1985 May/June issue Part 1

What Kind Of Power do Women Want?

Today's women are the .victims of the second biggest con game in history. (The first was when the serpent persuaded Eve she needed to upgrade her lifestyle and become'like God')." So writes Mary Pride, in her new book The Way Home (Beyond Feminism-Back to Sanity). Mrs.Pride's credentials are awesome-she has a B.A. in electrical engineering, an M.A. in computer systems engineering, has studied theology, and is the mother of three children, whom she is teaching at home. Her conversion to Christianity from the religion [her word] of radical feminism brought a complete change in her perspective.

Not long ago I was asked to speak to a group of 150 pastors' wives. I found that 80 percent of them are working full-time. The consensus among Christians nowadays seems to be that careers for women are not only permissible but to be encouraged. Few are prepared to stand up to the pressures of society and reject the lifestyle of their neighbors.

But why should we? We shouldn't, unless there is a radically different pattern laid down for us in scripture. As disciples of Jesus we are bound by whatever his word tells us, and, although not many women pay much attention to them anymore, the New Testament pattern for women compromises at least eleven responsibilities:

1. faithful marriage

2. the care of children

3. hospitality

4. washing the feet of God's people 

5. supporting those in distress (these five are from 1 Timothy 5:10)

6. presiding over a home (1 Timothy 5:14)

7. reverence in bearing

8. not scandal-mongers

9. not slaves to drink 

10. setting a high standard

11. schooling younger women to be loving wives and mothers, temperate, chaste, kind, to stay home, and to respect the authority of their husbands. (Titus 2:3-4)

A careful and prayerful study of this pattern will give a different shape to our lives than that which society is pressing on us. If we study it and ask the Lord how we are to line up with it, most of us will find that it's a full-time job. Women who have no children, or whose children have grown up, often think they are free to do anything that strikes their fancy-something "creative," getting a degree, a job, a facelift, learning computer programming, macrame, French cooking, going on a cruise, building a gazebo. Am I saying that those things are sinful? Not in themselves. I am saying that they may be indulgences, because they may leave no time for obedience to God's pattern of women's work. They may make it impossible for us to be available as spiritual mothers. A mother is available-to do what needs to be done. If you are one of those who work, you are thankful for the one mother on your block who is available because she has stayed home.Your children can play in her yard.

"Are you kidding?" I hear some readers say. "In the 1980s you're telling us women shouldn't

work?" I didn't write the list. Is it an impossibility? Before we say that it is, let's quietly ponder the sort of work the list includes and the sort of women who would do such work. Imagine the effect in our world if we would be obedient. Have we the freedom to ignore this pattern imply because it's (odious word!) `traditional?" Dr. Mildred Jefferson is a black physician who

came from a poor family in east Texas. She speaks out very courageously against the idea of others working and putting their children in day-care centers. When challenged with the usual question, What about economic necessity? she smiles and asks, "Let's look at this 'necessity.' Just what are these needs which are so much greater than the need of the child for his mother?"

Your Heavenly Father knows what you need. "Necessity" is highly relative, isn't it? One woman's necessity is aother's luxury. Talk over your needs with God. Face the question honestly. If money is really needed, perhaps He will show you a way to make some without leaving home. Shirley Eichenberger's book, Mother's Day Out, tells how God answered prayer along that line. (Orders can be sent to Box 25024,. Corporate Woods, Overland Park, KA 66225)

An editorial in Christian Century in October, 1982, says that the real issue for women is power.

The author quotes Henry Adams' Democracy, the story (written in 1880!) of a beautiful, brilliant woman who moved to Washington D.C. "Here, then, was the explanation of her restlessness, discontent, ambition-call it what you will. It was the feeling of a passenger on an ocean steamer whose mind will not rest until he has been in the engine room and talked with the engineer. She wanted ... to touch with her own hand the massive machinery of society...... What she wanted was POWER." Jeremiah the prophet wrote, "Do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not" (Jeremiah 45:5). Jesus said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must make himself last of all and servant of all" (Mark 9:35). Are there some women with ears to hear this message? May God help us each one to answer his call.

Lord, do Thou turn me all into love,

and all my love into obedience,

and let my obedience be

without interruption.

(Quoted by Amy Carmichael)