Feminist Theology Has Much to Teach Us

April 11, 2001, Crestwood United Church of Christ

Rev. Marcia Moret Sietstra

Today is the end of Women’s Week in the UCC.  It’s a time when we take stock of how we are doing in the area of women’s lives, a time to address gender equality in the places that we live, work and worship.  It’s also Race Relations Sunday.  Why do we designate these special weeks and days in our denomination?  Because the UCC is committed to justice for all people, based on our belief that Jesus’ own emphasis was on justice for all persons.  It’s a time to look at Jesus’ values and ask if we are doing all we can to implement those values  around the world in the lives of women and people of all races.  

I’m going to tell you a story about a young woman named Neati Rani Paul who lives in Bangladesh.  Neati grew up in a Hindu family, the 4th child of seven brothers and sisters.  Her father, a potter, couldn’t afford to let any of his children go to school; they worked in his pottery business.  At 18, Neati was married off to a man who already had a wife and 3 daughters, but no son.  The man  hoped a new wife would give him a son.  It was the best arrangement her father could find for her, since he couldn’t afford a dowry. 

Unfortunately, the first wife gave birth to a son a short time later, so the husband no longer had need of Neati.  He stopped providing her with enough food or clothing and became abusive.  She herself was pregnant and gave birth to a daughter.  The abuse escalated to the point where Neati’s father couldn’t tolerate it any longer and arranged to bring his daughter back home.  She suffered the stigma and social shame of having left her husband.  Still worse, according to Hindu custom, women cannot marry more than once. 

However, Neati didn’t resort to begging nor did she become a prostitute, occupations single women often pursue in places where there is little opportunity.  Neati supports herself and her daughter because the Mennonite Church opened a cooperative for women crafters who make handmade paper out of water hyacinth stems, and sell it here in the states.  The Mennonites fund sustainable projects in 3rd world countries, and their church members here volunteer their time selling the products in stores like Ten Thousand Villages in downtown SF.  Their churches help pay shipping and other expenses so the women who work in these cooperatives get almost all of the price we pay for their item.  Here are some of the handmade paper items made in Neati’s coop.  I have a table full of items made by women in 3rd world countries, shipped here to be sold by Christian volunteers. In fact, you can buy any of these things today. 

 Too many women like Neati end up desperate, through no fault of their own.  Had you or I been born in that place, it could just as likely be one of us left powerless by a culture that lets husbands discard wives, a culture that devalues daughters and doesn’t even realize that wives don’t determine the gender of babies, a culture that keeps women in one-down, submissive, subordinate positions.  By subordinate, I mean lower than, and having less power over their own lives than men have over their lives. 

Why should this bother us?  Because we believe every person has infinite value as a creation of God.  Because Jesus showed a preferential option for the poor and the powerless!  Think about the story of the lower-class, Samaritan woman he met at the well.  He knew she had had 5 husbands.  Maybe one of them discarded her; maybe she fled from the abuse of another.  The story doesn’t tell us.  It tells us that Jesus treated her with respect and asked her to tell others in her town about the living water he had to offer. He sent her back into the town to tell about the life he offered.  She was the first missionary ever!   

In our text he particularly blesses the poor and the hungry and those who weep.  Can we do any less?  You’d think we Christians would have been quick to follow Jesus’ lead and work on behalf of people who have so little power over their own lives.  But historically we haven’t been good about that.  Oh yes, we’ve sent mission aid to the hungry and hurting.  But have we worked to change the structures of society that keep women, for example, in such vulnerable positions? How do we empower them? 

We are learning to send our mission money to organizations that empower women instead of just giving them charity.  Some of the agencies we support help them set up small business of their own, by extending credit at a fair rate.  Others set up training programs so they have some job skills.  Studies show that when we fund education in basic things like hygiene and birth control, the standard of living for the women involved goes up.  I used to be in a book group with a nursing professor from Augustana.  She did research in Africa with a Swiss organization that found that when they went into a village and set up day care coupled with education, it resulted in a rise in the standard of living for women and children because mothers were empowered with opportunities and choices they didn’t have before. 

There are still Christians today who believe women should be in a one-down position to men in terms of authority in the family.  Women with kind husbands may be fine with that.  But when the church asks half the human race of be in a subordinate position, inevitably there is a a loss of rights for that group.  And inevitably there will be abuse of that group by some who justify it on the grounds of their authority.  Christians who believe the subordination of women is God’s plan often quote Paul who said some confusing things about women in his letter to the Corinthians (usually in the same breath he told slaves to be content to remain slaves).  At the same time we know Paul put women in positions of leadership in the early churches.  Next Sunday I’ll show you how Paul has sometimes been misunderstood.  In arguments for the subordination of women, Jesus is never quoted because one simply cannot find a single thing Jesus ever said that supports it.  

