I was invited to attend a town hall meeting focused on education, specifically early education, and literacy, with our local representative Chrissy Houlihan. There was a panel of highly educated and respected women who spoke of what we as a community and a nation could do and are doing to help children succeed. At the end of this excellent discussion, all the panelists agree that we need to do more to encourage girls to enter into STEM. The gathered group applauded wildly at this, and I sat there wondering how this is still a thing. How is it that there are still men – and maybe some women – who don’t think girls are able to achieve in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics? How can there be so many ignorant people guiding our children?
I started to think about all the women I have known who excelled in these subjects; the girls in high school who went on to medical school and other graduate programs to enter these careers. The many women I have known through the years (including my wife) who are exceptionally gifted in these fields. They all work hard to care for people, do research, and teach these subjects. Then I began to think of the messages girls often get from religious institutions and Scripture. I thought about how most Christian churches don’t allow women to be ordained; some don’t even allow them to step on the altar! I remember one story that a United Methodist pastor told me about the first time she served communion in her first appointment. A man grabbed her hand and dug his fingers into it and said, “I will never take the body and blood of Christ from a bleeding woman!” More bad theology; more taking God’s name in vain.
These negative messages that religion gives are bad theology; they are the product of weak men who embody toxic masculinity. These men are afraid of the gifts that women bring and do all they can to stifle them. Why else would Paul have told the Corinthian church that, “women should be silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as the law also says.
If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.“? Why else would the writer of 1 Peter spend a good part of the third chapter telling women to keep their place, saying that they were “the weaker vessel/sex”? This isn’t God speaking; this is men distorting God and taking God’s name in vain. This is what the Taliban does.
Good theology represents the God who created humanity in God’s image, without distinction concerning gender or sex. Bad theology tries to convince us that some people are more worthy or holy or capable than others. Good theology recognizes the equality of all people. Don’t be a bad theologian; be a good theologian. Represent God, not your own bias.
Prayer – Holy God, cure us of our ignorance when we judge some unworthy. We are all worthy in Your sight. Amen.
Today’s art is one of the winners in a 2015 competition in the Philippines entitled “Color the Future: Women and Men – Achieving togHEtHER!” The artists were in grades 5-8. The artist of this piece was not mentioned in the article.