Biblical Feminism?
Is there such a Thing?
Q. What’s your opinion of Paula White, the televangelist?
I’ve learned that women appreciate information about other women from each other more. So I’ll turn this question over to my wife.
Anti Biblical – Anti Gospel
I’ve only seen Paula White on TV a few times, and I had a hard time listening to her message because it was so anti everything I know about the Bible or the gospel message. But first, let’s talk about a few other women teachers.
Kay Arthur
We don’t take quite the hard line stance against women speakers as does John MacArthur, as much as we respect him. It seems clear that God does have a place for women in his church, and He uses some of them mightily.
Some…One example is Kay Arthur.
Kay Arthur’s Precept Upon Precept bible studies are some of the best available on the market today. Her in-depth studies challenge the bible college graduate as well as the pastor. She is sought after to speak at pro Israel prophecy conferences and women’s conferences. And her New Inductive Study Bible, NASBU, published by Harvest House, is a perfect workbook bible for the serious student. She seems to work under the auspices of her pastor and husband.
Joyce Meyer
Millions of women worldwide have Joyce Meyer to thank for their ability to overcome child sexual abuse and emotional abuse, and to move on to become productive Christian women.
For all of those Christian psychologists who have attempted to present Scripture as the answer to secular counseling, Joyce Meyer has succeeded where they have not.
Perhaps one reason is because she was a victim herself. Furthermore, Joyce Meyer tackled her problems by studying Scripture – not by sitting in a counselor’s office. She continues to fill this void by providing Christians with God’s answer to psychiatry. She fills a “niche” that no others can. Joyce Meyer claims to “preach” under the cover of her husband and pastor.
Beth Moore
Beth Moore is another bible teacher who educates thousands of women at bible conferences around the country. While some men attend her conferences, she claims that she doesn’t consider herself a teacher of men. Her teachings are directed at women. If some men attend her conferences or read her books she feels this is their choice.
Beth Moore has become well known for teaching Christians to “pray” the Scriptures. Her book, Praying God’s Word, became popular for this purpose. She says that she works under the authority of her pastor and church.
God Uses & Cares about Women in His Church
There are other fine women authors and speakers including Stormie Omartian, Elizabeth George, Elisabeth Eliott – whose ministry became well known after the movie, The End of the Spear, aired several years ago, and others I don’t mean to neglect.
There are also fine women choir directors, organists, pianists, singers, Sunday school teachers, chefs, and other workers too numerous to list. The point is that God clearly uses women in His church today.
Paula White’s Ministry
Before addressing the ministry of Paula White, I felt it important to let our readers know where we stand on this issue of women in the church. The biblical passage I will mention later which is found in 1 Timothy 2:12, is so controversial and upsetting to many that it seemed best to begin this way.
Model-Perfect Paula & Kim
The first time I listened to Paula White she interviewed Robert Kiyosaki’s wife, Kim, about women and money matters. To refresh your memory Kiyosaki became famous for his Rich Dad/Poor Dad books.
The interview featured Paula and Kim – two good looking, young women savvy in business and finance. They were both picture-perfect: slim, trim, model-like, well-dressed, perfectly made-up, beautiful women according to our culture’s standards. They even looked alike – glossy and sleek with half-shut eyelids elongated by eye liner.
Financial – not a Christian Message
Their message encouraged women to become smart in finances because women are often widowed by age sixty. The product they promoted was a new book written by Kim directed to women.
The message was okay. But, it belonged on CNBC or Bloomberg TV. I had to scratch my head as I wondered what the message had to do with faith or Christianity.
Health, Gym & Body Builders
The second time I listened to Paula White I was filled with revulsion and disbelief. The setting was a health gym. Paula White was featured in a low-cut sexy, clinging, gym outfit. She was interviewing a muscle builder who promoted his supplements and workout techniques.
There was nothing about faith-building or a gospel message whatsoever. Instead, the message was, “You can be all you want to be.” Or, “be the best that you can be.” (Sadly, we have since learned that Ms. White is embroiled in divorce procedures).
Disingenuous
For one thing even this message of “you can be whatever you want” is disingenuous! For those of you who can’t carry a tune or get a job as a nuclear physicist you already know that none of us can be anything we want to be. We are born with limitations – and gifts given to us by our Creator. End of story.
Conformed to Christ
As far as being the best that we can be, this is not the purpose for a Christian. A Christian is to “deny himself, take up his cross and follow Christ” (Matt. 16:24).
To follow Christ may mean suffering, pain and loss – hardly the ideal weight, fashion, and monetary circumstances endorsed by Paula White. …“Those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His son” (Romans 8:29).
We are being made into Christ-like beings. We are not being conformed into the fashionable image of Paula White.
