Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - REPLAY： Why Feminism Will Fail You

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Monday. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.

00:00:06.060 So today we are going to talk about women, what it is to be a woman and why we as Christians

00:00:11.900 should reject the world's message about womanhood and feminism and embrace God's view of women

00:00:18.840 instead. And the reason this came to mind is because there was a video that was posted

00:00:23.700 on Vanessa Hudgens Instagram, at least that's the post that I saw. I don't know if it was

00:00:29.200 also posted elsewhere. That was a montage of very provocative images of women and girls that 0.96

00:00:36.120 were meant to illustrate what the narrator Cynthia Nixon was saying. Cynthia Nixon starred in Sex in 1.00

00:00:42.620 the City and also ran for governor and lost the primary against Cuomo. She is obviously a radical

00:00:49.540 feminist and this video further demonstrates that. I want to play some of it. Now, if you are watching 1.00

00:00:56.360 on YouTube, you might want to skip over this part. Close your eyes because like I said,

00:01:01.140 it is provocative, but I do think it's important to set this up and give some kind of context. So

00:01:06.400 you don't think that I'm just making this up. I would not watch it with your kids. It is kind of

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00:03:34.300 little bit of this video that we are going to cover today. Be a lady, they said. Your skirt is too short. 1.00

00:03:41.220 Your shirt is too low. Don't show so much skin. Cover up. Leave something to the imagination. Don't be a

00:03:47.600 temptress. Men can't control themselves. Men have needs. Look sexy. Look hot. Don't be so provocative.

00:03:54.100 You're asking for it. Now, some of you might be saying, why would you play this at all? Well, because like I

00:04:01.420 said, I want to make sure that you have a little bit of context for what is teeing this up. The

00:04:07.460 video keeps going like that. We only played you a little bit of it. I think it's like over five

00:04:11.460 minutes long. Keeps going like that. It repeats things that women apparently hear, uh, hear very 0.96

00:04:17.000 often to, I suppose, drive home the point that women are constantly held to unfair standards. That 1.00

00:04:23.860 society, namely men, the patriarchy, toxic masculinity pressures women into looking and acting inauthentically

00:04:33.120 unnaturally in order to conform to arbitrary and narrow definitions of beauty and value. I am assuming

00:04:39.660 that is the point of this video. Uh, that seems to be the message of not just this video listing all of

00:04:47.460 these oppressive things that women hear, but also the message of today's feminism in general. Um, 1.00

00:04:54.460 are you ready though? Are you ready for my first reaction to all of this, uh, to this video? My first

00:05:01.820 reaction or my first thing that I want to say about this is that it is true dot, dot, dot to an extent. So

00:05:10.360 let me start with the truth that is in this video that I think has caused women, even Christian

00:05:17.460 women that I've seen to watch this video, to share it and to say, yes, this is so true. And to relate

00:05:23.720 to it and to feel like they are somehow empowered by it. Uh, it's because there is a little bit of

00:05:29.480 truth to it and here's what is actually true. So if you're listening to this and you feel offended by

00:05:35.280 the things that I am saying, just hang on tight. We're going to get to, we're going to get to the

00:05:41.060 rest of it. We're going to flip this over and say what's not actually true about it. But, uh, as a

00:05:46.660 woman, I am telling you from my experience, what is true in this video, uh, women are held to 0.79

00:05:54.860 opposing standards in society. The qualifications for what is beautiful, uh, changes change every

00:06:02.040 few years. So when I was in middle school, those of you who are my age, I was born in 92. So if you

00:06:07.100 were born around there, you probably had the same kind of middle school experience. Although I think

00:06:11.380 the middle school experience of just general awkwardness is probably universal, but this particular

00:06:15.800 middle school experience was that everyone wanted to look like Paris Hilton or like Ashley Simpson 0.71

00:06:22.380 or Avril Lavigne. So that means no hips, no butt low rise jeans with the skin like between your belly

