Note: This post is the continuation of a series, which began with the installment: The Problem with Patriarchy Part 1: Our Road to Damascus. If you have just come across this site or this post, it might be a good idea to start with Part 1. Each installment (hopefully) builds on the foundation laid in the previous entries. Thanks for reading!
For whatever reason, the topic of women’s role in the church got me to thinking about voting. It’s a right most of us take for granted, which is illustrated by the low participation of voters each election cycle. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to be critical, but it just seems like for many voting’s not a big deal. And, maybe part of the reason this is true is because we’ve always had the right or privilege. It’s just the way it is and it seems as if it has always been that way. So, if it is inconvenient or we’re just frustrated with the system or candidates (which appears to be every election these days); we can just opt out. And yet, we know we shouldn’t just opt out. That’s really the last thing we should do. If we’re honest with ourselves, we know voting is a big deal. It matters a lot. Heck, not everyone in this world is allowed to vote. Or we could say at a more fundamental level, not every citizen in our world is granted the power and authority to choose their leaders.
Which is really where we need to focus our attention, isn’t it? This, in a nutshell explains why the right to vote matters. In an election, the power and authority of government are essentially distributed to the people through the act of voting. Voting is how we ensure power and authority are not contained or held by one or even a few people. If the election is legitimate, power and authority are given over to those who ultimately decide if their elected leaders continue leading or are forced out in favor of change. Elections (at least in theory), ensure politicians (government) are placed under the authority of those who vote. This is a good thing because we know power corrupts. A person once said absolute power corrupts absolutely. I think they’re right.
So, at this point, I’m not going to come out and pretend I know much about the history of voting and voting rights. That would be dishonest. But, as I was thinking about the topic, I thought it was safe to assume the right to vote hasn’t always been as widespread or open to the citizens of the world as it is today. It seems it’s one of those basic struggles every civilization has faced: who should be able to exercise this right – this expression of power and authority? And, do we dare expand this right to a new class of people? Let’s face it: even the United States has not always allowed every legal citizen over the age of 18 to vote. I know you know this, but there was a time when even women did not have the right to vote. In fact, in the grand scheme of this thing we call human history; it really wasn’t that long ago when women were denied the opportunity to go to the polls.
Following up on this topic, I did manage to do a little bit of research and here is what I want to pass along: Prior to 1920, the year when the 19th amendment was finally ratified, many states had already granted at least partial voting rights to women. But, for places like my home state of North Carolina (and most other states throughout the south) the passage of the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote for the very first time in their lives. In addition, it should also be noted the struggle to get the 19th Amendment passed was a long, slow process. It didn’t happen overnight and it didn’t happen without women playing crucial leadership roles in the movement to change the conventional wisdom about women’s place in society.
Reflecting on this, I couldn’t help but ask the question: could anyone imagine a time when your wife, your daughter, your aunt or your mom would be turned away from the polls? It seems impossible. For many, I’m sure the idea is simply repulsive. And yet, for a nearly 150 years of our country’s existence and certainly for most of human history, this limitation was considered acceptable. It was normal. And, we should also acknowledge, this perspective or view of women’s role in society has largely guided the way communities and cultures have functioned for thousands of years.
This perspective I’m referring to – this way of ordering society – this way of defining roles and responsibilities – is what we would call patriarchy. It’s the idea or guiding assumption about life which says families, organizations and government should be run by men. In other words, only men should be leaders. Only men should take on roles which exercise authority or power over another. We see this patriarchal way of ordering society throughout the Bible; and for some, it is seen as a structure ordained by God.
But, is that really the case? Is patriarchy something God really intended for humanity when he made the world? How can we know what God intended? Think about it this way: Could we make the observation that granting women the right to vote was a step away from patriarchy? After all, in doing so, we bestowed upon women some level and power and authority over government, which (especially at the time) has been predominately comprised of men. Think about it. Would this mean granting women the right to vote actually goes against God’s will?
These are tough, but interesting questions and questions are a good thing, I believe. I think questions are an essential component for the growth of individuals and communities. Thinking, or perhaps honest reflection, can only begin with asking questions. And, if that’s true, then a belief or a conviction you have all the answers is a sign of a mind that has become closed and stagnant. You might say it’s died. Abraham Joshua Heschel put it best when he said:
“There are dead thoughts and there are living thoughts. A dead thought has been compared to a stone which one may plant in the soil. Nothing will come out. A living thought is like a seed. In the process of thinking, an answer without a question is devoid of life. It may enter the mind; it will not penetrate the soul. It may become a part of one’s knowledge; it will not come forth as a creative force.” – extracted from God In Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism
In other words, a mind which has all the answers and refuses to questions its ideas, beliefs and assumptions has died. It has become about as useful as a stone planted in the soil. Nothing beneficial will come from it. It won’t bring forth life. You could say it does nothing more than take up space.
I think this speaks to an awakening we all must go through in our lives. It’s this growing awareness each one of us has been handed a collection of ideas, principles, and beliefs of how best to follow Jesus and live in community, which need to be questioned. It’s through this awakening we begin to ask: are we sure these ideas, principles and beliefs are the best way. Are they “the way”? Some would say patriarchy might be considered the Biblical way. But why? Is it true? Or, could something else be going on?
What if we looked at this issue from another angle? What if we considered how this patriarchal view of society – that is, how we view women’s roles in our communities – might affect how we read and interpret the Bible? Is it possible the way we interpret the Bible has been impacted by long standing social and cultural norms, which may have prevented us from actually seeing what God intended for families and communities all along? Perhaps the cultural norms are so ingrained and have so dominated the way we understand the world we’ve stop asking questions and our mind has become blind to what the Bible really has to say on the issue?
There is no doubt patriarchy dominates the pages of the Bible. But, could it be that women’s roles in the Bible were limited simply because of the culture they lived in and not because it was ordained or even condoned by God? Could this movement in history towards greater participation by women in society be the Holy Spirit leading us to a new understanding of women’s roles in ministries as the church and our society become less dominated by men? If we could read the Bible with fresh eyes, could we find stories, passages and teachings which actually point to an evolution of women and others to a place of equality or what the Bible calls “unity” in Christ-centered communities. These are good questions. Necessary questions.
Wherever you may stand on the subject, I think we have the responsibility – even an obligation – to take a fresh look at these issues. After all, I suspect most of us have simply been given these ideas and interpretations from someone else. To be sure, we pass along many traditions of Biblical interpretation from generation to generation and that’s a good thing. But at the same time, we need to recognize Christianity’s record on Biblical interpretation has been much less than perfect (to put it nicely) and many corrections or alterations have been made over the years. They’re still being made.
The point is we all have to be willing to ask questions. There’s this idea wisdom only comes through a willingness to doubt your own understandings and an openness to admit I/you/we could be wrong. I think deep down we recognize it’s this type of humility which provides the room for our faith to grow (remember that seed analogy?). It’s this humility which allows us to simply being aware of our limitations, our frailty, our faults and our history of mistakes. It’s being open to correction, but being okay with it and knowing it’s ultimately a blessing to be able to correct a mistake. Borrowing from Heschel’s metaphor, we could say seeds are planted. New gardens grow. The world becomes a better place.