women

What is a woman?

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The great question of our age has stumped nominees for the Supreme Court of the USA, politicians and even health professionals.

“What is a woman?” is the question that defines the stupidity of the elites that run our nation.

In April Senator Eric Antic asked Brendan Murphy, the head of the Australian Health Department, no less, for a definition of a woman. You would think that a doctor would be able to manage what most 7 year olds can do. You wold think that a man who has obviously been around for a few decades could think back to last year when we all agreed what a woman was.

You would be surprised. Doctor Murphy asked for the question to be taken on notice. It only took 78 days, but the Department came up with the following definition of a woman:

“The frameworks adopted to define a person’s gender include chromosomal makeup, the gender assigned at birth, and the gender with which a person identifies. The Department of Health does not adopt a single definition. Health policies and access to health programs are based on clinical evidence and clinical need for all Australians, regardless of gender identity, biological characteristics, or genetic variations. Our programs are designed to be inclusive and to provide better health and wellbeing for all Australians.”

Well that clears that up.

The Question That May Not Be Answered

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It seems that nobody knows what a woman is any more.Despite calls for “equality” and respect for women, nobody can tell us what a woman is- not a US Supreme Court judge, not political leaders, not even the Australian Department of Health.

Remember when we were promised that the redefinition of marriage was not a slippery slope, the thin end of a woke wedge? Well here we are in 2022 in a crazy world where people dare not answer the queston, “What is a woman?”

From the Canberra Declaration

Senator Alex Antic Asked ‘What is a Woman?’ and the Department of Health Couldn’t Answer

With one simple question, Senator Alex Antic this week revealed just how real the ‘slippery slope’ is. Five years ago we undefined marriage. Now Australia’s top medical minds can’t define a woman.

Can Australia’s Department of Health define what a woman is? This was the burning question that Liberal Senator for South Australia Alex Antic took to Senate estimates in Canberra this week.

The response given by the department’s head revealed just how far Australia has drifted from reality since the undefinition of marriage took place in 2017.

“I can’t seem to get a bureaucrat in this building to define what is a woman,” Senator Antic explained to his followers on social media soon after the exchange. “Today, I took it right to the top, straight to the Department of Health, and [received] one of the most extraordinary responses I’ve seen to date.”

Defining a Woman: ’Pretty Basic Stuff’

In a short one-minute video that has had over 150,000 views on Twitter since Wednesday, Senator Antic asks a panel of five of Australia’s top medical experts:

I’m going to finish up … with a very simple question for the department, and that is one which has troubled me for a great deal of time with the bureaucracy here. Can someone please provide me with a definition of what a woman is?

After a period of silence and blank stares, Antic probes further. “Department of Health,” he says incredulously. “Definition of a man. Definition of a woman. Anyone?”

“It’s pretty basic,” someone off camera can be heard saying. “Basic stuff,” Antic adds.

Professor Brendan Murphy, the Secretary of the Department of Health, begins moving uncomfortably in his chair, realising that he is the most senior figure in the room.

“There, look, I think there are a variety of definitions, and I think… Perhaps to give a more fulsome answer we should take that on notice,” he tells the Senator.

Antic is taken aback, asking, “You’re going to take on notice the question of what a woman is?”

“No, well there are a variety of… it’s a very, it’s a very, ah… it’s a very contested space at the moment Senator,” Professor Murphy continues. “There are definitions in terms of how people identify themselves so we’re happy to provide our working definition on that.”

Antic’s response couldn’t have been more appropriate. “I’ve only been here two years,” he remarks. “That’s the best thing I’ve seen thus far. Thank you so much.”

The Slippery Slope is Real

For thousands of years and until very recently, it was universally understood that a woman is an adult human female. The definition of “female” was also set in stone: the sex that can give birth to young or produce eggs.

