Women = Good. Men = Bad.

As we settle into the first of the two familial Hallmark Holidays (Mother’s Day), let us think on what usually happens, especially for those of us that might step into a church. Often, if a husband isn’t going to church, his wife will drag him here that day. And the day will almost always be a celebration of motherhood. But what will happen when the other day comes around (Father’s Day)? It almost always will be one of those sermons that really tears into fathers and men in general for being poor husbands and poor fathers, and calls them to re-re-re-re (you get it) commit to their new Fireproof feminist view of marriage and Courageous feminist view of parenthood. Meanwhile, the women are cheering along.

In essence, the standard script is played out during these two days, and the occasions where marriage is preached on. The picture is given repeatedly that the woman can do no wrong, while the man can do no right. Let us remember that:

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23)

But it has been forgotten over time. There’s been a view for quite some time that women are more pious and godly than men and that men should become feminine to be godly, but in the time of feminism that view has come that women are without original sin, yet men are base and vile and need their impulses controlled. This view excuses sin in women by saying that absent the influence of men, they would never sin.

We need look no farther than this post to see examples of excusing women in their own sin. Rather than point out the sins of the women in the form of divorce and fornication, they blame the men instead. We can observe this attitude more further in the comments of Focus On The Family representative Glenn Stanton, in this podcast (transcribed from here):

…women left to themselves will develop into good women, more responsible women, just naturally, for various reasons and we could talk about that. But men have to be taught how to lead. They have to be encouraged how to lead. They have to be welcomed into leadership. And I don’t think we’re doing that today. We’re not taking young boys and saying, “OK, we need to make men out of you.” And I think that’s the large reason for the man problem today, is that we have to be very intentional about man-making, man-creating. And I can hear all the women saying, “Absolutely!” It doesn’t just naturally happen. It happens more naturally with women than it does with men.

So what Mr. Stanton is saying is that girls, left to themselves, will turn into good God-fearing, responsible women. But boys need to be raised intentionally so they will be good God-fearing, responsible men. This is tantamount to saying that women don’t have original sin, don’t sin period, and are best left alone. This view of Mr. Stanton’s is without doubt heretical. Hopefully someone in his orbit relating to his local body or to his position at Focus On The Family has considered this and has sanctioned him as a heretic and admonished him to repent. I don’t find any evidence of this however, and I’m not holding my breath until it happens. There’s reasons for this, which will be explored later.
Thankfully, though, this seems to not be a universal view among the representatives of Focus On The Family, yet Candace Watters only focuses her article on a limited scope of things.

Need more examples?

Yet I haven’t been able to find a single video where Mark Driscoll goes after women for their own sins in the same degree that he speaks of men. No videos, no text, where he goes after women who neglect, abuse, and dishonor men. Nothing about pride and arrogance, nothing about selfishness, nothing about gossip, nothing about breaking men’s hearts, nothing about tendency to hypergamy in women (parallel to polygamy in men, women in their flesh natures look at wealth and status in men and continually look to trade up from themselves), nothing about frivolous divorce, nothing about it taking two to do the fornication tango, nothing about women going outside the church to seek men for the Alpha Experience, nothing about failing as mothers because they choose to deprive their children of their fathers because she is unhappy, really nothing about much of anything serious that women are doing these days in their sin. In fact, I find the opposite when I go listen to all of the sermon this clip was taken from. His sermons to both men and women as it relates to marriage are below. Feel free to compare them:

Mark Driscoll’s Men and Marriage Sermon
Mark Driscoll’s Women and Marriage Sermon

It’s not hard to notice a difference of both tone and degree. Like most all preachers today, Mark Driscoll is a feminist. This assessment comes not because he chooses to bash men for their sins, it’s because he’s not even-handed with the women. Men and women BOTH have sinned and fell short of the glory of God. This tone between men and women has been consistent enough that the question has been asked in many circles if women even are capable of sin.

Why is it that men are berated almost constantly for their shortcomings in these situations, while women are given a free-pass? It can be noted from several places that women constitute the majority of attendees of the churches of Western Christianity today. While you might have men in positions of leadership, women are the manpower and real influence. Several writers, like Carl Dudley, have noted how the women have used their power, rendering any male leadership into figureheads at best:

“Men sit on boards, but the women run the church.” I received this lesson about gender roles in the church back in the 1950s, from the president of the women’s association at my first pastoral assignment. Actually, that was the nicest way she put it. I later heard her say, “Men are all talk, while women do all the work around here.”

Although women held less prestigious positions or none at all, they were not without clout. They remained essential to the strength of the congregation by raising most of the money and providing much of the “manpower” (as it was called) to keep everything running, including the Sunday school, choir, prayer groups and service societies. And they retained what one woman called a “velvet veto” over expenses and programs of which they did not approve.

Most anyone with any degree of time in evangelical environments has seen the velvet veto in action. If the leadership decides to do something, the women balk and threaten, and that something ends. It is not surprising that feminism has gained influence over Churchianity due to these women. Women always hold the velvet veto over the preaching and lessons. One sure way to add “former” to the title of any pastor is for him to preach on the responsibility of women, especially the responsibility of women to men. For example, the odds are high that a sermon on Titus 2:3-5 from a preacher in church will be the last sermon he will ever preach in that church. The truth is, the only purpose for Scriptural teaching allowed in most places today when it comes to the modern feminist evangelical woman is to affirm and encourage her in the way she has defined her life, sin and all. Unfortunately, the natural result is that many women have run roughshod in their sin without challenge. As a result, most So-called “Christian women” are nothing different than those in the world.

Men, next time you sit in church or go online to listen to a sermon, keep these things in mind. Men, you aren’t really that bad compared to the women you see around you. You have the need to repent of your sin and follow Jesus in discipleship, yes. But the women around you have this same need. Continually reminding yourself of this will be useful. If you are on the path of discipleship to Jesus alone, you are on the right path, no matter what the feminists say.