Say What You Need to Say

From the standpoint of the Church, the advent of social media is one of the first times in History that women have had the opportunity to gain a public platform to share their thoughts on issues of faith. At least to a mixed audience.

Up until recently, the church has been able to keep women out of the pulpit thereby keeping them quiet. It's relatively rare for Conservative Christian men to seek out books written by women and they will generally not choose to listen to teachers such as Beth Moore and Priscilla Shirer. Until now, they've effectively insulated themselves from having to hear us. Of course, this has been a progression since the early part of the 1800's, but I think you understand my point.

This is certainly making some folks uncomfortable. In itself, that isn't really surprising. As I've begun studying the difference between Egalitarian and Complementarian thought, I've noticed that a number of the claims from an Egalitarian standpoint have seemed a bit overblown.

When you read in forums frequented by those who firmly believe in Egalitarian theology, there is quite a lot of anger and frustration being expressed, followed by example after example of the silencing of women in a wide variety of ways. At first, I thought, because of my assumptions and biases, that it was excessive. Now however, as I begin to exercise my freedom to share what God is telling me to share, I am seeing more and more often how easy it is for men to tell women when they can and can't talk and about what.

If I author a thought and someone comes along to argue about it and I don't back down, I am seen as being contentious. Mind you, some of my male friends do this regularly and no one seems to call them out about it at all, certainly not publicly.

For my part, I am thankful that a platform such as the blogosphere, Facebook and Twitter exist to give women a voice that literally can't be silenced. And I want to encourage women that if you have something to say that you feel the Lord is pressing you to say, SAY IT.

Don't back down simply because it makes people uncomfortable. Jesus made people uncomfortable constantly. And He did so because it was necessary to the culture in order for them to get the message he was bringing. He had to shake them up so that they could deconstruct their wrong systems of belief. You can bet your boots that deconstructing is VERY UNCOMFORTABLE.

But in the end, the shake up He brought was worth it. The 'disturbing the peace' that Jesus did brought about the birth of Christianity and God's people have continued to 'disturb the peace' in a wide variety of ways over the years as He's brought ongoing adjustment to the way we live out our faith.

Yes, it's uncomfortable. Yes, it's hard. Yes, it hurts when someone tells you to sit down and shut up because you are disturbing the peace. But if even one person is moved in the direction of freedom, it is well worth the discomfort.