God Is a Feminist
Of the "original-wave" variety
August 18 marked the 104th anniversary of the 19th Amendment’s ratification, affirming the right of women to vote in America. It happened because feminists fought for it. I like to think God smiled to see his daughters finally achieving another part of what he had always intended for them, the ability to stand side by side with their brothers, participating—in this case—in public life as full-fledged citizens.
Some corners of the church have yet to catch up. Talented and spiritually gifted women remain tethered to gendered roles and social expectations that feel much like pantyhose—old-fashioned, uncomfortable, and unnecessarily constricting.
But isn’t “catching up to society” the main problem? Shouldn’t the church be loyal to Scripture instead of to the feminist ideology? It sounds like I’m setting up a strawman to knock down, but in some circles the idea that the Bible is antithetical to all things “feminism” is real. But to determine if that’s true, we must agree on what we mean by feminism.
Did you know that God is the “OG” feminist? Before heads explode, let’s define our terms. Because the word carries connotations that can mislead and antagonize.
Defining Feminism
Feminism has morphed over the centuries, and in America we label the different movements as waves, each with its own emphasis.
First-Wave
In modern history, we go back less than 200 years ago to find America’s first-wave feminism, which focused on social equity. It arose in the mid-1800s in response to industrialization, the Enlightenment, and social upheaval (think, the American Civil War). Women wanted a say in how their society treated them. Their goals included abolition, temperance, and suffrage, overlapping agendas seeking a healthier society and more equal social structure.
Christian women led the charge. The 19th amendment “was the culmination of more than 70 years of persistent and determined work by suffragists to ensure women enjoyed the same right as their male counterparts to cast ballots in elections and make their voices heard on questions of representation and public policy.”1 Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who led the Seneca Falls Convention of 1948, widely noted as the start of first-wave feminism, wrote in 1845, “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.”
Though she was riffing off Thomas Jefferson’s famous Declaration, the sentiments are found in Genesis 1:27–28.
So God created man in his own image;
he created him in the image of God;
he created them male and female.
God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.”
Second-wave
In the 1960s, feminism returned with a roar in the context of the Civil Rights movement and anti-war sentiment, focusing primarily on personal and individual rights. You may have heard of Betty Friedan, who became the face of second-wave feminism. Through the 1970s, ‘80s, and ‘90s, women resisted traditional interpretations of what being a woman was supposed to look like. They pursued careers, dressed much differently from their 1950s-styled mothers, sought to pass the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), celebrated the Title IX victory, and fought for financial, educational, and sexual freedoms. Roe v. Wade became a significant touchpoint for that generation. And many of them had anti-male attitude.
For the evangelical church today, the meaning of the word feminism is reduced to a middle-finger-pointing, man-hating caricature of second-wave feminists. It’s a favorite boogeyman term, thrown around by some as an epithet, as if every feminist approves abortion. Though society has already seen third-wave and is possibly experiencing fourth-wave feminism, our short-term historical memory focuses on the social upheaval of the 1960s that reset the structure of American culture.
Feminism in Church
Feminism, thankfully, is a broader, bigger concept than the American experiment. In the evangelical church, Sandra Glahn writes, “we have generally connected the more visible involvement of women in the church with a perceived capitulation to a culture influenced by Friedan’s thinking. That is, we’ve said women’s increased involvement in leadership goes back only as far as the inauguration of second-wave feminism. Yet long before the publication of Friedan's classic, The Feminine Mystique, men and women of faith argued for and enjoyed women’s greater involvement in society and the church.”
At the root of all feminism is the belief that women are fully human, worthy of the same respect and honor men hold. And many feminists get that idea from the Bible. Feminists can hold a high view of Scripture’s authority and veracity. The belief that God created men and women as equal imagers, or image-bearers, of himself is rooted in Genesis 1. Jesus called women as well as men to his service during his earthly ministry (e.g., Luke 8:1–3; 10:38–42; John 4), a calling confirmed at Pentecost when the Spirit descended upon and empowered a mixed crowd of disciples (Acts 2). Throughout the church’s 2,000-year history, women have risen above the patriarchal social structure to exercise their gifts for the good of the church. Many, of course, are lost to history, but we know of some who answered God’s call on their lives to lead, teach, mentor, and shepherd in their contexts.
A Quick Skip Through Church History
Romans 16 offers a list of women acclaimed by Paul for their service in the earliest decades of the church: Phoebe the deacon and patron (v 1–2), Prisca (Priscilla), Paul’s co-worker (v. 3), Junia the apostle (v 7), the hard-working Mary (v 6), Tryphaena, Tryphosa, and Paul’s “dear friend” Persis (v 12), Rufus’s mother (v 13), “Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them” (v 15).
