KINGDOM ETHICS D a v id p. G u shee
The Sanctity of Women’s Lives Brute force, gradually combined with technology to multiply its destructive power, has dominated human history. But God’s intent has always been for a world ruled by his loving will and not by human violence. His will includes the treatment of all human beings as sacred, equal, and inviolable. He wills not just the survival and security but also the flourishing of every human life. In a world dominated by physical force, women are inherently vulnerable to victimization and to permanent second-class status. Technology can help level the playing field, of course, and women have repeatedly surfaced as warriors in human history. But generally speaking, in cultures/eras dominated by force, violence, and killing and in which the warrior virtues are celebrated, women are at an inherent disadvantage. Even when they are not routinely victimized by male violence, they are often dominated by men and obliged to live in the fear of that violence, in all its cruel guises. Patriarchy, in whatever form, is a humanly constructed ideology that provides cultural, political, and often religious sanction for the subjugation of women. I believe that patriarchy as an ideology originally represented a rationalization and moral justification of an already existing state of affairs in which women were subjugated and dominated by men. Just as systemic white racism in the Western world eased the consciences of societies that permitted black slavery, so male patriarchalism eased the consciences of societies that permitted male domination of women. Ideology followed and justified unjust social conditions, rather
than preceding them. Ideologies that offer elaborate moral and religious justifications for the unjust treatment of some groups by others offer ironic evidence of the law of God written on the human heart. It is precisely because the human conscience, even seared by sin, can become uneasy at participating in injustice that human beings develop the most ingenious rationalizations for such injustices. It is hard to sleep peacefully at night if we know we are doing evil to others. Sometimes the way we deal with that problem is to stop doing evil. But more often we redefine evil as good. Under the pressure of movements for women’s equality, Western societies have gradually sloughed off patriarchalism.
and the desecration of some groups in favor of others. Everywhere Christianity goes, so go these resources for valuing each and every human life — including women’s lives. But — and here is the paradox — Christians themselves have often missed the implications of their own faith. I vividly remember my discovery that Hitler and his propagandists taught German children to reject the creation story in Genesis because they knew it teaches the common origin and fundamental equality of all humanity. Hitler recognized that biblical faith threatened Nazi ideology, even when many Christians found the two totally compatible. All of this is to say that the modern Western women’s movement should be seen as a revolutionary river with a number of different sources. Christianity, at its Christ-centered best, was one of those Biblical faith offers sources. But the resistance to overturnpowerful resources for ing patriarchy from within Christianity was fierce — and has not yet abated. It the equal valuing required the combined efforts of both of every human life — Christian egalitarians and secular egalitarians to break the power of patriarincluding chalism in Western societies. women’s lives. Modern Western women face many challenges, often quite profound ones. But culturally approved patriarchalism Whether that sloughing off is primarily is no longer one of them. This is a great attributable to religious or secular currents victory for moral principle over mere of thought is a highly contested question. physical power and the ideology that Similar questions are surfacing in my for so long sanctioned it. It is a great research on all aspects of issues related to victory for the sanctity of human life as the sanctity of human life: Did modern God intended it. understandings of racial equality emerge But these gains have not taken place because of, or in spite of, Christianity? all over the world. Western women who And what about modern understandings have benefited so greatly from these of human rights? hard-fought gains are perhaps the people The answer seems to be paradoxical. best positioned in the world to advoBiblical faith offers immensely power- cate for the liberation of non-Western ful resources for the immeasurable and women from the patriarchy that damages equal valuing of every human life. In their lives. n particular, the life, ministry, and saving death of Jesus Christ have continually David P. Gushee is Distinguished University motivated his followers to behave in Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer ways that undercut injustice, inequality, University in Atlanta, Ga. PRISM 2 0 1 0
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