These definitions were present across cultures, but in the West they were grounded in Scripture. The Bible sheds immense light on the dignity, value and calling of men and women. The foundational text is Genesis 1:27, which declares, “God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

Bible-believing Christians and other conservatives warned that by introducing same-sex “marriage”, Western nations would de-gender marriage and lay the groundwork for the abolition of gender altogether.

Within just years, this “slippery slope argument”, once mocked by progressives, turns out to have been entirely accurate. Gender is now widely seen as a mere social construct, not grounded in objectivity.

Unmoored from a biblical understanding of reality, the West is losing its moral and intellectual compass.

Read the rest of the article here

Canberra Declaration: Faith Is Good For Women

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WHAT HARVARD UNIVERSITY KNOWS THAT ‘THE HANDMAID’S TALE’ DOESN’T

Does religion oppress women, or liberate them to live with deep meaning and purpose? A new study undertaken by Harvard University suggests the latter.

Author Margaret Atwood’s novel (and now TV series) The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian story set in the near future, when a kooky religious cult takes over much of the US.

In the story, women are marginalised and relegated to second class citizens, and many become enslaved. These female slaves — ‘Handmaids’ as they’re known — have little bodily autonomy, reduced to breeding machines for their wealthy masters.

And you don’t need to watch many episodes before the underlying narrative of The Handmaid’s Tale hits you in the face: religion oppresses women. [1]  

It’s a narrative that resonates deeply with many secular feminists today. From restricted abortion rights to patriarchy, religious women are considered to be worse off than their more enlightened secular sisters.

As such, many secular feminists have taken to wearing the red and white of Handmaids at pro-choice rallies. As author Rebecca McLaughlin points out: ‘It’s a story told in red and white: Christianity is [seen to be] bad for women’s rights’. [2]

What Harvard Medical School Knows That ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Does Not

And yet, a recent study from Harvard University challenges this narrative. Its conclusion will surprise many secular readers:

‘Compared with women who had never attended religious services, women who attended once or more per week had a five-fold lower risk of suicide.’

(Not quite the narrative from The Handmaid’s Tale.)

And a study like this couldn’t have come at a better time.

Mental Health and Women’s Wellbeing

Mental health across the Western world — including for women — is in crisis. According to Lifeline, around two women die each day in Australia from suicide.[3] Those women are daughters, sisters, mothers, wives. It’s a devastating tragedy on every level, as those touched by a loved one’s suicide can attest.

Many of these women might have been saved if they had received the right support. And according to Harvard University, churchgoing is a very effective form of support.

What the Harvard Study Shows

The study, entitled Association Between Religious Service Attendance and Lower Suicide Rates Among US Women, was run by the Harvard School of Public Health. It was a longitudinal (long term) study of around 90,000 women — so it was comprehensive. According to the study:

‘We… examine[d] the association between service attendance and suicide… adjusting for demographic covariates, lifestyle factors and medical history, depressive symptoms, and social integration measures.’

And their results are mind-blowing:

‘Compared with women who had never attended religious services, women who attended once or more per week had a five-fold lower risk of suicide; results were robust across various exclusions, methods of analysis, and in sensitivity analysis.’

But as the study points out, the results aren’t merely because of the social benefits of regular churchgoing:

 

Read the full article at canberradeclaration.org.au

Why Men Should Not Be Pastors

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A bit of satirical humour to give you a smile, wry or otherwise.


10 reasons men should not be pastors

“A man’s place is in the army.”

So starts David M. Scholer’s satirical list of 10 reasons why men shouldn’t be pastors. Most of you have probably seen the list before; it’s been around a number of years. We’re sharing it as a reminder that humor can be very helpful when discussing a hot button issue like women in ministry. (And to do our part to keep this great piece in circulation!).

Keep in mind that Scholer’s purpose here is NOT to put men down, but to use satire to show that many of the arguments used to restrict women from pastoral roles are rooted in cultural expectations and gender norms. And so without further ado:

10. A man’s place is in the army.

 

9. For men who have children, their duties might distract them from the responsibilities of being a parent.

 

8. Their physical build indicates that men are more suited to tasks such as chopping down trees and wrestling mountain lions. It would be “unnatural” for them to do other forms of work.