Perpetua and Felicity, martyred in the arena in 203, are remembered as heroes of the faith.
Macrina the Younger, fourth-century older sister of two Cappadosian Fathers, Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa, who credited her with teaching them and developing their theology. She founded a convent of virgins dedicated to learning and service.
Theodora, Byzantine empress of the sixth century: Married to Justinian I, she was the most powerful woman in Byzantine history. Her influence was felt in laws passed to recognize the rights of women, prohibiting trafficking and granting more equitable divorce benefits to them.
Hilda, Abbess of Whitby in the seventh century: In 664, her monastery hosted the Synod of Whitby, which set the course for the future of Christianity in England. Images of her on coins and in stained glass show her holding the crozier, the shepherd’s staff symbolizing ecclesial authority.
Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179), one of the four female Doctors of the Church, a wielded enormous influence in Germany, maintaining correspondence with all the great men of her time. She was a Benedictine nun, mystic, and theologian.
Catherine of Siena (1347–1380), another Doctor of the Church, had a decisive influence on the Pope’s return from Avignon to Rome during the Great Western Schism. She was a Dominican nun, theologian, philosopher, and mystic.
Margaret Fell Fox (1614–1702), one of Quakerism's founders, secures a proclamation of freedom to Quakers from King Charles II and his Council. Her advocacy over the decades helped ensure Quakerism’s survival amid social upheaval.
Hannah More (d. 1833) partnered with William Wilberforce to abolish the British slave trade.
These are a few, cherry-picked examples of women whose leadership made a difference for Christ in their contexts and times, and whose stories have survived. In promoting the work of Christ, leading the men of their times, and enabling women through education, agency, and spiritual authority, they were feminists before the term became popular.
The Mother of Modern Egalitarianism
Patricia Gundry’s theological deconstruction intersected with the social movement to pass the ERA. Her 1977 book, Women Be Free: A Call for Responsible Evaluation of the Place of Women in the Church, was named by Christianity Today as “one of the books with the greatest influence on American evangelicals since World War II.” In it, she encouraged readers to read their Bibles and practice solid hermeneutical skills such as interpreting every passage in light of the whole of Scripture. “No indication of man’s position of authority appears until after the Fall,” she wrote. “Instead of looking to the Fall for our example, let’s look to Christ and his dealings with men and women. He dealt with them as equals whom he cared about intensely and impartially.”
In a speech, she remarked, “God was the first feminist because he created women as fully equal. There’s nothing wrong with us. It’s only our interpretation of the Bible that’s lopsided.” That speech sparked a backlash against her theology professor husband, Stan, a then-recent president of the Evangelical Theological Society who taught at Moody Bible Institute and agreed with her feminist conclusions. Under pressure from their conservative donors, Moody requested Stan’s resignation. Evangelical leaders and institutions began codifying their stances on women in leadership over the next decade, redefining patriarchy with the term complementarianism.2 In doing so, they overreacted to second-wave feminism and conflated it with the biblical witness supporting women’s mutual calling alongside men.
Patricia continued to write. In her recent obituary, following her death a mere three weeks ago, Christianity Today quoted one of her later blogs:
“To those who say women cannot fill positions of leadership, the Bible says women did,” Gundry wrote. “Remember who you are. You are a child of God. He is your director. You need no pope, bishop, synod, or council to tell you what you may believe or how you may serve Him.”
The OG Feminist
Though God is the original feminist, he is not a man-hater. His love for and calling upon men and women is not a zero-sum game. His church is not so small that only one sex can use his gifts fully. No, as Carolyn Custis James writes, men and women were intended to rule the world as a “blessed alliance” that works together in partnership. As brothers and sisters in Christ, “sacred siblings,” we will do our best work side by side and back to back.
If feminism has been a bad word in your family or church, consider further study of the various feminist movements. If the idea that the Bible speaks about women in leadership is new to you, I invite you to read 40 Questions about Women in Ministry, which examines the common talking points of the debate from both sides. But most of all, I encourage you to read your Bible from start to finish, looking for the women—what God says about them, what they do, how God feels about their actions, and how Jesus interacted with them.
The Body of Christ isn’t about demanding equal rights. Rather, we promote equality because we respect the Creator who made men and women in his image, giving us the same mission; we honor the Spirit of Christ as the giver of all good gifts, the one who chooses to equip and empower his children as he wills; and we give thanks to Jesus Christ for rescuing men and women alike from sin and into a glorious future where we will reign together with him.
https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2020/8/celebrating-100-years-of-dav#:~:text=Aug%2026%202020,Amendment%20into%20the%20U.S.%20Constitution.
For a thorough examination of the rise of complementarianism and its fallout in the evangelical world, read Kristin du Mez’s book Jesus and John Wayne.