00:06:29.440 button and your hips showing. So not actually your belly button, but the skin between your belly button 0.99

00:06:34.060 and your hips for whatever reason, that was a good look. And I wanted to be able to pull that off 0.97

00:06:39.260 so bad when I was like in sixth and seventh grade. Not only would of course my parents not let me wear

00:06:45.100 a shirt that showed my, my stomach, thank goodness, but also I could just never pull it off. I didn't

00:06:50.920 have that body type. Other people did had that just kind of like straight and narrow look. And I remember

00:06:55.740 in middle school wanting that, wanting to be able to look like that and wanting to be able to,

00:07:00.540 to pull off that look. And I just never could and mark my words though, still to this day,

00:07:06.940 if low rise jeans come back, I am going to revolt. I'm going to start some kind of revolution that

00:07:12.860 pushes back against the demonic forces of low rise jeans, because I still can't pull them off. And I

00:07:18.100 refuse to even try. So back then people wanted frosty highlights. They wanted like the tiny thin eyebrows

00:07:23.960 in fifth grade. I actually shaved part of my eyebrow the day before school pictures, y'all like this,

00:07:30.300 just shows you how little young people, probably especially young girls. I won't say especially

00:07:35.760 young girls because young boys can do stupid things too, but how just silly, silly kids can be in our 1.00

00:07:43.120 decision-making. But I never had those like tiny thin eyebrows and I had no idea what I was doing. 1.00

00:07:47.520 I thought it'd be so cool to be able to like wax my eyebrows or pluck my eyebrows. But instead of

00:07:51.580 getting tweezers, I got a razor and I shaved like half of my eyebrow off. I'll have to find the school

00:07:59.540 picture so you guys can actually see it. Maybe I'll post it on Instagram after this podcast episode

00:08:05.360 goes up. But that's what women have been doing probably for all of history, trying and very often 1.00

00:08:11.780 failing to reach these arbitrary standards of beauty that changed so much. As we got into the 21st

00:08:18.480 century or farther into the 21st century, like just a few years ago, it became obvious that that

00:08:24.200 standard of beauty of having these like thin, narrow hips and no butt that was out the window. 1.00

00:08:30.240 Then it became like the Kardashian curvaceous thing that became really popular on Instagram

00:08:37.740 and on social media. And that's still the case. Really? We can like exclusively think the Kardashians

00:08:43.340 for the kind of body type that is now coveted. And a lot of the female rappers that are out there, 1.00

00:08:48.440 that is what is seen as beautiful and hot and cool and enviable. Now these kinds of changes,

00:08:55.520 the standards of beauty have changed throughout history for women in the dating department. So

00:09:01.460 this is another standard that women have have to reach. It's a weird game that women feel like they 1.00

00:09:07.060 have to play. Don't be too aggressive or forward. If you want a guy to like you speak your mind,

00:09:11.760 but learn how to speak your mind, learn how to say no though. So you don't want to be too aggressive,

00:09:17.220 but you have to be a little bit assertive. So you have to strike the balance between desperation

00:09:21.320 and dependence. Don't be clingy, but a guy also needs to know that he's needed. There are other

00:09:26.180 standards women feel like they have to chase like the standard of success. There was a time when 1.00

00:09:31.300 fulfillment was equated with motherhood, with having a lot of kids, with keeping your house in order.

00:09:36.460 And then, and I'm talking about just like kind of secular society or society at large here,

00:09:40.500 then being a stay-at-home mom, then being a stay-at-home mom started to be viewed as the easy

00:09:47.100 option in comparison to having a corporate career. Being a stay-at-home mom was seen as repressive 0.65

00:09:52.280 and boring. There is still a stigma, I would say, surrounding being quote, just a stay-at-home mom.

