When the Bible uses the word helper, there is a divine context for it. When the word is first introduced in Genesis 2:18 – “it is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him” – it is the same Hebrew word “ezer” that is used most often to refer to God throughout the Old Testament. If God, who is obviously and infinitely superior to us, refers to Himself as our helper, then we should be proud to use the same term. Whether you are single, married, divorced, or widowed, your relationships have been profoundly affected by feminism. It’s not just that a few laws were revised regarding marriage. The fallout from feminism can be seen in the HPV vaccine your preteen daughter’s school board insists she have right now to the gift registry your coworker announced because her boyfriend just moved in with her. There’s nothing wrong with vaccines or gifts but the underlying assumption is that marriage and sexual fidelity no longer matter.
Like the Bible says in Judges 21:25, when there is no king- no ultimate authority- everyone does what is right in his or her own eyes. Though our culture has discarded the idea of God and his absolute authority, that hardly gets him out of the picture. In fact, the hubris of creatures trying to oust their Creator only highlights the real problem. For the first time in its history, Western civilization is confronted with the need to define the meaning of the terms “marriage” and “family”.
“The current cultural crisis, however, is merely symptomatic of a deep-seated spiritual crisis that continues to gnaw at the foundations of our once-shared societal values. If God the Creator in fact, as the Bible teaches, instituted marriage and the family, and if there is an evil being called Satan who wages war against God’s creative purposes in this world, it should come as no surprise that the divine foundation of these institutions has come under massive attack in recent years. Ultimately, we human beings, whether we realize it or not, are involved in a cosmic spiritual conflict that pits God against Satan, with marriage and the family serving as a key arena in which spiritual and cultural better battles are fought. If, then, the cultural crisis is symptomatic of an underlying spiritual crisis, the solution likewise must be spiritual, not merely cultural.”Feminism is a contemporary manifestation of this timeless spiritual battle. In past eras, other dominant sins- such as chauvinism and polygamy- marred God’s design for marriage and family.
But today it’s important that we clearly understand that the change in our culture is evidence of a spiritual crisis more than a cultural crisis. For Christians in our present age, the definitions, practices, and contours of femininity are where the battles rage. What does it mean to be a woman and not a man? What is the significance of our ability to bear children? How should we handle our sexuality? Should we structure our careers just like men do? What’s the purpose of being a wife? There are many competing answers out there. More than forty years after “women’s liberation”, pundits claim that we now live in a post-feminist culture.
Feminism is a given. We breathe it, think it, watch it, read it. Whenever a concept so thoroughly permeates a culture, it is hard to step back and notice it at work. Feminism has profoundly altered our culture’s concept of what it means to be a woman. We need to understand how this movement came about and what its goals have been because these are now our culture’s assumptions.
We also need to acknowledge that there has been some good that has come out of if. There were some serious inequities that were changed by the feminist movement, and we should be grateful for those short-term gains. However, the long-term consequences were profound and need to be examined in light of feminism’s worldview. It is extremely important to examine the history of feminism, how it has affected our culture, and how it measures up to the teaching of Scriptures.
