that she is given the power of a despot; that is, a home ruler. Indeed, the greatest proverb of Solomon describes the power of women, who shape kingdoms by shaping families. A man may be given power over the processes of that quite dull and predictable thing we call a machine, but woman is given power over those luminous and thunderous shooting stars we call children. A man is given a brick, with which he must follow the inartistic orders of a foreman; but a woman is given a home, with which she may give any florid command she wishes. For it is only in the home that a woman is given true artistic liberty—which is true domesticity; where the rooms are an empty garden, calling out for her to plant beauty and elegance; where the walls are a blank canvas, waiting for her to touch them with the imprint of inspiration; where the windows are the lights of the world, so that she may, as God, separate the day from the night; and where her children are the actors of a heavenly theater, so that she may write, with the wondrous wit of Shakespeare, her script upon their soul sand her wisdom upon their hearts.
