United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has sparked a politically twisted battle of the sexes as he recently shared one of CNN’s interviews featuring Doug Wilson, pastor of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, who believes women shouldn’t be given the right to vote as individuals. Rather, he and his church followers claim that a man should vote for his entire household.
In addition, Wilson went on record to say, “Women are the kind of people who people come out of,” claiming that pregnancy and childbirth take “no special talent.”
Hegseth quickly said that he doesn’t agree with everything Wilson stated in the video, but many haven’t forgotten Hegseth’s hesitancy to allow women in combat roles in the military.
Regardless of one’s views concerning women in tough, physical military positions, Hegseth’s decision to share Wilson’s content has brought the women’s suffrage movement to the surface of political discussion and theological debate. Many are left to uncomfortably question how a pastor could come to the “faith-based” conclusion that men have an inherent dominion over women.
While the Bible was written in a different time, culturally and politically, there aren’t any black-and-white verses concerning who should or shouldn’t vote. However, Scripture does reveal the heart of God, and that is where we can find the inherent value God has placed on women and their role in society.
Back to the Basics
As someone who comes from a fundamentalist background, I remember when women couldn’t speak during church conference meetings. When the men were discussing the finances of the church, the women couldn’t ask questions. Instead, they had to go to a man and ask him to ask the question for her. What makes me so uncomfortable with this hierarchical structure is that these men have placed themselves as the intercessors between women and the pastor, but the only acceptable intercessor for all things concerning faith and service is Christ.
The foundation of our faith rests in Christ as our perfect mediator, the only one able to advocate for us as He is both empathetic to our shortcomings and able to come before the Father because He is without sin. To make anyone else a mediator for any other human is to attempt to poke holes in the basics of Christianity, whether intentionally or not.
“[The earthly high priests] serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven… But in fact, the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, since the new covenant is established on better promises. For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another.” Hebrews 8:5-7
Observing the Nature of Jesus
Jesus was a hard pill to swallow for many religious leaders of His time because He claimed that the law was not the avenue to salvation. Instead, He was. However, the Pharisees loved the law. They worshipped the law. It was an easy way to elevate themselves in their social and political spheres. Jesus, on the other hand, loved and worshipped the Father. Everything He did on earth was a reflection of God’s character.
Jesus’ nature was bent toward the socially and politically outcast. He pursued the leper, the beggar, and even the woman.
Luke 8:43-48 shares that a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years came to Jesus, but He was surrounded by a great crowd. Nonetheless, the woman was desperate to see Jesus. She believed that simply touching the base of His robe would heal her. And, friend, her faith truly made her new.
Jesus stopped the crowd. He paused everything so this woman could be seen, known, and loved. No doubt, her faith in touching His robe would have been enough. That could have granted her healing, and Jesus could’ve kept walking, simply ignoring her. In fact, the law stated that a woman who was bleeding must stay outside the community until her bleeding stopped (Leviticus 15:25). But Jesus chose to shed light on her faith and the reward it brought.
Jesus didn’t dismiss the woman. He escorted her into His presence and rejoiced in her faith.
Even when the crowds weren’t present, Jesus sought the woman. Consider John 4, when Jesus first shared who He was. It was not only with a woman, but a Samaritan woman who was alone at a well and a confirmed adulteress.
Samaritans and Jews didn’t mingle. Jewish women weren’t to be in the presence of another man unless chaperoned. And an adulteress in the Jewish community was certainly to be shunned. She had three strikes against her, yet, instead of solidifying her outcast status, Jesus offered her freedom. He offered her salvation and the unique gift of being the first to hear from His own mouth that He was the Messiah.
Jesus didn’t shun the woman. He invited her into His family.
Revisiting the Doctrine of Submission
When we revisit the Bible’s command that a wife submit to her husband, we often dismiss the context.
It’s a chunk of Scripture to take in, but let’s carefully read through this command and the commands that surround it:
“Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church…” Ephesians 5:22-29
I once heard a pastor note that God never once commanded a wife to love her husband. Her only command is to submit. What’s beautiful about true, healthy submission is that it is simply a call to reflect Christ, as He submitted His will to the Father. It’s not a calling to be abused or neglected or dismissed. It’s a calling to obey Christ, an honor to imitate the Savior. However, this submission is to be aligned with a husband properly loving his wife. And what does love do? It submits, just as Jesus’ love drove Him to submission to the Father’s plan of redemption.
Submission is not a one-way street, folks. And, in fact, the man must not only acknowledge this idea of submissive love but impart all other attributes of love. He is called to revere, adore, protect, and rejoice in his wife. But not once in Scripture is a wife told she must do these things for her husband. Of course, I believe in a healthy, God-honoring marriage, where both parties submit to one another under the covenant of 1 Corinthians 13, that the husband and wife both adore one another with a near-reckless love. That’s the goal, right? That both man and woman reflect Christ’s unbelievable love.
Regardless, I can’t help but chuckle at the slight notion that Christ elevates women so much so that He commands the husband to love her in every way possible. It means a woman’s voice and her vote matter, regardless of any social sector. Further still, it turns Doug Wilson’s idea of an unimpressive birthing vessel on its head, no?
Related Article: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Linked to Controversial Pastor Opposing Women’s Right to Vote
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