 

7. Man was created before woman. It is therefore obvious that man was a prototype. Thus, they represent an experiment, rather than the crowning achievement of creation.

6. Men are too emotional to be priests or pastors. This is easily demonstrated by their conduct at football games and watching basketball tournaments.

 

5. Some men are handsome; they will distract women worshipers.

 

4. To be an ordained pastor is to nurture the congregation. But this is not a traditional male role. Rather, throughout history, women have been considered to be not only more skilled than men at nurturing, but also more frequently attracted to it. This makes them the obvious choice for ordination.

 

3. Men are overly prone to violence. No really manly man wants to settle disputes by any means other than by fighting about it. Thus, they would be poor role models, as well as being dangerously unstable in positions of leadership.

 

2. Men can still be involved in church activities, even without being ordained. They can sweep paths, repair the church roof, and maybe even lead the singing on Father’s Day. By confining themselves to such traditional male roles, they can still be vitally important in the life of the Church.

 

1. In the New Testament account, the person who betrayed Jesus was a man. Thus, his lack of faith and ensuing punishment stands as a symbol of the subordinated position that all men should take.

 Read the full article at The Junia Project

Jennifer Leclaire: Apostolic Women Arise

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Bold Prophecy: Apostolic Women Arise and Pick Up Mantles of Old

Aimee Semple McPherson
Aimee Semple McPherson (Wikimedia Commons )

There’s a rich root of revival in Los Angeles—and women were a key part of it.

Assemblies of God history tells us the Azusa Street Revival brought women’s ministries to the fore. Indeed, Jennie Evans Moore who married Daddy William Seymour in 1908, was a key figure. Her name is not as well known as Seymour’s but she was in the revival trenches with him, along with Lucy Farrow and Julia Hutchins. These virtually nameless and faceless, yet faithful, women helped keep the fire burning.

Maria Woodworth-Etter was a mother figure in early Pentecost—John G. Lake called her “Mother Etter.” Her trance-marked ministry helped pave the way for the Azusa Street outpouring and ultimately the birth of a movement that changed the world.

Bold women like Aimee Semple McPherson and Kathryn Kuhlman followed in Mother Etter’s footsteps. McPherson’s Angeles Temple is still standing in Los Angeles today. I stood behind her pulpit in her home, which the Foursquare denomination she started preserved for historical purposes.

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While in Los Angeles, I felt mantles being released; mantles for healing, mantles for miracles—and mantles for apostolic women. I began to prophesy these words:

The time is now, says the Lord. The time is now, says the Lord. The time is now, says the Lord, for apostolic women to arise and indeed they are arising even now. The time is now for apostolic women to arise and take their places in their church and take their places in the marketplace and take their places in their families, in their homes.

The time is now for apostolic women to release the revelation that I’ve shared with their hearts in the secret places. The time is now for apostolic women to arise and bring forth the revelation of days gone by. The time is now for apostolic women to build upon the revelation, to speak forth, to build, to build, to build and plant in the name of Jesus with the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ backing them; with all of heaven standing with them; with the ministering angels building and working alongside of them.

The time is now for apostolic women to arise in this city and in this region and in the nation and in the nations of the world. For many years apostolic women have sat in the background waiting for permission to prophesy, waiting for permission to take their places and their God-given roles in the body of Christ. And the time is now for apostolic women to come to the fore, working alongside apostolic men and prophetic believers and evangelists, pastors and teachers who have a heart to build, who have a heart to see awakening, who have a heart to see revival impact this land and who have a heart to see the glory of My Spirit go forth in the nations and cover the earth as the water covers the sea.

The time is now. Apostolic women, the Lord says you have permission to rise up, even own and carry the mantle of Aime Semple McPherson, and carry the mantle of Kathryn Kuhlman, and carry the mantle of Maria Woodworth-Etter, and carry the mantle of those great women from generations past who were nameless and faceless.