1 Timothy
Now let’s go to 1 Timothy to see what Paul says to women:
…“the women are to dress themselves in modest clothing, with decency and good sense – not with elaborate hairstyles, gold, pearls, or expensive apparel, but with good works, as is proper for women who affirm that they worship God” (1 Tim. 2:9-10, HCSB).
Strike 1
No Christian women should appear on Christian television in clinging, sexy outfits suitable only for a singles bar. This alone would disqualify Paula White as a leader who can teach anyone about the Bible or a Christian lifestyle. Strike One!
Strike 2
Where are Paula White’s good works which affirm that she worships God? To narrow it down further the book of James helps to clarify what good works are.
James 1:27 says that “Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”
Helping Orphans or Digging Wells?
Although she may contribute to the poor, I don’t see Paula White on television helping orphans, digging water wells for dying tribes in Africa or the Middle East, providing food for widows, assisting towns after major disasters such as the tsunami or an earthquake, or assisting the poor in other ways. Not yet, anyway.
In contrast, Joyce Meyer Ministries does provide these services to the poor. One sees her ministry at work when her program is broadcast. To watch Paula White dressed in seductive garb while interviewing Christian Television’s “hunk” hardly qualifies as assisting orphans and widows while keeping oneself unstained by the world. This is an offense, folks.
Besides, James clearly combines the act of looking after orphans and widows with keeping oneself unstained by the world. One behavior clearly follows the other. Therefore, even if Ms. White cared for the poor, her suggestive attire and mannerisms would negatively cancel out her good deeds in the eyes of the world! Strike Two!
Strike 3
Given Over to a Depraved Culture
I certainly don’t see Paula White keeping herself “unstained by the world.” Do you? Strike Three! Instead, I see Ms. White having given herself over to the worst of our depraved culture – 100%. This is syncretism at its worst!
Fallacious Act of Syncretism
The fallacious act of syncretism is something repeatedly warned against in the New Testament and Old Testament. We see it in places like 1 Corinthians, Romans, Galatians, the book of Revelation, Hosea, Jeremiah, Deuteronomy, and other places throughout the Bible. Let’s turn our attention away from Ms. White to the subject of the repeated warnings against syncretism.
The Danger of Syncretism
In the Old Testament, whenever the children of Israel moved into new territory, God told them to destroy everything there. This included homes, places of worship, livestock, valuables – everything. No exceptions. They were to destroy all remnants of former cultures in the places they conquered.
Fertility Godesses
This command to destroy everything also took care of pagan feminism and the Queen of Heaven, by the way. Feminism and the worship of fertility goddesses such as Ashtoreth and the queen of heaven was a common practice in ancient Middle Eastern cultures. (See 1 Samuel 7:3, 12:10, Judges 2:13 and 10:6).
Baal & Ashtoreth
MacArthur notes that the Baals and the Ashtoreths were “the most dominant of the Canaanite pantheon. These deities were the fertility gods which plagued Israel.
‘Baal’ and ‘Ashtoreth’ are plurals of majesty, which signify their supreme authority over other Canaanite deities. Ashtoreth represented the female goddess, while Baal represented the male sky god who fertilized the land” (MacArthur Study Bible1996, 387).
Brutal Child Sacrifices
Brutal child sacrifices to Baal were common. Parents literally placed their children in the arms of Baal to be burned alive! Do you think we are any better today? Not so.
Stabbing and sucking out the brains of third trimester babies for mothers who do not want to be inconvenienced demonstrate the same cruel, disregard for children – let alone the horrid pain they are subjected to. We are just as brutal.
“Do Not Pray For This People”
In response to the fertility practices and pagan worship of gods by the Israelites, God ordered Jeremiah to do a shocking thing. God told Jeremiah, “Do not pray for these people. Do not offer a cry or a prayer on their behalf, and do not beg Me, for I will not listen to you. Don’t you see how they behave in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The sons gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven…” (Jer. 7:16-18, NLT).
No Disasters when we Worshipped the Queen of Heaven
The people of Israel responded by telling Jeremiah…“we will do everything we said we would: burn incense to the queen of heaven and offer drink offerings to her just as we, our fathers, our kings, and our officials did in Judah’s cities and in Jerusalem’s streets. Then we had enough food and good things and saw no disaster, but from the time we ceased to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to offer her drink offerings, we have lacked everything, and through sword and famine we have met our end” (Jer. 44:17-18).
You are Wasted
Finally, Jeremiah responded by telling the people that, “The Lord can no longer bear your evil deeds and the detestable acts you have committed, so your land has become a waste, a desolation, and an object of cursing, without inhabitant, as you see today. Because you burned incense and sinned against the Lord and didn’t obey the Lord’s voice and didn’t walk in His law, His statutes, and His testimonies, this disaster has come to you, as you see today” (Jer. 44:22-23, HCSB).