There is a famous essay written in the 80’s by Fr. Leonard Swidler entitled Jesus Was a Feminist.  It outlines his radical support of  women.  Unfortunately the word feminist has taken on negative connotations in recent years.  A lot of people think feminists are wild-eyed women who want to take over.  Maybe some are!  But not most of us!  The definition of feminist is "a person who believes women should be treated as equal."  The goal is not to have more power than men—the goal is to be sure no one is overpowered. 

Feminist theology, then, is the study of God from the perspective of people who are intentionally looking for scripture and stories that support the equality of men and women, each one made in the image of God and each deserving equal opportunities and rights.  I really prefer the term person-ist theology, because feminist theologians are seeking justice and dignity and self-empowerment for all persons as equals, even if they happen to be women instead of men, even if they happen to be old instead of young, even if they happen to be people of color instead of white, even if they have a disability.  Feminist theology is personist theology. 

To many of you this may seem perfectly obvious.  But consider this—100 years ago women didn’t have the right to vote in this country.  There are churches all over this city in which women are still not allowed to vote in a congregational meeting.  The Christian Church taught the subordination of women for over 1800 years.  We can thank feminist theologians for raising our consciousness about how unjust that is.  Feminist theology also has discovered how much theology was influenced by the culture the theologians lived in.  For example, at least through the Middle Ages, scientists thought women’s brains were smaller than men’s, that education would be too stressful for them and might endanger their health, and that women were by nature more sinful because it was Eve who took the apple from the serpent.  No wonder they assumed women should be subordinate.  Next week I’ll show you an example of how different Bible translations changed what some New Testament texts originally said in Greek, because of the choice of words in English.  The Greek word for deacon, for example, when used in reference to a man was translated as deacon.  When the exact same word was used in reference to a woman, it was translated servant. 

It will be a very long time in this country, and longer in many less developed countries, before women are empowered with personal dignity and opportunity equal to that of men.  I will end with 1 short story that demonstrates how the history of women’s subordination still affects life in subtle but real ways.  

Last summer a friend of my daughter was working as an intern in one of the most  prestigious law firms in the country.  Cari’s friend graduated from Princeton summa cum laude, phi beta kappa, and is now at Standford Law School.  She is a black woman, whose appearance is always very professional and sophisticated.  She is, without a doubt, one of the most capable young law students working in the country.  Shortly after starting at this firm, she was invited to receive specialized training to do advanced computer searches on a very complex and expensive legal data base that charged about $200/hr to access.   

Well, she arrived at the designated computer/copying center of the firm and sat down to wait for the lawyer who would show her how to use this system.  A short time later, a young lawyer came in, looked around, sat down and began to work on his laptop computer.  After about 15 minutes of waiting she finally asked him if he was there to train her on the legal data base.  And he said, "Oh!  Are you the law school intern I’m supposed to train?  I thought you were a secretary waiting for copies." 

It was a logical assumption; most of the secretaries are female and black at that firm.  Most of the lawyers are white and male.  Now you may think, "Well, no harm was done."  But think about being that young black woman.  She never gets the benefit of the doubt.  The assumption people generally make when they see her at a meeting or in the halls is not that she is brilliant, extremely competent and highly educated; however, that is what people will  assume when they see a well-dressed, young, white, male intern at this top-ranked law firm.  She will always need to prove herself more than a white male, just because of unconscious assumptions people make, not because people are unkind but because women, and particularly women of color have not had access to the high-level positions she will hold.  A lot more of them are secretaries than lawyers in the top firms in the country.  Think about how many times you are given the benefit of the doubt.  For many of us, people will assume we can handle the job unless we show otherwise, but with her the doubt will come first before they’ve ever seen her work.  

What can we do to help?  We can start by being more aware.  We start by shopping at stores like Ten Thousand Villages when we need a gift, stores which work with cooperatives that empower poor women.  We can invest in corporations that have a reputation for not exploiting the poor.  We can vote for policies that help women have access to education and birth control and child care so they can take care of themselves.  I’d like to be able to avoid purchase anything that has been made in a sweat shop.  I wish I knew how to tell that about a product.  That’s an area I’d like to explore with any of you who have some ideas as to how we go about that. 

And finally, we can think about all the unconscious assumptions we make about women and people different from us in race or social status.  We can pray for women around the world who still live without self-empowerment and dignity.  These are places to start.  Let us pray. 

Oh God, you saw fit to be made known in the life of Jesus, who was born of a woman. Just as you blessed the world through Mary, bless the world through us.  May we, like Jesus, live lives that honor every man, woman and child by restoring their dignity and working for justice for everyone, regardless of gender, social status, race, or other lines of division.  May your Spirit renew us and the persons whose lives we touch, we pray, Amen.