The time is now. Rise up, says the Lord. 

Full article here

Gail Wallace- Why the Gender Debate is “Catching Fire”

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Some very insightful commentary here on women and spiritual warfare

 

catching-fire

I recently saw the movie Catching Fire (released last November), which is based on the second book in Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games¹ trilogy, and it sparked the idea for this post, which first appeared on the CBE Scroll.

For those not familiar with the story, here’s the plot of “Catching Fire” in a nutshell.

[Spoiler Alert] After winning the 74th Hunger Games (a competition in which “tributes” are forced to fight to the death), protagonist Katniss Everdeen returns to her home in the post-apocalyptic nation of Panem. Because her defiant actions in the arena have fueled a rebellion against the oppressive Capitol, President Snow forces the remaining tributes to return to the arena for another round of competition.

There are many powerful moments, but one scene in particular had implications for the gender debate taking place in conservative evangelical circles today. Before Katniss sets out, her coach gives her this advice: “When you are in the arena, you remember who the true enemy is”. As the deadly games proceed, it becomes obvious that the government wants to make sure none of the tributes return alive, and this advice makes all the difference in the final outcome.

Remember who the true enemy is.

As the debate about women’s roles is played out in the arenas of church and society today, many Christians seem set on characterizing the issue as a conflict between men and women.

Men are accused of selfishly holding onto their privilege and power at all costs, and women are accused of wanting an equal share of that power for power’s sake.  Some seem to think this is a zero sum game; meaning that men will lose something if they share their power with women, when in fact, both would gain.

Still others frame the issue as a conflict between Christians and secular society. The end result is often a barrage of “friendly-fire” with collateral damage to both sides.

Could it be that we’ve lost sight of who the true enemy is?

When we draw the lines of the battle so narrowly it’s easy to forget that there is another player in these “earthly games”, one whose role in the conflict is described in Genesis 3. After being cast out of heaven, Satan’s Plan B was to become the ruler over earth.  So he entices Adam and Eve into disobeying God, thinking this will give him some kind of sovereign power over them2.

But instead God’s response is this:  “…I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel” (Genesis 3:15b). It’s like God is saying “Don’t be too smug about your success here. From now on you will be the enemy of the woman and her offspring, and One will come from her who will crush your head”, a reference to the coming Christ.

Remember who the true enemy is.

Sometimes I think our preoccupation with the consequences of sin described for Eve (“your desire shall be for your husband, and he will rule over you”, Genesis 3:16b) causes us to underestimate the depth of Satan’s enmity towards women. Enmity means conflict. Enmity means anger and loathing and hatred.

We are naive when we fail to connect that enmity to the oppression of women that has taken place through the centuries and continues today.

As Paul reminds us, “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12). Satan knows that one way to hold back the Church is to marginalize and oppress women.

It will take the joint efforts of both women and men (empowered by the Holy Spirit) to overcome the impact of Satan’s enmity.

I believe this is a spiritual battle, not a secondary or cultural issue. Indifference or apathy only gives Satan the upper hand.

Men must recognize who the real enemy is and actively advocate for women.

Women must recognize who the real enemy is and prepare for battle by “armoring up” to stand against the devil’s schemes (Ephesians 6:10-18).

And we all need to pray earnestly for gender reconciliation in the church and in the world.

Let’s not forget who the true enemy is.

Gail Wallace Bio

1The Hunger Games movies are not for the faint at heart. Here is a link to a review by Alissa Wilkinson in Christianity Today. Skip to the last page for information about violence (a lot), language (some), and sexuality (very little) portrayed in the movie. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/november-web-only/hunger-games-catching-fire.html.

2We know the serpent in the garden is a reference to Satan because of Revelation 12:9 and Revelation 20:2. The serpent becomes an earthly symbol of Satan’s reprimand.