mattbraunlin
Member
Break the Rules
There is an old saying you have probably heard: well-behaved women seldom make history. This quote has always made me a bit uneasy. It is usually spouted ad nauseam in decidedly unchristian circles like feminism and party-culture.In my attempt to counter this mentality, I immediately thought of a name you might recognize: the Virgin Mary. Meek, gentle, humble, obedient to her husband and to God the Father. Surely the most famous woman in all of history qualifies as a counter to this argument?
Well, after careful meditation, I am pleasantly surprised to admit that she doesn't. In fact, Mary the Mother of God is the ultimate testament to this old proverb.
But not for what feminists want it to mean.
Now obviously, the adjectives I have ascribed to Mary are true to the most beautiful degree. By any Godly standard, Mary is an unparalleled example for women to follow, and her place in history has captivated women and men alike for millenia.
But when you look at Mary in a different way, she was the ultimate troublemaker.
Mary was not just badly-behaved: she was a rebel. A dissident. She was a saboteur. She was the chief accomplice to Public Enemy Number One: the Son of God.
Mary was a woman of profound virtue. But as far as the establishment is concerned, she caused more trouble than any woman who ever lived. She fled her country as a fugitive from the law when the powers that be were threatened by the birth of her miraculous child. She raised and protected the boy who would come to challenge the authority of not one, but two power-structures. At the wedding party in Cana, she would actually encourage this man to begin his rebellious ministry ahead of schedule. And as he died on a cross as the most hated man in Israel, she risked her safety to publicly show her support for him.
So yes. I am glad to admit the Truth that well-behaved women rarely make history indeed. All I had to do was plunder the statement from the world, and apply it to the most inherently dangerous kind of woman imaginable: a Christian woman.
I do understand why this statement is rooted in feminism. Feminism was once, in fact, a very Godly force. It was a reflection of God's will that women were ready to play a far more direct and prominent role in the shaping of history, and the word itself was a powerful weapon against the chauvinistic establishment which tried to suppress this.
But now, feminism is the establishment. It is the culture. And it is corrupted. Its foundational Truth that modern women can work in direct cooperation with men has been discarded, and replaced by the lie from hell that modern women don't need men.
And as such, a 21st century Christian woman who openly submits to the authority of her husband is making a powerful countercultural statement.
She is misbehaving.
As I look back at the history of the modern western Church, I see it as unsurprising that she should crumble from the absolute flagship of society she was a hundred years ago to the peripheral amusement she is today. Because the Church just doesn't work as the establishment. Christ established his body as the ultimate countercultural force in all of history. She is designed to break rules, not make them. It is a conundrum which I can't quite wrap my head around that the downfall of the Church as cultural kingpin is inevitable and… well, appropriate.
And there is no better example of what I'm talking about than her treatment of women. For a very long time the ultimate, unthinkable shame a Christian woman could bring upon herself was not to find a husband. Women were to find their identities as wives, and to do otherwise was to be condemned as a spinster or an old maid.
This runs directly against the Bible, you know. Paul states very plainly in 1 Corinthians chapter 7 that singlehood is godly and beautiful for men and women alike, and encourages women to stay single if they wish to focus their time on God.
This, among other reasons, is why I applaud the initial wave of feminism. It was time for change, and the courage of those women and the men who supported them opened the door for a beautiful new era for our world.
But as usual, the devil stuck his nose into things. And as a result of his influence, feminism has been warped from a cry for justice and harmony into a weapon of vengeance and wrath. (One among many, I might add.) And as such, millions of young women have been deceived into believing that male authority as ordained in the Bible is synonymous with oppression.
And it's not. The strongest, most loving, most unbreakable marriages I know are anchored by women who have spat in the face of the establishment and submitted to the authority of their husbands. These women are strong, free, successful and beloved, and they are rebels. Not only in the way they view the men in their lives, but in their shining dedication to the most despised countercultural force in history: Jesus Christ.
God is a thief. He takes weapons created to destroy him and reappropriates them to be used by his people. And to all young women who are fed up with the anger and hatred they are being pressured to embrace by their culture, I say this to you as a follower of Christ:
Well-behaved women seldom make history.