Women and Traditional Christianity

In the previous discussion about the role of women in our church body (from a Traditionalist perspective), a guest to this blog, Norma asks:

"where do traditionalist Lutherans go?" Hmm. Now maybe some of you understand the frustration of women, wondering if there is any place for us?

This is a poignant topic, and I'm grateful that she raised the issue. Traditionalist Christians are often typecast as misogynistic, that women are seen as inferior - and this is inferred by the traditional, biblical Christian doctrine of the order of creation, that women are to be submissive to men. In our culture, submission is synonymous with degradation - and this is simply an error in logic.

My own dear wife is a great example. Like most North-American women, she was bombarded with the feminist ethos. After we were married, she retained her maiden name, and sought a career. She is a graduate of the prestigious Bryn Mawr College, which is a bastion of radical feminism. She also was certified as an MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) at a time when there weren't a whole lot of folks with that certification. We had a two-income family and no children.

At some point, Grace had an epiphany. The life she was living was unnatural. She didn't want to be at work. The cultural pressure for women to work outside the home is what is in fact misogynistic, hostile to the family, and contrary to the divine order. She had broken the code.

Long story short: She left the corporate rat race and is today a very happy stay-at-home mom. She is a submissive wife, covers her head in church, dresses modestly as a lady, cooks all of our meals, and runs the household away from the limelight and the accolades of our materialistic society. There are feminists out there who would cast her as a put-upon victim, or worse yet, a traitor to her sex. Some are actively seeking to manipulate the tax codes and social policies to pressure her to get a job, to make it economically difficult to be a traditional housewife and stay-at-home mother (as if the social pressures and current economic challenges were not enough). But Grace is unbelievably happy, as is our family. We are now in harmony with God's creation.

We eat together as a family every day - real home cooking. My wife makes breakfast every morning - including homemade bread. She lovingly prepares my lunches, and we eat nice dinners every day. She manages the house well, takes care of all the bills, and my son has never seen a babysitter - let alone a "child development center" (a cute euphemism for a "tot drop" to salve the guilty consciences of greedy mothers).

Yesterday after church, we had homemade black forrest cake dessert (with real whipped cream, not chemical white fluff), and sipped Gevalia coffee (arguably the world's finest) sweetened with raw turbinado sugar and whipped cream in cups and saucers. Now that's living!

Of course, there are sacrifices. We live in a little bitty house, and I drive a 1995 Saturn with 150,000+ miles on it to and from church every day. We don't go on cruises or trips to Disney or fancy resorts, and we don't eat out a lot. We don't have a swimming pool. We don't have cable, and our TV is a relic from the 1980s. In spite of these limitations, we are happy. We are no longer fighting against God's created order, but have submitted to it.

So, that's where women fit into a traditional Christian family and society. They are the caretakers of home, husband, and children - not merely another androgynous income-producing unit. Traditional Christian women are faithful laymen, who pray, attend Divine Service, teach the children, and take care of the holy things at the altar. Traditional Christian women are not deacons or pastors.

The reason women are frustrated is because they have been lied to by our abortion-mad culture of death, and our money-grubbing ethos of materialism. They have been deprived of their birthright to be the caretakers, the dominae, of hearth and home. With contraception, they have been reduced to sexual playthings by their husbands and potential husbands (not to mention financiers of their husbands' or boyfriends' plasma TVs and big trucks, all paid for by the "sweat of the frau"). With the "sexual revolution", they have been reduced to a virtual state of prostitution that parades under the banner of "liberation" (only a man could have dreamed up feminism!).

Obviously, there are situations when a woman must work. Single mothers must become the breadwinners of their families. My wife put me through seminary by running the computer network at CTS Ft. Wayne. My great grandmother worked like a slave as a domestic as a young widow with three young children. But what we have in today's culture is an anti-family, anti-woman, and anti-tradtionalist paradigm that enslaves women and forces them to downplay their femininity, as well as encourages men to treat women as equals (which is to degrade women).

Women are not our equals. They are to be treated as queens and cherished as those who make a house a home. Men ought to treat women with chivalry and deference, holding open doors, offering a helping hand, and curbing displays of vulgarity in their presence. The current culture of equality has only dragged women down to our level, and turned them into something our Lord did not make them to be.

I believe the frustration you feel, Norma, is a result of "kicking against the goads" instead of submitting to God's order.

A really helpful resource for women struggling with overcoming the years of brainwashing, the Big Lie that there is a better way to live than to submit to God's created order can be found at: Ladies Against Feminism.