00:09:58.780 I heard a young woman on the news the other day say that 50 years ago, she would have been forced

00:10:04.120 to just stay at home with her kids all day. Yikes. Like that's still a mentality that a lot of people have 0.88

00:10:09.880 on both sides of the aisle. But today you're really expected to do it all. So this is how

00:10:14.880 the standard has shifted. Again, you're expected to be a stay-at-home mom and have a lucrative side 0.89

00:10:20.080 hustle or keep your full-time job, put your kids in daycare, but still be perfectly as organized and

00:10:25.180 present and as engaged and as rested as if you were spending eight hours at home with your kids.

00:10:30.740 In the media, as a woman, if you debate with someone, if you debate with another woman, it's a cat fight. 0.93

00:10:36.220 If you show passion about something, it's a meltdown. It's hysterical. It's emotional.

00:10:39.880 If you make an impact, you're just seeking attention. If you critique another woman's

00:10:43.900 views, you're just jealous. If you offer your perspective, you're opinionated. If you're

00:10:48.060 unintimidated by opposition, you're brash. And the likelihood of hearing all of these things doubles

00:10:53.720 if you are a young woman in the media. So women, especially young women, they learn to play this

00:10:59.960 game, not just in the media, but just in the professional world in general, of not being too

00:11:04.720 threatening, of dialing it back, of playing the cue card when you can, of feigning ignorance,

00:11:09.640 when necessary, of pretending to not have an opinion on something that you're actually very

00:11:14.100 sure about, of being nice when women really should be honest, of not saying that we should, 0.94

00:11:20.960 I'm not saying that we should do these things, but women do do these things. We learn this stuff 1.00

00:11:27.180 as a means of survival, of getting along. And there's a very thin line in the professional

00:11:32.260 world that I've noticed that as a woman who has dealt myself, I've dealt with a range of people and

00:11:38.360 who's watched other women deal with a range of people in business. If you are passive

00:11:43.320 as a woman, you are taken advantage of, you are walked over. But if you are assertive, 0.99

00:11:47.920 then you're called a you-know-what. So most women, at least in the business world, typically decide to 1.00

00:11:53.140 be a you-know-what. They say, I'm just going to risk being called that because what else am I going

00:11:59.040 to do? I'm not saying this is me, but this is a lot of women I have noticed kind of take on 1.00

00:12:04.360 this mentality because they feel like it's what they have to do in order to move ahead.

00:12:08.940 Women, by nature of being physically weaker than men, are almost always on guard in public, 0.90

00:12:14.720 at least a little bit. This is actually an innate biological response to potential danger because

00:12:20.020 the next best tool a woman has in public to a weapon is situational awareness. I am always 1.00

00:12:26.380 scouting for danger when I'm in a parking garage, on a walk, anywhere in public, periodically watching

00:12:32.840 my back in all of these situations, keeping an eye on the guy across the room that looks sketchy,

00:12:37.860 locking my car doors as soon as I get in the car. And that's not paranoia. It's just second nature

00:12:42.600 to a lot of women. It's just something that uniquely women have to deal with. The vast majority of 1.00

00:12:47.760 predators are men and women make up a large number of prey. So we are just being statistically savvy

00:12:53.320 when we watch out for ourselves, when we're by ourselves. The fact is women are much more 1.00

00:12:58.980 susceptible to rape, to assault and to harassment than men are. Men have lots of other obstacles

00:13:04.720 that they have to face. And if this were a podcast for men, I'd be going into all of those.

00:13:10.280 But this comes with the territory of as women, physical weakness, a vulnerability of desirability. 1.00

00:13:16.580 So women have obstacles. And this right here, this right here, listing all of the obstacles, 0.99

00:13:23.900 listing all of the struggles, listing all of the disadvantages that women face is where feminism 1.00

00:13:29.400 stops. This is where this specific video stops giving a list of all of the ways that women are 1.00

00:13:35.940 oppressed. And that's it. There was no conclusion to that video, no solution, just anger, just cries

00:13:42.600 of injustice and inequality meant to get women to say, yeah, I feel that way. I'm really mad about that 0.85

00:13:49.200 too, to justify our resentment and our rage. That is the sole secular answer to unfair societal

00:13:57.360 standards for women, unfair realities for women, or what is deemed as unfair. To be mad. Be mad at who? 0.91

00:14:04.940 Be mad at men. They're the ones in power. So they must be the ones that are making the rules,

00:14:09.880 rules that you can't ever perfectly follow, rules that you were never meant to follow, feminism says.

