The Only Way to Make Sense of Women

There’s only one way to make sense of women.

I should know. I’m a woman. XX chromosome credentialed. Bona fide by birth. Not a boast, just biology. Been managing estrogen since way back.

Raised a daughter in the new millennium. Came up in the sixties and seventies raised by a Boomer woman. I’ve seen decades of this conversation. Most of my closest friends are women so I get it, we’re complicated. But, some women have learned to capitalize on that. To wield it like a billy club. To promote a cultural agenda with the underlying message that girls rule, boys drool. It sounds more sophisticated when they parade it out to the podium but that’s essentially the poison apple those evil queens are tossing to the crowd.

The truth is, we live in a fallen world and we ALL fell from grace. There’s not a sinful gender and an advanced gender. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

I’m sure this post won’t win me friends. I’ve been hoping to hear someone else say it but there’s a strange silence out there leaving me to wonder if I’m the only one who puzzles over this situation. I guess I’m up so, here it is. Why does everyone buy this lie that all modern women want is equality? Especially when it only took one presidential candidate treating them exactly the way he treats others who oppose him, giving them precisely the equal treatment they claim they want to expose the deceit.

Women leading the present-day charge, creating headlines, defining the gender standard for the rest of us mere mortals describe themselves with power words. Independent. Educated. Strong. They’re not asking for a place at the table, they’re claiming their chair at the head. They’re savvy, opinionated, smart, skillful, and unapologetic for being themselves. It’s their time to rule.

Then, one guy with weird hair pokes fun at their looks or calls them names, questions their skills, suggests they be held accountable for their reproductive actions. He treats them with complete and utter equality, slamming them the way he slams every man who crosses him. Whoa! Suddenly, it’s not okay to “pick on a lady.” And his suggestion that in the event one breaks a hypothetical law she might face the consequence draws an outcry. Oh, now they’re not empowered equals. Now, it sounds like people want to punish the victim.

When did these powerful world leaders become victims? Victims of what? Pregnancy? Are these the same women who several months back brazenly shouted their abortions on Twitter? This is truly proof that the church has not cornered the market on hypocrisy.

This post isn’t a vote of support for any presidential candidate or his/her behavior. This isn’t about how we vote. It’s about how we live. I stand amazed at the deal some women have bullied the rest of us into buying. Some women want to run the country one minute and boo-hoo the next about the mean man who says unkind things. They take power over their own reproductive choices but they can’t be held accountable if those choices are ever outlawed because they’re victims of the lives their bodies house?

(I’m not talking about true victims of abuse, incest, rape, or pressure. There were mobs of women out there shouting their abortions who admitted they also made all the choices that led to the conception. This is about them. Why would they suddenly choose to cloak themselves in victimhood? Oh, because it’s expedient to their cause.)

Men and women are, in fact, equal but I believe it matters how we reach that conclusion and that we live it with integrity. The Bible says this, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28 We have equality but we must all, men and women, claim it in Jesus Christ.

Jesus revolutionized this planet for women – not by treating us with equality and respect (which He did), but by dying on the cross for our sins and rising again, triumphant over sin and death. The fact that I’ve NEVER heard a woman use Galatians 3:28 to defend a man is evidence that we all have a long way to go.

The only way to make sense of women (or men) is from within a biblical worldview. According to the Bible, we are equally fallen. Our sin, both genders’, impacts us and those around us. Our only salvation, liberation, freedom, redemption is in Jesus. He will call us all to account for our words and for the lifeblood of other humans – those who survive our wombs and those who don’t. We will stand, equally, before the judgment throne and the only answer that will cover anyone’s sin is Jesus.

No one has any trouble pointing out that many male leaders are deluded or deceived by their own arrogance, blindness to their own failings, and their separation from a the living God. The truth is there are powerful women speaking for us who are equally deceived, blind, and cut off from Him but no one is saying it.

For some reason, no one wants to call them on this matrix they’re weaving like a sticky web where no matter what, powerful women are the new untouchables. They’ve created their version of the “old boys club” and they’ve tried to suck all women into membership. No, thanks. Not a club I’m interested in joining. They’re using their skills to enact their version of a double standard while marketing it as “I may be able to push the nuclear button but I’m still a lady so you’d better watch yourself.”

This blog is about going deeper with Jesus. It’s not a political blog or a rage against powerful women blog. But following Jesus means to allow only Him to define everything about us including what it means to be male and female. It means treating others – women, men, friends, enemies – with love and respect. For me, that means identifying widespread deception when I see it. Raising the question or the alarm in case there are others out there, like me saying, “Wait, that’s not right, is it?”

There’s an old biblical Proverb that says, “The wisest of women builds her house, but folly with her own hands tears it down.” (Proverbs 14:4) This is what we see played out on a cultural level in our generation but there are revolutionaries in every war. We are those revolutionaries – Christian women and men willing to stand shoulder to shoulder and say, “We won’t engage in gender wars. In serving Jesus we commit to the ministry of reconciliation and truth.”

Women are as in need of redemption as men. We are entirely equal in this regard. We are equally susceptible to being tools in the hands of the enemy but we also have equal access to the Kingdom of God through Jesus. We, too, are warriors.

Evil queens don’t just exist in fairy tales. Some are working overtime to enslave the rest of us in their bid for power. Don’t trust their apples or their poisonous lies.

The only way to make sense of women – https://t.co/zEzPQkK36d how one candidate reveals a widespread lie #PresidentialCandidates #amwriting

— Lori Roeleveld (@lorisroeleveld) April 5, 2016