Due to the modern feminist revolution, the value of women has come to be equated with their roles in the community and in the marketplace. Relatively little value is assigned to women’s roles in the home.
Today, no bouquets are handed out to women for being reverent and temperate or modest and chaste or gentle and quiet. Women are rarely applauded for loving their husbands and children, for keeping a well-ordered home, for caring for elderly parents, for providing hospitality, or for carrying out acts of kindness, service, and mercy. In other words, little attention is paid to the kinds of accomplishment that the Word of God says women should aspire to (1 Timothy 5:10; Titus 2:3-5).
The feminist revolution was supposed to bring women greater fulfillment and freedom. But I can’t help feeling a sense of sadness over what has been forfeited in the midst of the upheaval—namely, the beauty, the wonder, and the treasure of the distinctive makeup of women.
It should come as no surprise that the secular world is confused about the calling of women. What I find more distressing is the extent to which feminism has taken hold within the evangelical world.
The Feminist Revolution Comes to the Church
As prominent Christian speakers, authors, and leaders promote an agenda that encourages women to define their worth in the workplace, in society, or at church, we see modern feminism at work within evangelicalism. These same leaders minimize women’s roles in the home as daughters, sisters, wives, and mothers. They don’t seem to see women as bearers and nurturers of life, as caregivers, as those privileged to shape the character of the next generation.
We see the fruit of this revolution in women who are sinking in a quagmire of divorce and remarriage and wayward children. We see it in women who are exhausted from trying to juggle the demands of one or more jobs, function as single parents, and remain active at church. We see it in women who are disoriented and confused, who lack a sense of purpose for their lives, and who are perpetually shrouded in woundedness, self-doubt, resentment, and guilt.
Yes, the feminist revolution has come to the church. And when I add up all the gains and losses, there is no question in my mind that women have been the losers.
Some years ago a fresh mission began to stir within my heart. Since that time, hope and excitement have replaced my sense of pessimism and of being swallowed up by the feminist revolution.
A study of the development of modern feminism (feminism itself actually dates back to the Garden of Eden) impressed me with the fact that this massive revolution did not begin as a massive revolution. It started in the hearts of a handful of women with an agenda—women who were determined and intentional in their efforts.
I began to wonder what might happen in our day if even a small number of devoted women would begin to pray and believe God for a revolution of a different kind—a counter-revolution—within the evangelical world. What would happen if a “remnant” of women were willing to return to the authority of God’s Word, to embrace God’s priorities for their lives and homes, and to live out the beauty and the wonder of womanhood as God created it to be?
Unlike most revolutions, the counter-revolution I envision does not require that we march in the streets or send letters to Congress or join an organization. It does not require us to leave our homes. (In fact, for many women, it calls them back into their homes.) It requires only that we humble ourselves, that we learn, affirm, and live out the biblical pattern of womanhood, and that we teach the ways of God to the next generation.
Making it personal
Does the call to a counter-revolution in favor of biblical womanhood resonate in your own heart? If so, be an example of a godly woman to the world. And pray that others will heed the counter-revolutionary call, too.
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Adapted from Becoming God’s True Woman, edited by Nancy Leigh DeMoss © 2001 Crossway Books. Used by permission.
