.by Kevin Probst
We in western culture have been very engaged in bringing equal rights to all peoples. Blacks, women and many other groups have all fought for and won equal rights. We don’t believe in discriminating when it comes to hiring, or firing or paying someone an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work. The feminist movement has fought nobly to earn proper respect for women and as a result women have been able to make magnificent contributions to our society. It seems sure a female president is just around the corner.
But like all good and legitimate movements they are susceptible to being taken over by some radical fringe group. Look at the Islamic faith, look at the Democratic Party, look at the conservation movement. The women’s movement was also hijacked by radicals who have now been ridiculed by the Rush Limbaugh types as being “feminazis”.
Among the harmful things done by this fringe movement has been to blur the distinction between the roles of females and males in our society. Modern research has confirmed the genetic and behavioral differences that distinguish men and women. Young boys who are given dolls to play with tend to hit each other with them instead of cuddle them. Many may say that women can play football as good as men or that men can nurture babies as good as women but they fool only themselves. Men and women were created in the image of God with certain distinct differences that enable them to fulfill certain roles God intended.
The radical feminist movement scoffed and scorned those women who chose a family over a career. Some women decided they didn’t want a daycare worker being the primary caregiver for their children so they decided to stay home with their children. This is not financially feasible for some but for those who can afford it or who are willing to make major sacrifices to travel this road, do they really deserve the sneer they receive from those who chose a different path. If it’s truly all about a women having the right to make choices then why is keeping a baby or deciding to nurture a baby always the wrong choice.
There is much gender confusion in our society today and now I witness many forty and forty-five year old women wanting to have or adopt babies. I assume it’s because as they’ve aged they’ve developed a different idea about things or maybe they have finally connected with that inner calling to procreate and nurture children. I have yet to hear a man on his death bed say that he wished he had spent more time at work. Now that many women have entered a man’s world and have won the right and found the means to totally dedicate themselves to their profession I’m sure I will never hear a woman on her death bed say such things either.
The state of manhood and womanhood is in crisis today. Our roles have been confused and our identities clouded by unscriptural philosophies. Men have gravitated toward two basic groups. They are either considered weak and feminine, submissive to the women in their lives or they have embraced the opposite extreme of becoming brute-like and defining their masculinity by how cruel and domineering they can be to the women in their lives. Young college-age men often measure their masculinity by how many young women they have laid. True love and romance has little to do with these conquests. They are evidence of a man who loves himself and uses others in his life to satisfy the desires of his own flesh.
Women in our society have embraced the great lie. This lie is pumped into our homes through television and the modern music we listen to. It is the deception that a woman’s value is determined by how physically beautiful she is. Our middle schools are filled with young girls who have all sorts of psychological hang-ups because they are driven to be perfectly beautiful and develop perfect bodies. Women who realize the power they have to affect the fleshly desires of a man will sometimes get drunk on that power. Like the topless dancer who finally asked herself, “If I have all the power in this room over these men, why am I the only one not wearing any clothes?”
God created us male and female. He intended that we have differences. We should study the biblical roles of men and women and embrace fully what God intended us to be. God gave women a greater capacity to love so she would love God with all her heart, mind and soul. God gave women all the tools necessary to nurture and care for her friends and family. She has such a great responsibility to mold and shape little boys to be men and little girls to be godly, wholesome women. She wasn’t just created, she was ‘fashioned’ by God as his crowning creative achievement.
God created men to be honest and passionate. Men were intended to be leaders and warriors on assignment from God to protect their families and teach their little men to be men of integrity. They are to teach their daughters what to expect of a man who claims to love her. Men are to trample on fear and weakness and stand firm for honor and virtue. We are to love the gift that God has ‘fashioned’ and love her deeply and gently. We are to anticipate her needs and always be there to support her.
When two join to become one it is like the perfect storm. They have weaknesses and baggage that they bring into the relationship. They have difficulty understanding each other and they often struggle in their attempt to communicate and coexist. But God uses the difficult people in our lives as the chisel under his hammer and with them he sculptures us to be the kind of person, the masterpiece he intended.
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