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Place of Refuge
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 MARY'S FEMINISM
- By Philip Yuson
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“Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your
word.”
Luke
1:38
In
society today, we see a lot of anti-male philosophy being promoted.
This ranges from the thought that women are equal to men to the much
radical thought that the only purpose for men is to donate their sperms.
This
is the world's view of feminism. Indeed, this type of feminism has even
infiltrated the church such that there are moves in the Catho lic
Church to pressure the Pope to allow women priests – for the sake of
equality. There is even a move to remove all male references to God – some
even go to the extent of calling HIM a Mother! Some translations of
Scripture already do that.
My
purpose for writing this article is to give my perspective on feminism
as defined in Scripture.
Christians have often been accused of putting down women, yet, if we read
Scripture, we see that Christianity has always extolled the value of women
in society. It is only in Christianity, Catholicism specifically, where we
extol a woman over all human beings. Mary is not God – but she is given
the highest respect (note, the word is respect and NOT worship) above all
other creatures – even higher than her spouse – St. Joseph! The accusation
that the Church is anti-women therefore does not hold true.
The
models of womanhood did not strive to be better than men. They did not
insist on doing what the men were doing. They did great things because
they were obedient to their Lord and God. Their womanhood comes from
humility before God. Mary called herself a handmaid of the Lord. She spent
her whole life being joined to the sufferings of one man – Jesus Christ,
her Son.
Yet,
if we look at Mary, we see that she was not a weak woman. Her
Magnificat tells us that she is a strong woman. Someone who can
proclaim the downfall of the princes and the proud is not a weak person.
She was in fact, a strong woman who probably played a major part in
holding the apostles together after the death and resurrection of Jesus.
This is probably why she was specifically mentioned in the Acts of the
Apostles.
The
difference between Mary's feminism and the secular feminism is that Mary
knew where her strength lies. She knew that her strength lies in the Lord
– “He who is mighty has done great things for me” (Luke 1:49).
This is true for the other women in Scripture. Deborah, in the book of
Judges, Judith and Esther conquered their enemies by trusting in the power
of the Lord. Ruth had to be a strong woman to leave her nation and live
with her mother-in-law in a foreign land. Hannah pleaded with the Lord and
relied on the Lord to take away her shame.
These
women and Mary show that feminism is not in being better than men.
Feminism is knowing where they stand before the Lord and trusting in the
Lord. It is a willingness to obey the Lord no matter what the cost.
Let us
then pray that there will be more women who will embrace the feminism of
Mary so that they can live their lives in the power of God.
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