Christianity & Patriarchy

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today’s edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. Last week I talked about the proposed SAVE Act, legislation being proposed in the House of Representatives that purports to safeguard our elections but, in actuality, increase significantly the burden to register to vote for women, minorities, and the poor. I talked last week about how this bill is a perfect example of the blindness of patriarchy and the burdens of not having wealth and privilege… Christianity has far too often been a pillar of patriarchy instead of the tool used to dismantle it. So, let’s break the myth of patriarchy being synonymous with Christianity, because even though that has sadly so often been the case in practice, it is far from the biblical and theological reality of what God accomplished in Jesus Christ. A good place to start is with Jesus himself. Or, backing up a little, with his mother. Because the teaching of the church is that the only reason Jesus had a human nature and was able to save humanity was because Mary said yes to God’s invitation. It was Mary who lent humanity to the divine in giving birth to Christ. And as Jesus went through his ministry, he constantly lifted up women. While there were no women among the Twelve Apostles, he did have women among his closest disciples. He constantly crossed boundaries and cultural expectations in the first century Jewish world, treating women with dignity, respect, and care. And the gospel record is clear that the twelve male apostles absolutely failed at Christ’s passion and death, running away in fear. But the women stayed with him. And after his resurrection, his first appearance was to a woman, Mary Magdalene, who he tasked with proclaiming the resurrection to the other apostles. This is why the Orthodox Church, for instance, calls her the Apostle to the Apostles. In the early church, Paul wrote in Galatians 3:28, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” That certainly seemed to be the case in the first century. In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he brings greetings to several members of the church who had contributed mightily to the congregation Of those he mentions, seven were women and only five were men. And, of those women, Pheobe is named as a deacon and, even more importantly, Junia is named as an apostle. Yes, apparently, women were even apostles in the early church. And even within the early church, Christianity did not accept the patriarchal nature of marriage, insisting in Ephesians 5 that a Christian marriage involves mutual submission to each other. As Christianity became more structured in the third to fourth century, the patriarchy of the Greco-Roman world won out and instead of challenging patriarchal norms, the church began to embrace them, with leaders arguing against women in leadership. All of this continued to the church as it exists today, where women continue to be sidelined and marginalized along with other groups. Because the church has so often forgot that in Christ God came to make a new humanity, one in which every person could lay full claim to the kingdom and could pursue God’s call in their life… no matter where it come. And if the church is going to be faithful, she must rise up as a force to dismantle the patriarchy of our religion, of our society, and of our world. Like with Mary, the salvation of this world cannot happen while women are systematically excluded and ignored. Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today.