Quest for Faith: Part 4

In my struggle for faith, I've had to re-evaluate my beliefs on God and how he sees women. Being raised fundamentalist, I was taught that certain Biblical passages were proof for the fact that women were to be under the authority of men, and that women were lesser beings than men. I've been told that because I'm a woman, God had certain things that I had to do, certain 'roles' I was to fulfill. This has caused a huge struggle in faith considering that there are also so many verses in the Bible that would seem to indicate that women are equal to men and just as valuable to God. But recalling what I knew of the Old Testament, I started to think that maybe it was true, that God had created women as an inferior creation and that his design was for us to live under the authority of a man, obeying his every whim.

Gender has been one of my main struggles so far and it's something that I have spent a lot of time looking into, and something that I am continuing to study because it seems that it's more complex than it should be. In the Old Testament, in fact in the very first chapter of it, an amazing story is told about how God created human beings. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27 NIV. Over time this made me realize that God is both male and female because both men and women are created in his image. This was a huge discovery for me. It's actually extremely important that we realize that God is both male and female and that both genders are made in his image. 

As Michelle A. Gonzalez argues in her article Breaking the Habits of Machismo, that we need a complete overhaul of Christian theology, where we get rid of the notions of patriarchy and we realize and teach that men and women are both truly equal and both truly bearers of the image of God (Gonzales, 2014, p. 20). Holding women back from certain jobs within the church means that we are only getting the perspective of half of the image of God instead of all of it. In order for the church to be balanced in theology, it is important that both men and women are in leadership. For Christians to be able to worship God in spirit and in truth, it is important that both men and women are involved in every aspect of the church. 

I am not claiming that each church needs to have at least one male and one female pastor, but overall within the body of Christ we need to welcome the voices and leadership of women as much as those of men if we want a true reflection of God. With male and female both being created in God's image, it's important that we hear from both when we claim to be hearing from God. We all bear the image of God, we are all equally as important to God. For me this hasn't even scratched the surface and it's a topic that I need to dig into for further study, but for now, I'm glad that God has shown me this much.

Reference:

Gonzales, M A, 2014, 'Breaking the habits of machismo', Sojourners, January 2014, pp. 16-20.