Autographed Copy of Woman this is WAR! First Edition

   A revised, second edition of, Woman this is War: Gender, Slavery and the Evangelical Caste System, is in the works. With that in mind, an autographed copy of the first edition is being offered for $15 {that includes shipping and tax}. There are only 20 copies currently available for this offer, and we are considering taking the first edition out of print as soon as the second edition is released. So, if you would like an autographed copy of the first edition, now might be the only chance to get one.

   Use the contact form in sidebar to request your autographed copy, today

Nothing weak or subordinate about being maternal

    1: But you speak things which are fitting for sound doctrine 2: Men [who are] elders be sober grave temperate sound in faith in love in patience 3: Women [who are] elders likewise in deportment reverent not false accusers not given to much wine teachers of good things 4: To nurture ^[Tyndale] the young be sober affectionate [1]maternal 5: self-controlled pure [2]guards [of the] home good yielding [only] to their own men [3] that the word of God be not evil spoken of 

Titus 2:1-5

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[1] There is nothing weak or subordinate about being maternal. The Holy Spirit (Greek Pneuma neuter / Hebrew Ruwach feminine) is maternal. We see that in Genesis 1:2 where Ruwach Elohiym broods and flutters over the face of the waters (like a mother hen or bird). Deborah, as supreme leader of the nation, was called a Mother in Israel.

[2] How is it that “guards of the home” gets translated into house-keepers or housewives? Only by misogyny in Bible translation and commentary. 

[3] In the social hierarchy of ancient times, the status of women was only just above that of slaves. The equal status of Christian women under Paul’s leadership was scandalous. The Greek word, hypotasso, mistranslated here [concerning wives] as “be obedient to,” is grammatically in the “middle voice” which softens it from a military term to a voluntary, Christlike, yielding, as in “preferring one another before ourselves.” We see a New Testament example of the word being used in just such a manner in 1 Peter 5:5 (KJV #ReceivedTextFriendofWomen).

The word hypotasso, most often translated as submit,be subject to, and be in subjection to, does not always mean to be arrayed “under.” So, the accepted definition is erroneous. If Paul intended hypotasso to mean “obey” or “be subject to” in this verse [and we maintain that he did not], it should be taken entirely within the cultural constructs of the time where just a few verses down, he also instructs slaves to be obedient to masters. 

   The entire civilized world, now rightly condemns the enslavement of human beings and recognizes it for the primitive sin that it is. So why is it that using religion to enslave women [female submission doctrine] continues to be accepted and touted as God’s *glorious design? 

   The fact that some women claim to cheerfully accept the yoke of gender-based bondage, does not change the nature of it. The fact that some women have “good masters” does not negate the fact that their autonomy as adults is abridged by complementarian doctrine.  

   Using religion to coerce women into subjection to men is a form of slavery. Calling the design “glorious” is pure propaganda. 

*Since the 2010 release of, Woman this is War! Gender, Slavery and the Evangelical Caste System,” where the “glorious design” motto of CBMW (and the rhetoric of ***prominent complementarians) was compared to that of the Civil War Confederacy,” in touting their “glorious” cause [of preserving a way of life built entirely on slavery], CBMW has since deleted from their website any mention of, **“Proclaiming God’s Glorious Design for Men and Women.” However, leading complementarians in concert with one another, continue use a slightly modified form of their former motto. They are now “Proclaiming God’s Good Design.”

 ** The former motto can be viewed via internet archive screen shots. By 2014, CBMW had completely scrubbed it from its website:

https://web.archive.org/web/20120128171603/http://www.cbmw.org/Resources/Articles/Summaries-of-the-Egalitarian-and-Complementarian-Positions

*** “Discipline doesn’t stifle; it gives power…Why shouldn’t it be so when we consider the glorious hierarchal order too?” (emphasis added) Elizabeth Elliott, Let Me be a Woman: Notes to My Daughter on the Meaning of Womanhood, Living Books, Wheaton, Ill, 1982

Silly Weak Gullible Women!

 6: For of this sort are they who worm their way into homes and gain control over women who are not as yet spiritually mature[1] [men who are] loaded [down] with sins led astray by various sinful desires[2] 7: Ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth 8: Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the truth men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith 9: But they [the men of corrupt minds who worm their way into homes] shall proceed no further for their folly shall be manifest unto all as theirs [Jannes' and Jambres'] also was

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[1] Most Bible versions use the words gullible, weak, and silly to describe women in this verse. First, a word about the term, “silly” as used in the A.V.. "This example of gender-biased-English-translation-theology might appear minor to some, but we do not believe it to be so.  
   In this passage, we are given a description of false teachers who target women who are spiritually immature (young in the Lord--not necessarily in age) as primary victims.

   These female victims are described in the Greek as gunaikarion. James Strong wrote that the word, gunaikarion, is a diminutive of gune (pronounced goonay) which means woman or wife. 
   A diminutive of “woman” would indicate a young woman or teenager. If that is indeed what gunaikarion means, translators and Bible commentators could easily have reflected that. But, no translation reflects teenagers or very young women in this verse. Instead, the Strong's Concordance defines gunaikarion, as “silly” women—which just happens to be the same words used by the translators of the A.V.. 
   This does not accurately reflect the biblical meaning of gunaikarion. 

