A word, for Christians, whatever that means anymore, but in case it still has something to do with Christ:
Guess who listened to women? Guess who protected women?
Guess who believed women? Guess who trusted women?
Guess who relied on women? Guess who revered women?
Guess who loved and uplifted and respected and admired and honored and blessed and healed women?
That’s right. Just like in Sunday school, the correct answer is: Jesus.
Not just the women in his own family and community, and not just the admired and beloved and well-behaved and attractive and well-off and religious and esteemed women of high societal standing, and certainly not just white women, of whom there were likely very few, if any in his orbit. He respected, cared for, and spent time with the beggars, the prostitutes, the dirty, the poor, the hated, the “foreigners”, the witchy, the old, the sick, the slutty, and the disabled. He was not above them.
He was with them. Emmanuel.
The other men thought he was crazy. Their insecurity and fear and social conditioning had them believing that Jesus was insane and reckless, and worse, a heretic. They accused him of breaking the law of God by associating with these women. They believed they were above women. They believed they had every right to possess, dominate, and rule over women. They believed in hierarchy. A hierarchy that conveniently had them at the top.
Jesus terrified them with his message and teaching. They were so terrified, those holy men, of losing their power, their position at the top, that they viciously crucified him. They crucified the feminist.
If your version of Christianity enables you to habitually shut women up, dismiss or diminish or mock or interrupt or gaslight or overtake or sexualize or shut down or coerce or deceive or intimidate or cut off or take advantage of or pressure or take for granted or neglect or distrust or overpower or silence or manipulate or use or smear or control or casually discard women,
Then whose disciple are you?
Who is your God, really?
Jaclyn Edds Konczal | February 2022