Tendencies to Compromise
God demanded that His children destroy pagan cultures because He knew their tendencies to compromise – to become polluted by the cultures they conquered. Too often they incorporated into their own lives the sinful habits and practices of idolaters and heathens. They embraced feminism, worshiped fertility goddesses, and sacrificed their own babies to Moloch.
This is so “Old Testament,” isn’t it?
Do you think that warnings against worshiping the queen of heaven and idolatrous practices apply only to the Old Testament Israelites? Do you think this is “Oh-too-O.T.” for Christians today? Are we free from worry about worshiping demonic deities?
Yes?
Consider this:
Struck Down Now?
The apostle Paul warned the Corinthians that “God was not pleased with most of them, (the children of Israel), for they were struck down in the desert” (1 Corinthians 10:5).
They Became our Examples
Then Paul continued, “Now these things became examples for us, so that we will not desire evil as they did. Don’t become idolaters as some of them were…Let us not commit sexual immorality as some of them did…Let us not tempt Christ as some of them did…Nor should we complain as some of them did…Now these things happened to them as examples, and they were written as a warning to us, on whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Corinthians 10:5-11).
Warnings to Us?
But, what were Paul’s warnings to us?
That 23,000 were killed in a single day after commiting sexual immorality! (1 Cor. 10:8). This isn’t a “light” consequence for misbehavior. Many were killed by horrid snakes after tempting Christ (1 Cor. 10:9). Some were killed by the destroyer after complaining (1 Cor. 10:10). This is serious, deadly stuff!
Americans Guilty as Charged
Yet, I suggest to you that Americans are filled with complaints about God’s provisions for them, filled with whining about their circumstances – which is “tempting Christ,” and full of sexual immorality – even on Christian T.V.
We are also guilty of idolatry when we trust in our 401k, IRA, bank accounts and 5,000 square feet homes lavishly furnished – to provide for our old age and impress our relatives rather than trust in God.
We haven’t learned much of anything from Paul’s Old Testament examples, have we? (Note Benware 2002, 156-158).
The Teachings of Demons
1 Timothy 4:1 warns that “in the latter times some will depart from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons, through the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared.”
“Flee Immorality & Be Separate from the World”
Over and over we read that the children of Israel were polluted by the cultures they were to conquer. And over and over God judged them for this. The New Testament also warns Christians to “flee from immorality” and to “be separate from the world” (1 Cor. 10:4, 2 Cor. 6:17).
Theologian John MacArthur
Pastor and teacher John MacArthur warns about the same thing. Listen to what he says about syncretism in our modern day churches:
Trendy Churches
“Whole churches have deliberately immersed themselves in ‘the culture’ – by which they actually mean ‘whatever the world loves at the moment.’ Thus we have a new breed of trendy churches whose preachers can rattle off references to every popular icon, every trifling meme, every tasteless fashion, and every vapid trend that captures the fickle fancy of the postmodern, secular mind.”
“Worldly preachers seem to go out of their way to put their carnal expertise on display – even in their sermons. In the name of ‘connecting with the culture’ they boast of having seen all the latest programs on MTV, memorized every episode of South Park, learned the lyrics to countless tracks of gangsta rap and heavy metal music, or watched who-knows-how-many R-rated movies. They seem to know every fad top to bottom, back to front, and inside out. They’ve adopted both the style and the language of the world – including lavish use of language that used to be deemed inappropriate in polite society, much less in the pulpit. They want to fit right in with the world, and they seem to be making themselves quite comfortable there.”
World’s Fads are Toxic
MacArthur continues:
“Let’s face it. Scripture speaks quite plainly against such a mentality (James 4:4). Many of the worlds’ favorite fads are toxic, and they are becoming increasingly so as our society descends further into the death-spiral described in Romans 1. It’s like a radioactive toxicity, so while those who immerse themselves in it might not notice its effects instantly, they nevertheless cannot escape the inevitable, soul-destroying contamination.
Woe to Those Comfortable with Sinful Fads
And woe to those who become comfortable with sinful fads of secular society. The final verse of Romans 1 expressly condemns those ‘who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.”
(pg. 140-141).
Assault on Divine Authority
Finally, MacArthur expounds upon the “Assault on Divine Authority” in chapter 7.
“Evangelicals willing to bend biblical truth to make Christianity seem more politically correct are in effect denying Christ as the true Head of the church. For example, Scripture expressly forbids women to teach men or to have authority over them in the church (1 Timothy 2:12). Many evangelicals have chosen to ignore that principle or tried desperately to explain it away. Some even go so far as to write it off as an uninspired, misogynistic expression of the Apostle Paul’s personal opinion.”