00:14:15.060 So it tells us to break free of the rules, to smash the patriarchy, to reject toxic masculinity,

00:14:20.700 to take charge, to own your power, to get angry, to stay bitter. How incredibly, how incredibly

00:14:28.400 depressing, like if that is our solution, if that is our conclusion, that's the world's answer to

00:14:33.860 unfairness. It's to just be mad about it, to stay mad about it, to resent men, to be filled with and

00:14:39.900 fueled by rage, to talk about all the problems you face and just be angry that they exist. Heck,

00:14:46.360 you should make up a problem if you can't find one, like the gender wage gap. Keep protesting that, 0.79

00:14:52.380 even though you know that when all factors are considered, so education, experience, hours,

00:14:56.880 work to job title, there is no wage gap. But stay mad about that. And as far as solutions for our

00:15:03.080 problems go, feminists have got some incredible suggestions, incredible suggestions. So I guess 1.00

00:15:09.680 they do present some kind of solution, but here they are. Be like men. Pretend that you don't have 1.00

00:15:15.940 an innate drive to be a mother. Abort your babies if they get in the way of your plants. Suppress that 0.99

00:15:21.260 natural inclination you have to take care of children and instead get a dog in an 80-hour-a-week

00:15:26.780 career. Don't rely on a man. Rely on yourself. Take care of yourself. Love yourself.

00:15:32.680 Worship yourself. That's what feminism tells us. These are apparently some of the solutions that 1.00

00:15:38.120 we have to our misery and our resentment against men. But as we know, self-worship, self-centeredness

00:15:44.300 leads only to misery, to loneliness, to purposelessness, to sadness, to emptiness. This

00:15:51.000 video exemplifies that. All of the things that feminism suggests that we do to be like men, to 1.00

00:15:56.880 abort our children, to focus on exclusively on our career and not worry about a family and serving

00:16:03.240 other people. This video exemplifies that trying all of those things, which feminists have tried for 1.00

00:16:09.420 decades, aren't working because these feminists are still miserable. They're still sad. They're still 1.00

00:16:14.540 purposeless and they're still empty. Like, do you think, just be honest, do you think that Cynthia

00:16:20.340 Nixon is a happy person? Like, what about Chelsea Handler? How about Alyssa Milano, Miley Cyrus,

00:16:27.400 Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Elizabeth Warren? Like, do these frontline feminists seem like well-adjusted, 1.00

00:16:33.800 fulfilled, happy people to you? I don't know. Maybe they are. But I don't know very many happy,

00:16:41.380 fulfilled, radical feminists. Do you? Feminism is about pointing out problems. Some are real. 1.00

00:16:47.660 Some are perceived. And offering stupid solutions to them. That is what feminism is. And the result 1.00

00:16:54.120 is that girls and women are angry. They're resentful. They're self-absorbed. They're

00:16:59.400 egotistical. They're prideful. While at the exact same time, struggling with self-loathing

00:17:04.340 and insecurity. Does that sound like a good deal to you? Why? Why? How is it possible for them to feel

00:17:11.960 this way? What seems like a paradox? How is it possible for young feminists to be simultaneously 1.00

00:17:17.120 egotistical and self-hating? Because while feminism is going around telling women to love themselves, 1.00

00:17:24.860 to put themselves first, these same women are the ones making the rules that make us hate ourselves. 1.00

00:17:31.260 These standards that I listed, that were listed in this video, most of them, not all,

00:17:36.240 but most of them were imposed by other women, not men. We followed, for example, Paris Hilton,

00:17:44.120 Britney Spears, and Kim Kardashian for beauty tips, not a man. We have decided what is hot and what is

