What Has Christianity ever Done for Women?
This question was asked by a woman at a Sceptics versus Christians debate a few months ago organized by a University Christian group. It is a fair and reasonable question though the person asking was clearly inferring that Christianity had never done anything for women.
While this discussion can soon be side-tracked into why women are excluded in church power structures, here we really want to answer the actual question, what has Christianity EVER done for women? Believers in Christ were first called Christians in Antioch perhaps some decades after the resurrection of Jesus (Acts 11:26) but we should not separate them from the Jewish roots of the faith in the Old Testament. Starting at Creation, the first woman Eve was created from a rib taken from the side Adam. As I read on this subject many years ago, she was not taken from his head to dominate him nor from his foot to be trodden over by him. Eve was taken from Adam’s side to walk beside him.
The Christian understanding is that all cultures have arisen from the descendants of Noah and his sons, all of whom only had one wife and would have had some understanding of God’s original design for relationships. Therefore, it is feasible that after the tower of Babel dispersal many cultures originally took Godly ideals of marriage and respect for women with them. However, history proves that in many cultures women were treated as property, often severely mistreated, especially in war, and even the focus of human sacrifice.
From very early times Jewish law set important boundaries with marriage, outlawing adultery and even targeting men in the last of the ten commandments: “thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife”. Jesus reiterated the importance of marriage for life and challenged the Jews understanding of it by denouncing flippant divorce, equating it with the serious breaking of the law of adultery (Matthew 19). The multiple wives and concubines of numerous Jewish patriarchs and kings is not endorsed by any Scripture but is an accurately reported historical fact of the cultural influences around them. These practises were apparently tolerated by God in His mercy and patience with the deeds of man. Nevertheless, in many instances these multiple relationships caused major trouble. The adultery of King David and many wives of Solomon led to terrible trouble in Israel. Both disobeyed the specific requirement of the Law for kings to not have multiple wives (Deut. 17:17).
Yet we still have not quite nailed the most important thing Christianity has done for women best summarised by Jesus himself who said the two most important commands were to love God and love one another. Paul later teaches the importance of “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it” (Ephesians 5:25). Christ willingly died for the church! Husbands, how much do you love your wives? Love, care and protection as well as fidelity are essential themes of the Christian faith that ultimately revolutionised the ancient world’s culture towards women in the regions where Christianity spread.
Such love and care for others were especially beneficial to women in a man dominated world. The need to care for widows, for example, is mentioned in numerous New Testament passages (e.g. 1 Timothy 5). Sceptics should realise that the bizarre notion that love evolved as a survival adaption in humans gives no answer as to why the weak or disabled should ever be cared for. Only the Creator’s love for all His creation, infused into mankind but corrupted by sin, can ever explain why love is a thing at all.
When it comes to core tenants such as salvation in Christ and the promised joy of eternal life, the Christian faith is clear that men and women have equality (Galatians 3:28). Peter also speaks of this equality, that men and women are “heirs together of the grace of [eternal] life” (1 Peter 3:7). There are no specially promised benefits to men, and none to the detriment of women. We are all “one in Christ Jesus” and will one day all equally be able to walk again in the garden with Him.
As an additional, though not specific benefit of Christianity to women, Paul taught that conversion to Christianity did not require forced believing of the spouse, nor leaving them, but rather to continue living peaceably with them (1 Corinthians 7). Such teaching is contrary to that of many other worldviews including some which call for death or exclusion of anyone deviating from their belief system, especially atheistic communism during the twentieth century.
Jesus Christ surprised those around him by speaking to a lone and probably outcast Samaritan woman at a well, forbidden by Jewish custom, yet through her testimony many from her village came to believe in him (John 4). This respect for women, clearly rubbed off on his disciple John who willingly recorded that the first person to witness Jesus after the resurrection was Mary Magdalene (John 20). Jesus appearing first to a woman is especially significant as women were not regarded as legal witnesses at that time and it is incredible to think that John would include this detail if it were not true. Looking at the teachings and interactions of Jesus with women is the key to understanding the revolutionary thinking that Christianity inspired. While people may often fail, Christ is the foundation on which we should assess the influence of Christianity on the world.
In summary, Christianity has infused culture with a worldview of love and equality before God that has been especially beneficial to women. Secular women who speak up boldly in modern public forums should realise that this privilege has been won over the centuries, largely in the Christianised west, because of Biblical teaching that elevated the importance of women and their relationship with the Living God.
Perhaps we should now flip the question and ask what has Godless secularism ever done for women?
We live in an age where our society has increasingly moved away from Christian principles, and this is even reflected now in the law in various western countries. Biological men have been able to dominate women in female sporting competitions around the globe, belittling the massive training efforts of real female athletes. Women who have spoken up about this are publicly derided and sometimes excluded from their sport altogether. Kirralee Smith from New South Wales was fined $95,000 for posting on social media truthful comments about biological men playing in and dominating women’s football. Another Australian, Sal Grover, has been legally unable to set up a women’s only website/App due to complaints from a transgender activist, a biological male, who wished access to the site. Most people would be aware of numerous other examples where the rights of biological men have superseded women’s rights in women-only spaces.
The reasonable question therefore arises – how is secularism going with looking after women? Public servants, politicians and leaders embarrass themselves when asked to even define what a woman is.
The internet has become a place where easy access to pornography for people of all ages has reduced women to objects. Young men growing up with this exposure are being corrupted in the mind and it is a probable contributor to the explosion of domestic violence in Australia over the last decade or so.
Secular ideas on transgenderism have led to confused and pressured young women undergoing life altering, irreversible surgeries and hormone replacement “therapies” that many have later regretted. So how is secularism really going for our women? Has it really been an improvement on things or has it simply opened up a door of sin and confusion that has devastated so many lives?
The Christian ideals of men loving their wives as Christ loved the church, protecting the vulnerable, fidelity, purity, self-control, fixed created identity in the image of God, forgiveness and grace – to name but a few, are a much sounder foundation upon which to base the well-being of women in the future. The secular experiment has failed badly, and we need to get back to God’s ways if we are going to see improvements to the well-being of women in our society.
