[Vision2020] Women in Authority and Leadership!

[heirdoug at netscape.net]

Paul,



I didn't think that your comment was too snarky. You have every right 
to call my Christian walk into question. I would just ask you to do so 
with what the Bible says being a Christian is all about and not what 
others say a Christian is.

I am not slamming the capabilities of women in the military. I am just 
questioning the moral, Biblical and societal reason for having women in 
harms way so that the enemy can take advantage of situation. Pastor 
Wilson made some comments about this topic just this last month. I will 
copy it in its intirity so you don't have to go looking for it.

lemeno what you think. Doug!





Let Us Feed Cheesecake to our Horses

Topic: Old Table Talk Articles

The famous story tells of the minister who wrote in the margin of his 
notes, "Argument weak. Shout here." Whenever anyone is unalterably 
attached to a position, and that position is wrong, there is always a 
strong temptation to shout. Moreover, the sillier a position gets, the 
more shouting is required to keep people from asking those pesky 
questions.

Egalitarianism is an unbelieving mother with many foolish sons and 
daughters, with one of the loudest and most foolish being feminism. In 
many cases, the impact of this folly is tolerable, involving (or so we 
think) just a few pronoun questions, and the use of Ms. in addressing 
letters -- which actually seems like a good idea when the marital state 
of the recipient is unknown. But by the time we get out to those 
applications which are fundamentally outrageous, we find that we have 
completely lost our ability even to recognize what is occurring. In our 
public discussions of all such matters, the center of gravity has 
dramatically shifted. This can be seen most clearly in those areas 
where feminism is most evidently and unarguably wrongheaded, but even 
and especially in such clear areas, saying something about it can still 
be extraordinarily difficult. Probably the most outstanding example of 
such issues is the vexed question of women in combat.

The thing is actually debated seriously, and we can even find 
well-meaning Christians scratching their heads over it. But of course, 
this is not "a debatable matter." Women going to war alongside the men 
is flatly excluded in a biblical worldview, and a nation defended by 
her women is not worthy of defense. Sadly, this issue also demonstrates 
plainly the disconnect in the minds of many Christians between their 
"religious beliefs" and what they will go along with "culturally."

When the Bible discusses the matter of going to war, it assumes 
throughout that those involved will be the men. For example, when the 
census for war was taken, those counted were males twenty-years-old and 
up (Num. 1:20). When Nehemiah exhorts the men of Jerusalem to good 
courage, he says just what we might expect, urging them to fight for 
their sons, daughters and wives (Neh. 4:14). Fighting for their 
husbands is not mentioned.

The Bible also tells us in numerous places that women are not gifted at 
the kind of violence that occurs in war. A common prophetic judgment is 
that the warriors will begin to fight like women (Is. 19:16; Jer. 
50:36-37; 51:29-30; Nah. 3:13). Now surely if it is a bad thing to have 
your men fight like women, we should also be able to say, mutatis 
mutandis, that it is a bad thing to have your women fight like women. 
The fact that we have all been peecee-sensitized (and are frankly all a 
little jumpy about me writing like this) can be seen in the fact that I 
must now hasten to add that these biblical comparisons are not an 
insult to women. Of course they are not. How is it an insult to a 
hammer to say it cannot tighten bolts the way a crescent wrench can? Or 
versa vice grips?

In Deuteronomy, we find a much overlooked prohibition of women in 
combat. But unlike most neglected portions of Scripture, this one never 
needed to be applied because it was so widely practiced in the light of 
nature -- until quite recently. Now we apparently need to have the 
content of the verse spelled out. Most think of it as simply 
prohibiting transvestitism. "A woman shall not wear anything that 
pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment, for all 
who do so are an abomination to the Lord your God" (Dt. 22:5). 
Transvestite men certainly are condemned here, and are prohibited from 
dressing like a woman. But the language with regard to the women is 
quite different. The operative phrase in this passage is keli gabar, 
the gear of a warrior. A woman is not to wear the gear of a fighter. 
The prohibition is not of slacks, but rather of helmets and heavy 
rifles.

The really disturbing thing about this passage is that the practice is 
not rejected as out of keeping with culturally-established standards of 
decorum. It is rejected as an abomination -- a strong word for most 
public policy discussions.

A friend of mine used to jog through the grounds of one of our service 
academies, and used to run by groups of the entering class -- running 
whatever grueling distance was required of them. At the front were the 
men, with upper-classmen running alongside them, informing them in a 
loud voice that they were nothing but maggots, that sort of thing. It 
is not surprising that they did such a bad job running; maggots don’t 
have legs. In another group, far, far behind, were the women. They too 
had their upperclassmen accompanying them -- but the message here was 
entirely different, and most affirming: "You can do it! Come on, come 
on!" What is wrong with this picture? The egalitarian theory we have 
adopted is falsifiable in principle, but we are not about to let it be 
falsified.

Obviously, our cultural discourse has been greatly debased. We, in the 
grip of a very bad idea, have thought to repeal some fundamental laws 
of the natural order of things. Good luck to us all, says I. Let us 
repeal the law of gravity to cut down on that frictional wear and tear. 
Let us herd cats. Let us sweep water uphill. Let us feed cheesecake to 
our horses.


















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