Women in Pastoral & Teaching Roles
MacArthur continues,
“Thus we have seen an influx of women into pastoral and teaching roles, even in evangelical circles. Many evangelical seminaries are now aggressively recruiting women for pastoral training programs. Numerous once-conservative evangelical churches are ordaining women as elders, encouraging them to teach adult classes filled with men, and even appointing them to pastoral and preaching roles.”
Gnostic Roots of Feminism
MacArthur concludes this section with,
“Such feminism has Gnostic roots. It is an opinion that was universally rejected by mainstream Christianity until the current generation, when it was proposed mainly as a politically correct way to respond to the secular feminists’ charge that Christianity is too male dominated and therefore outmoded. The rapid acceptance of ‘evangelical’ feminism is a measure of how many in the church are determined at all costs to bend Scripture to make it fit worldly opinion.”
(pgs. 153-154).
Learning in Submissive Silence?
The apostle Paul warned:
“A woman should learn in silence with full submission. I do not allow a woman to teach or to have authority over a man. Instead, she is to be silent. For Adam was created first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and transgressed” (1 Tim. 2:11-14, HCSB).
Misogyny? Anti Feminism?
This passage appears to imply more than a cultural taboo against authoritative females or a misogynistic viewpoint against women, don’t you think?
Rather, it seems to reach back into the dawn of creation after the first woman, Eve, was deceived by Satan. It warns women that by their very nature they may be easily deceived. Adam was created first. Then Eve was created as Adam’s complement. She is his “help mate.”
In shedding more light upon this subject, please note that it is also possible that Paul was referring to a circulating Gnostic myth which suggested that Eve was created first and all living things descended from her (Kroeger & Kroeger, 113).
Point/Counterpoint
Remember, too, that Paul was addressing cultural clashes consisting of at least four groups at this time: Greeks, Romans, Orientals, and Jews.
Each group had traditions which in some ways conflicted with each other – not the least of which were attitudes toward women. Furthermore, there is even more evidence that Paul asked one particular group of people who met in an informal house church to quit being so “chatty” and to stop acting inappropriately during communion. The Greek words translated “silent” may actually mean “quiet.”
Why is this a possible translation?
After all, women did speak in church! They prophesied and they spoke in tongues. Priscilla even taught Apollos – a circumcised male Jew who was a Greek philosopher – about his faith! We know that scripture does not contradict scripture elsewhere, and that we must seek out the whole counsel of God.
At any rate, given so many possible explanations we do not have a quarrel with the God of the Universe, Maker of the heavens and earth, the Supreme Being who sustains all of the trillions of swirling galaxies out there!
A quarrel with our Maker is a dangerous position to take. So we will always attempt to compare scripture with scripture and prayerfully seek to understand what God would have us to do.
Authorities & Hierarchies
To my dear Christian women friends, please remember that even Michael the archangel did not “dare bring an abusive condemnation against the Devil, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you!'” (Jude v. 9). It was those who were apostates who most “despised authority” (v. 8). Holy angels, on the other hand, retain respect for authorities set by God. That included respect for Satan because of the “office” he holds!
Colossians 1:16 teaches us that Christ created everything, “in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things have been created through Him and for Him.”
Authorities and hierarchies are established by God throughout the heavens and earth. Angels respect authorities and hierarchies. As women of faith, we should do no less.
We want to remain obedient to Christ and respect thrones, dominions, rulers, authorities and hierarchies because He is our authority and because this is the kind of behavior that God rewards.
That is good enough for me. What about you?
“Your beauty should not consist of outward things like elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold ornaments or fine clothes. Instead, it should consist of the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very valuable in God’s eyes” (1 Peter 3:3-4, HCSB).
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References & Recommended Books:
Benware, Paul. 2002. The believer’s payday. Chattanooga, TN: AMG.
Clark, Catherine & Richard. 1992. I suffer not a woman. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker.
Edwards, Gene. 2005. The Christian woman set free. Jacksonville, FL: SeedSowers Publishing. www.seedsowers.com.
Grudem, Wayne. 2004. Evangelical feminism & Biblical truth. Colorado Springs: Multnomah.
MacArthur, John. 2007. The truth war. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.
Tyler, David & Kurt Grady. 2006. Deceptive diagnosis. Bemidji, MN: FOCUS publishing. (pgs. 116-117).
The MacArthur Study Bible, NKJV. 1997. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.
Witherington, Ben. 1989. Women in the earliest churches. NY: Cambridge Univ. Press.
—1990. Women and the genesis of Christianity. NY: Cambridge Univ. Press.
About the Author: As a daughter of the late Louis A. Mays, a college professor, Valorie was taught to research subjects and to form her own opinions and conclusions. Ms. Emilio received her MA in History from UCLA in 1987 focusing upon Christian origins under the tutelage of Dr. Scott Bartchy.