Women in Apologetics: An Antidote to Sexism

(originally published 28MAR22)

Religious Command

I'm not an expert on all of the world's religions. But out of all the studying I've done so far, Christianity is the only religion with the intellect baked into its central commands. What do I mean by that? Jesus told us to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, our mind, our soul, and our strength. Did you catch that? All of our mind! God didn’t call us to love Him with only our hearts, feelings, and actions. God also calls us to think deeply about Him, drink from His word deeply, study it, reflect on it, and learn how to understand it.

Apologetics

This is one of the things I love about apologetics: that's the essence of the field! We want to learn more about God. We want to learn whether our beliefs are correct and, if they're right, how they're right, why they're right. We don't like or encourage or foster blind belief. We want to have good reasons to believe what we believe, and if we don't have good reasons for them, we want to get rid of those beliefs. We’re not perfect about this, but this is our passion. 

Oppression and Education

One of the common critiques against Christians today, especially against orthodox, historical Christians, is that supposedly we're sexist and controlling. I find this problematic for a critical reason: oppressive forces and oppressive organizations are almost always anti-education, anti-critical thinking. They're almost always against researching to understand the subject, against using the best sources, whatever those sources say. We can see that in other organizations and institutes, even when they push “education.” If they're an oppressive organization, they only push for you to learn what they want you to believe. And if you start reading someone else, they start insulting that author, ridiculing them, saying you shouldn’t or can’t use them, that it’s a bad source. Now, don't get me wrong, there are bad sources, and there's an appropriate time to say a source is bad. But just because someone doesn't agree with you on something doesn't mean that it's shoddy scholarship or that they're oppressing anyone.

So often today, orthodox Christianity is accused of being that oppressive, which today is usually called “the patriarchy” or “white supremacist patriarchy.” But what do we see when we go to real misogyny, real sexism? We see women who are banned from reading. We see women banned from the university. We see women discouraged from ever learning for themselves. We see that because learning for themselves increases the risk of the women realizing what’s going on. 

So what does this have to do with this post? As I said before, as best I understand, Christianity is the only religion with the intellect baked into it as an imperative for following the religion. When we combine that with the biblical commands about Christian community, we end up with organized movements that encourage women to study, learn, reason for themselves, and come to these beliefs on their own and not because someone commanded them.  To be clear, I’m not saying that other religions don’t have vibrant women-led intellectual communities. My point is that these communities aren’t a result of obeying the dictates of the religion. (if you happen to know for sure otherwise, please let me know; I love learning new things. Just make sure it fits both points: that the groups exist and that it is a direct result of following the dictates of the religion.)

One of my favorite examples of this comes from Kathy Keller, the wife of Tim Keller, a famous evangelical Christian, talking about Elisabeth Elliott, another renowned evangelical Christian leader. Elisabeth was her college professor, taught her scripture, taught her how to understand and rightly divide the Word of God. So we have two prominent Christian women, one a professor at a university and the other a student at that university. They're both learning; they're both studying the Word of God for themselves, freely and without oppression. So, tying together the question of sexism and women in leadership, here are Kathy’s own words:

“In one unforgettable lecture, Elisabeth Elliot, one of my professors at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, taught me to distinguish between gifts and the roles in which those gifts might be used. She announced to her class of both men and women that she had better gifts for being a pastor than most of the men in the class, possibly the entire seminary. She knew the Bible in multiple languages, had vast experience in expositing it, had the maturity bought through suffering to speak with compassion to others, and on and on. “However,” she said, “God has not called me, as a woman, to exercise those gifts in a pastoral role. I am called to use them, but why should they only be valuable if used in one particular role, the ordained ministry?”” - Jesus, Justice, and Gender Roles

This brings up the related claim that Christianity is oppressive because some churches don’t allow women to be ordained pastors. This article isn’t about that, but I do want to make two quick points:

1. There is no inherent logical connection between having a specific office and having intrinsic worth and dignity. This applies to men, too: all the men who aren’t pastors still have their own worth and dignity, their own roles to play.

2. Pastor is one specific office in the Body of Christ. Scripture identifies some women as deacons, and today women are encouraged to hold a wide variety of leadership positions in the church, as I have demonstrated with Kathy and Elisabeth and as I am about to expand on.

Today, however, isn’t about Kathy, Elisabeth, or pastors.

Women in Apologetics

Today I want to tell you about a particular organization that does just this: Women in Apologetics. I love how within Christianity, we have an entire organization dedicated to helping women reason and understand and think critically for themselves. That's the whole purpose of this ministry. It doesn't exist to tell people, ‘this is the right thing you need to believe, and if you don't believe exactly this, you are a horrible person.’ It doesn't exist to say, ‘well, you need to listen to these men and only to these men.’ It exists entirely for pursuing the truth and sharing what they're learning about the truth. And they are led by women specifically (and I think exclusively?). I think this is so amazing.

There’s another reason I love this organization: they are a community.

WIA is a bunch of women all helping and supporting each other. I have the privilege to be in the WIA Facebook group, and I love seeing the women, many of whom are my friends, engaging in it. I see them asking for and offering help with tough questions, getting advice about where to study new apologetics subjects, planning on how to get more involved in their churches and communities. I love seeing these women coming together to do something that oppressive organizations try to prevent. 

I love this related quote from Paul Washer: 

“My wife also doesn’t need to go to one of those silly women’s conferences that’s entitled “if the world gives you lemons, learn how to make lemonade.” My wife needs theology, because she’s a believer. And women grow in grace the same way men do: through the study of Scripture.” 

This describes WIA exceptionally well: they don’t focus on living messy lives or trite sayings. They go after the meat. They go after the hard questions. Let’s take a look at their upcoming conference for some examples:

• Unshakeable: The Cross of Christ and The Problem of Evil | Teasi Cannon

• “God Is Right About Sex and Marriage. Sincerely, the Children.” | Katy Faust

• A Role Model for Justice | Monique Duson and Krista Bontrager

• Human Value: The Incarnation & Personhood In The Womb | Melissa Pellew

• Worshipping Christ Through Creation Care: How Should Christians Protect the Environment? | Xandra Carroll

• The Anatomy of Persuasion: The Art of Effective Evangelism in a Modern World | Anna Rose Kitko

These aren’t about ‘becoming the woman you want to become’ but about becoming who God called you to be. This isn’t about becoming ‘the best version of yourself’ but about pursuing holiness and God’s truth.

If you want to get emotional highs and get all of your worries validated, don’t join this group. The laughs are genuine, the tears are welcome, but so is the push to “go, and sin no more.” But if you have a burning desire to love God’s Word as much as you love God, welcome! If you see how what the world is teaching is failing your children, come learn better ways. If you believe that a pastor on stage should be supporting the Bible, not disparaging it, this group is the place for you.