00:17:51.140 not. And we have decided that women have to journey towards these goals. And men don't care so long as

00:17:57.240 we continue to take our clothes off and post pictures of ourselves half naked. I mean, are we idiots? 1.00

00:18:02.580 Like, are we that dumb that we don't understand that, that women are responsible for so much of 1.00

00:18:09.720 the misery that other women endure? The ever-changing standards of beauty, the jealousy, the gossip, 1.00

00:18:17.140 the comparison, the passive aggressiveness, the overall toxicity, the inability to be able to cheer

00:18:23.080 another woman on. We have created and cultivated this stuff. This isn't the patriarchy. This is the

00:18:29.160 matriarchy. That's part of the problem. Now, do men prey upon women? Absolutely. They deserve just 1.00

00:18:36.800 punishment. And we can talk about that. We can talk about Harvey Weinstein and all of these other

00:18:41.900 terrible predators that we know and all of those that we know deserve justice and their victims deserve

00:18:48.900 to see justice carried out. So, of course, there are and there always have been and there always will

00:18:54.540 be men who do hold women back, who abuse women, who take advantage of women. But we cannot blame men

00:19:01.400 for every unfair standard that is set for us, every injustice that we endure, every gap in achievement

00:19:08.400 that we see, every bit of oppression or repression that we experience. So much of the grief that we

00:19:15.400 girls go through is because of our own toxic mindsets, our own ego, our own superficiality, 1.00

00:19:22.700 our own insecurity, our own envy and lust and greed. There is this weird, this bizarre mentality that

00:19:30.520 exists both in secular feminism and within what is considered Christian feminism, that women have been 0.98

00:19:37.280 so perpetually victimized that we should not be held liable for our sin. In the secular world, this is

00:19:46.280 seen in believe all women. So that whole mantra that became very popular during the whole Kavanaugh saga

00:19:52.400 believe all women. So not just listen to women, not just hear their stories, those things I'm

00:19:57.460 definitely on board with, not just, hey, give credibility where credibility is due. I'm on board

00:20:03.220 with that, but believe all women. I'm not okay with that because women are just as capable of lying and 1.00

00:20:10.760 deceiving as men are. In Christianity, think about some of the women's conferences that you have been to.

00:20:17.460 If you have ever been to a women's conference that is more sensation than substance, more emotion than 0.99

00:20:23.960 actual worship, then you know what I'm talking about. The premise of many messages at these types

00:20:30.680 of Christian women's conferences is that your real problem as a woman, the thing that's really holding

00:20:36.680 you back from living an abundant life isn't your sin, but your insecurity. We so rarely as Christian

00:20:44.500 women hear that our biggest problem is the same as men's biggest problem, that we are dead in our sin 1.00

00:20:50.720 apart from Christ, that we are wretched, that we are depraved, that we are fundamentally corrupt,

00:20:56.460 that we need Jesus to save us from our sin, not just tell us that we're pretty. It would seem if you read

00:21:03.920 many women's Bible studies, not all, but many women's Bible studies and Christian books, Christian women's

00:21:09.880 books and attend these many of these Christian women's conferences, that the most important

00:21:15.060 thing for women to know, you would think the most important thing for women to know is that we're 1.00

00:21:20.660 amazing, that we're enough, that we're worthy, that we're deserving. That is not why Jesus came to die.

00:21:28.700 Jesus did not come to save you, woman, because you are amazing and enough and worthy and deserving.

00:21:36.200 He saved you. He saved me because we're not. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,

00:21:43.460 Romans 5, 8 says. Ephesians 2, you hear me talk about this passage a lot because I think it is such

00:21:48.920 a clear explanation of what the gospel is. For you were dead in the sins and trespasses in which you

00:21:55.820 once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the

00:21:59.160 spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once walked,

00:22:03.760 glorifying, gratifying the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature children of wrath.

