Following a debate online, I felt compelled to make one distinction: I am utterly sexist because the Bible fits the definition of sexist according to modern usage of the word. However, I am by no means a traditionalist within this culture. I do not particularly favor our western traditions regarding the place of women in this world, whether current, or from any part of our past.
The West was mostly wrong from the start, and has never been right, and certainly isn’t right today. The West has always favored women in one way or another, and what we see today with the feminist cult is simply the tail end of where the West has always been. The biblical standard for the female identity bears only a superficial resemblance to some aspects of the western version.
The problem we face is that the Bible gives you a few hints and leaves the details to your own convictions. Sometimes we can articulate the fundamentals, and it’s a good exercise to try. It’s very enlightening, showing you something about yourself and your situation.
But sometimes you can best address a conflict by pointing out the implications of the fundamentals. Where do we come out on the issues right now, the ones in front of us? How do we respond to a fallen world deeply antagonistic toward faith?
I see nothing wrong with girls learning to climb trees in order to work as arborists (people who trim, nurture or cut down trees). I’ve met a couple of really competent female auto mechanics, and it doesn’t feel wrong to me. On the other hand, I’ve met a lot of female soldiers and not a one of them would make a good battle buddy. It had nothing to do with the particular skills or even the physical fitness requirements, but was a simple matter that women have the wrong kind of instincts.
A woman’s internal organization and her thought processes are different from those of a man. She can strive to embrace them and emulate all she likes, but when it comes to the moment you dodge bullets, it gets lost. There are already too many men with feminine influences who get lost in combat, but for a woman to have the right stuff is so rare it’s of no statistical significance. When it comes to the realm of strategic planning, women have no place in combat.
They do just fine at non-combat roles, even in management, but I think we should demilitarize some of them, in part for that reason. We should assign gender-based duties and keep men out from under female leadership. That’s something so fundamental to Scripture that there can be no debate. The only time females could direct male work was when the man was an unconverted Gentile slave, not considered an actual “man” in the sense of the Covenant.
Thus, I find no place for women in government, aside from certain limited supporting roles. They shouldn’t vote; they have historically abused that power to destroy every functioning political system. Whatever might be wrong with governments in human history, putting women in certain key roles made it worse. There is simply no excuse.
Here’s the key issue: Once you open the door for some specially talented female genius to take a place in masculine duties, you cannot possibly keep out the incompetent females — not in our world, at any rate. There are certain boundaries that you cannot fudge on, because of feminine nature at large. The story of Esther exposes this. If you give women a chance to form their own political organizations, they will rebel and destroy God’s will among men.
Women are critical assets in keeping track of issues men forget. Women are supposed to coordinate with their own household men to take care of those things. They have a duty to use their influence that way, but God forbids they ever put their hands on the levers.
It’s not a question of women being inherently evil, but uniquely open to demonic influence on certain key questions regarding our human existence. Some men may be open to that, but every woman is open to it. Regardless of the problems inherent in male leadership, it is what God has demanded of us. Defying God never turns out well for humans.
