Go to the article by
. It is worth it, especially no 10: “Compare the calm, cool, collected leadership of Deborah to the dumpster fire of Samson’s leadership. Compare the emotional maturity of Abigail to Nabal in 1 Samuel 25, a stunning indictment on the “Women can’t handle their emotions” argument.” Thank you for highlighting this.Over the years (and probably more so in the recent past), I have witnessed so many “meltdowns” by male church leaders! The premise that men are more steady than women is false. In times of crisis, women are often the stronger vessels. Being raised to work hard, being forced to advocate for yourself, and having to prove yourself at every turn develop character and resilience. I see it all over the world.
“Christian” men losing their temper, using violence as a way to control, making rash decisions, committing all kinds of abuse, and then burning out. Addiction to porn (what kind of self-control is that?). And let us not ignore the fact that the vast majority of sexual abusers in churches are men. Men cannot control their emotions better than women.
I am not saying this to demean men, just to say that if women had an equal voice in decisions and leadership, we might be better off than where we are now!
Read the article; it is really good!
It’s a great article! One I need to keep! Thanks so much for sharing!
Actually I find Samson's story uniquely inspiring, and I hope you would make a follow-up post about it. Why is he included in that 'hall of faith' in Hebrews 11, where Deborah isn't? Also Samson looks a bit different from 'John Wayne' don't you think?
Many of us have a 'dumpster fire' feeling about quality of our lives. I felt this most intensely after a leukemia diagnosis this year. It's mild and treatable, I guess not that bad really, but still life quality can go down a lot as a result of this. I'm losing a job for it too, as a contract ends and they don't want to renew, not sure what God might be calling me to do. Mom also cried a lot, as if I were already dead, no matter how much I tried to reassure her and say that the medicine is good and so many things.
I wonder if homosexuals also might be particularly inspired by Samson, the way they're stuck with attraction. God could use all sorts of problems to make us spiritually seek him.
Also in general, I wish I weren't attracted to anything, like Paul's gift of singleness. I don't have good feelings about a desire to be married or have children. In general the consensus of many church people is that I'm a bad person and not fun to be around, and it would be easier to be separate. Unironically, the young women at church seem to like the Samson types of men more, and only the older married women seem to have stronger feelings against all types of men.
Anyway, I would like to be more supportive for you too, but that also feels limited recently. But in general I would ask, do you have a just favor for women in leadership? I think you said before that women leaders would limit sexual abuse. Maybe fair, but I think the reason for less sexual abuse from females is more biological and not like an inherent mental or spiritual superiority. Seems more like both genders can be sinful to me.
Anyway, the argument seems weak to me. And I say it 'out of love', like, you could be more persuasive than this instead of rallying your own radical side of things for female leaders. I would think the argument based on individual merits is stronger than saying that women in general are better or less sinful people. There are a few examples of the really great women that I'd want to be allowed to do more things and a lot of women seem mediocre, and then still others seem like awful people.