00:22:10.220 But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, made us alive together

00:22:15.220 with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. This line, by grace you have been saved, which most of us

00:22:22.120 Christians know, means nothing if we don't also know the gravity, the importance of the first four 0.99

00:22:29.860 words of Ephesians 2. For you were dead. You were dead. You and I were dead in our sin, apart from

00:22:36.720 Christ. That is your problem. That is my problem. Society isn't our problem as women. The patriarchy 0.97

00:22:43.620 isn't our problem. Our negative body image is not our main battle. Our insecurities, our self-loathing,

00:22:50.580 our self-deprecation, our emotionally abusive ex-boyfriend, all of those may have a negative

00:22:56.320 effect on us, but they are not our biggest issue. Your and my biggest issue is that we are dead sinners

00:23:04.920 without Christ and we don't get a pass for being women. We will sit before the judgment seat of Christ 0.99

00:23:12.040 one day and without the blood of the lamb, we will not be justified. That is our biggest problem.

00:23:17.040 It is time that we women start realizing, start facing our capacity for sin, that it is just as

00:23:25.740 great as men's capacity. And our guiltiness of sin is just as great as man's guiltiness.

00:23:31.880 And this emotionalism, this coddling that we're getting from some leading Christian women that 1.00

00:23:37.000 would have us believe that our biggest problem is that we don't love ourselves enough is damaging.

00:23:42.000 I mean, are you kidding? We have this mindset that women, again, are so perpetually victimized that 0.99

00:23:49.640 we can't possibly be guilty, but it's actually both. Women are victimized in many cases, but we are still

00:23:57.400 ultimately guilty for our sin. A great example of this is with abortion. In Christian conservatism, 0.76

00:24:04.820 a lot of people seem to have the idea that women get abortions because they hate themselves.

00:24:08.840 That's not true. Women get abortions because women, just like men, are sinners because we can be

00:24:15.320 selfish. Now, are many women deceived? Absolutely. I would say in some way, all women who get abortions 0.97

00:24:21.260 are deceived, some more so and more overtly than others. Are they made to feel or some women made to

00:24:27.400 feel like it's their only choice? Yes. And should we treat them with compassion? Absolutely. But let's not

00:24:33.440 pretend that women don't also have the capacity for evil and that they don't abort their babies 1.00

00:24:39.320 sometimes, very often, if not most times, for sheer convenience. You may have seen some of the viral

00:24:45.680 videos that have been going around on TikTok that are shared on Twitter and Instagram. I don't actually

00:24:50.380 recommend watching them. You can just take my word for it. There are videos by young girls going to get

00:24:56.880 abortions and they're laughing about it. They're excited about it. They're rejoicing over it.

00:25:00.620 They're even showing that like their pregnant bellies in the mirror. And then they are showing 1.00

00:25:06.520 a picture of the moving baby on a sonogram. And they are laughing and excited about being about to

00:25:14.540 be killing their child. It is callous. It's chilling. And it shows you the consequence of godlessness. 0.99

00:25:22.540 These girls are not laughing about killing their babies because they struggle with insecurity, 1.00

00:25:27.840 guys. They are sinners in need of a savior, just like we have all been. They are children of wrath,

00:25:36.100 just like as Ephesians 2 says, we all once were. As women, our sin and our need of our salvation

00:25:43.600 is our number one problem, a problem that Jesus alone can solve. And any effort to alleviate women of 1.00

00:25:51.600 the weight of that reality because you think women have been through too much already is unloving.

00:25:59.060 Women need the gospel, the hard truth, the sinners in the hands of an angry God reality that apart 1.00

00:26:06.540 from Jesus, we are dead people walking. Contrary to popular opinion in 2020, the gospel is not that

00:26:14.420 you're beautiful. The gospel is not even just that God loves you. Yes, we were made in God's image.