   Virtually all translations are just as misogynistic as the A.V. and the Strong's Concordance in their translation and interpretation of this verse. Most use derisive words to describe the women, such as, "weak or gullible." 
   These women are not silly, weak, or gullible but simply victimized because of their inexperience and lack of education in the Word of God. 
   Words such as silly, weak, and gullible falsely accuse women whose only fault is inexperience and victimization by their culture and by predators who are loaded down with sins and various lusts.   

   Describing these women in such a contemptuous manner is inexcusable on the part of Bible translators and commentators.   
   The Greek word “karion” (or karyon), which is added to the Greek word gune to form the compound word gunaikarion, is still used in the Greek language today.  
   Karion (or karyon) means, cell, nut, or kernel.    

   Nuts and kernels are seeds. Cells develop. So, we see that the word does not carry a connotation of weak, foolish, silly, or gullible but rather a promise of growth and development. 

   It is not a stretch to connect a seed with a young [and as yet educationally and spiritually undeveloped] human.  
   All Christians, no matter what their natural age when they come to Christ, begin their Christian lives as spiritually young, full of promise, but nowhere near mature in the faith. It is preposterous that spiritually young female believers [victims], targeted by false teachers [predators] in 2 Timothy 3:6, are transformed [using gender-biased-English-translation-theology] from spiritually naive women into "foolish, silly, weak, and gullible women."
   This fits with the historical narrative but is far from fact and honest Christian scholarship.

    About the word “silly,” used by the translators of the A.V., to translate the Greek word, "karion." The word "silly," is used only once in the New Testament—and that is in reference to one group of spiritually undeveloped women, described in 2 Timothy 3:6. There is no corresponding Greek to support the use of such a derogatory word. 
   This unfortunate rendering is incorrect, casts women in bad light, it is entirely inappropriate and profoundly prejudiced against women. The fact that the translation and interpretation of 2 Timothy 3:6, has gone unchallenged up to the present time, indicates how deeply ingrained into the Christian psyche, is the pejorative stereotyping of women. --

    Woman this is WAR! Gender, Slavery and the Evangelical Caste System, 2010, Jocelyn Andersen

Under the Old Covenant, girls and women were not taught the scriptures in the same way boys and men were. Boys were entitled to sit at the rabbi's feet (to be systematically educated), while girls and women had to catch it on the fly (so to speak), hearing the Word of God only at Temple and synagogue attendance and by listening to men have conversations about the Law and Prophets--always discussed and interpreted from male-perspectives. 

   This does not mean that women were less devout than men, completely ignorant, or that every woman was spiritually immature. It simply means that women as a group were less privileged, at that time--as they still are, due to gender-biased biblical scholarship and restricted ministry options. 

   The educational knowledge of 1st Century women, was severely limited by sexist traditions that, among the Jews [who were the first Christians], carried the weight of TORAH. So naturally, there would have been many New Testament women, exhilarated by the new freedom given to them to learn, who would have been starving for knowledge, and who would have been targeted by the false teachers written about in 2 Timothy chapter three.

 

   [2] It is not the women, but rather the predatory male teachers in verse :6, who are “laden with sins led away with divers lusts. This is made clear in the following verses where no one questions that it is the false teachers and not the women who are 7: Ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth,” and who “8:… also resist the truth, men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.” 

   Despite this, translation after translation makes it appear as though it is the women who are “loaded down with sins and led astray by various lusts,” instead of it being the men (wolves) who targeted them. 

   It is the deceivers, not the the deceived, who are referenced in verse :6 as, "laden with sins [and] led away with divers lusts." The women in this passage, are not bad people. They are not stupid people. They are people whose lack of education (not by their own choices) has prepared them to become victims. 

Woman this is WAR! Gender, Slavery and the Evangelical Caste System, refutes complementarianism [also called complementarity], which teaches that all men and women are born into a caste system that follows them from the moment they exit the womb throughout all eternity. Men are alleged to be born into the leadership caste and women into the “follower” caste.

   Complementarian doctrine suppresses the autonomy of adult Christian women and has been embraced, with few exceptions, by virtually every Christian denomination...despite unmistakable parallels between complementarian dogma [and the adverse effects of the paradigm on men, women, and children] and that of institutionalized slavery in previous centuries [caveat: lots of Black History in this book up through the Civil Rights Movement].

   Woman this is War! quotes well-known evangelical pastors who compare Christian marriage to a war of dominance between wives and husbands, a war they claim that husbands must win.

   Gender-biased-English-translation-theology, along with male-centered Bible commentary and translation practices, are used in forbidding women to preach, pastor, or serve as elders and deacons in most churches. This hinders the work of the gospel. In most churches where women are not forbidden to preach, they are told to submit to their husbands at home. Gender-biased-English-translation-theology has interfered with understanding the scriptures, pitted men and women against each other, and eroded the happiness of women and men.

   The book contains rare insights into Christian initiatives in the movements for women’s rights that have either deliberately or inadvertently been keep out of Christian literature. These observations bring a new perspective, along with freedom and hope. The doctrine of female submission to male headship in the church and home, is soundly refuted using scripture to support equality between women and men. Woman this is WAR! is a treasure-trove of information on gender equality from biblical, historical, and Christian perspectives.