00:26:20.040 So we are fearfully and wonderfully made. And that is something to rejoice over. And yes,

00:26:24.240 God is love. And what a wonderful thing to worship him for. But the gospel is that you and I are

00:26:30.300 wicked, that we have hard hearts and that we need Jesus to make us new. We need his forgiveness,

00:26:36.060 his grace, his sacrifice. He died and rose again on our behalf to save us from our sin, to glorify

00:26:43.300 himself, to save us from our sin. The great news is, is that he gives us the things that we are truly

00:26:49.820 longing for. The forgiveness and grace and true deep satisfaction that we want and need. Now, let me

00:26:59.420 address the other side of this in the Christian church. So there has also been a reaction to

00:27:07.660 Christian feminism among some people in, I would say, conservative evangelical Christianity. I'm

00:27:13.140 obviously conservative evangelical, but there seems to be, it's a small minority, but I've just kind of

00:27:19.680 noticed this attitude, especially on social media. There seems to be an attitude amongst some people

00:27:25.380 in conservative evangelical Christianity in reaction towards what is called Christian feminism,

00:27:30.640 that to me is too harsh. That kind of seems to take joy in putting women down and belittling women

00:27:38.520 and putting women in their place and regarding women as foolish, silly harlots who need to be pushed 1.00

00:27:44.140 back a little bit. These kinds of people, of course, these kinds of self-righteous people have 1.00

00:27:49.280 always existed, but I think now they feel like they have a worthy cause against what they perceive to be

00:27:54.380 and sometimes rightly the dangers of Christian feminism. This group seems to be hypersensitive to

00:28:01.680 anything that might look like Christian feminism, even if it's not. So like even defense of victims of 1.00

00:28:06.480 abuse, these people to me are too harsh. They're mean, they're patronizing. They see women being

00:28:12.820 coddled and so they swing in the opposite direction and accuse women, at least implicitly, of being the

00:28:18.140 root of all evil. They see men as victims, victims to women's wily ways, to society's efforts to 0.98

00:28:24.900 emasculate, to the aggressive feminist who has turned the American male into a eunuch. And so they use 1.00

00:28:30.880 theology to club women over the head and they call it speaking the truth in love when that's not what it is.

00:28:35.800 They have a superiority complex that I don't think is glorifying to God. This is wrong. Just as it is

00:28:42.280 not true that woman is any less on the hook for her sin than a man is, we are also not more culpable.

00:28:49.140 In the same way that the patriarchy isn't Christian women's biggest problem, feminism is not the 0.99

00:28:55.760 Christian man's biggest problem. And when both sexes act like victims, rather than taking up their 1.00

00:29:01.600 crosses and following Jesus, seeds of discord and bitterness and all kinds of ugliness are sown.

00:29:08.960 What we see in the Bible is that Jesus is indeed gentle towards women. He is gentle towards many

00:29:15.360 sinners, but he does seem to be especially gentle towards women, not in a way that in any way belittles

00:29:22.840 their sin or minimizes their sinfulness, but in a way that highlights, I think, female vulnerability, 0.99

00:29:29.120 which is different than male vulnerability. That's just how God made us in that complementarian way.

00:29:34.060 And so we see Jesus and his interaction with women reflecting that uniqueness of women. John 4 with

00:29:40.900 the Samaritan woman at the well telling her of her sin, but also revealing himself as the Messiah,

00:29:46.040 the living water that she can take part in so that she will never thirst. Healing the woman who had been

00:29:51.380 bleeding for 12 years in Mark 5. Jesus makes a point to pay attention to her. He didn't have to do that.

00:29:56.320 He paid attention to her. He looked her in the eye. Someone who had been seen as unclean for over a

00:30:01.240 decade. The woman who was caught in adultery in John 8 that the Pharisees wanted to stone. He said,

00:30:07.320 only those of you who are without sin can cast a stone. And they all dropped their stones and laughed.

00:30:12.120 And Jesus looked at this woman in the midst of her sin and the midst of her shame. And he said,

00:30:16.700 I don't condemn you and told her to leave her life of sin. In Luke 7, a woman described as a woman of the

00:30:23.360 city, a sinner, washed Jesus' feet with her tears and anointed him with oil. The Pharisees had a fit

00:30:29.800 over this because she was a sinner. But Jesus is grateful for her love and tells her that her sins

00:30:34.780 are forgiven. Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene after his resurrection, comforting and

00:30:40.060 surprising her in her sadness. Jesus is our model. Jesus was gentle towards women. He was gentle towards

00:30:45.700 the wayward, like I said, and the lost in general. But he did not treat women with the particular

00:30:51.220 disdain that many of the people at that time were used to. And we see throughout the Bible that God

00:30:57.060 uses women in special ways, even prostitutes like Rahab, to accomplish his purposes. But at the same 0.90

00:31:02.760 time, God doesn't let women off the hook for their sin. Jesus, in his interaction with women, speaks very 0.93

00:31:08.840 openly and very boldly about women's sin. And so we see this dichotomy of gentleness and truth of love 0.99

00:31:16.800 and boldness in Jesus that I think all of us, no matter our gender, need to reflect. This is why,

00:31:24.420 just as a reminder, I know we all know this on this podcast, but this is why the Bible is sufficient,

00:31:30.320 the only sufficient guide that we have to show us how we should view women and how we should treat 0.99

00:31:36.180 women. Women are sinners, no less sinners than any man. And we need the undeterred gospel just as

00:31:43.360 desperately as any man does. That is our problem. Not society, not the patriarchy, not men. While

00:31:51.120 abuse is real, discrimination and sexism are real. They are all symptoms of sin. So the remedy for the

00:31:59.660 sins of others in our own sin is not feminism, but Jesus. We do not need feminism, which is a secular

00:32:07.600 movement to try to achieve equality with men through sameness and includes terrible things like

00:32:12.940 abortion. We don't need sugar-coated emotional female conferences telling us that we're pretty. 1.00

00:32:18.560 We need Jesus, his gentleness and his truth, his love and his gospel, which are all intertwined. They're

00:32:25.720 not separate. Jesus in all his gentleness and compassion and truth and eagerness to save and his

00:32:32.680 ability to sanctify. That's what we need. Feminism doesn't solve our problems. It simply creates 1.00

00:32:40.440 bitterness, resentment. It puffs up our pride. It seeks to drive out our natural inclination towards

00:32:46.480 being nurturers and caretakers and to replace them with some kind of girl boss mentality that is 1.00

00:32:52.480 ultimately unfulfilling. Now, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't be a hard worker. Of course,

00:32:57.400 the Bible tells us to work hard. That doesn't mean that you can't have certain particular goals. I

00:33:03.000 obviously don't think that. It does mean that you are not to become, we are not to become a callous

00:33:09.720 product of this world in search of a success that will not satisfy. We are to be soft-hearted,

00:33:16.240 compassionate women who love Jesus and the people that he has placed in our lives. The world is always

00:33:23.420 going to have ever-changing standards, so forget that. Like, we should find no solace and no empowerment

00:33:28.960 from a video like the one that Cynthia Nixon is speaking in. We have one standard as Christians,

00:33:35.840 and that is the Word of God. So if we are in Christ, the Holy Spirit, our helper, will give us

00:33:42.060 the power to abide by the Word of God better and better as our lives go on and we seek him. We will

00:33:48.940 never reach the standard of perfection that God demands of all who enter his kingdom, which is why

00:33:54.800 it is such good news that Jesus reached that standard on our behalf once and for all and by

00:34:01.100 grace through faith not of our own doing. In Christ, God accepts us. How freeing is it that we don't have

00:34:09.360 to be so mad all the time as women, so bitter, so resentful, so covetous of what we don't have, so 0.99

00:34:15.880 angry at the so-called patriarchy. We have unconditional joy knowing who we are and what we were made for.

00:34:24.220 Okay, that wraps up the episode today. We will be back here on Wednesday and I hope you guys have a great Monday.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - September 07, 2020

REPLAY： Why Feminism Will Fail You

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