Transvestitism, Egalitarianism, and Women
in Combat
Darrell Dow
Conservative Evangelicals have become unquestioning
in their fealty to the modern warfare state and its imperial ambitions,
and no longer even see fit to object to the continuing sexual integration
of the armed forces. In their zeal to prop up a Christ-professing
president, Evangelicals are turning a blind eye to the fact that some
grand moral failings are taking place on his watch while he cruises the
heartland
flipping-off the unsuspecting, takes in
Shinto shrines,
celebrates Ramadan, and
publicly equates Allah with the triune God.
Having swallowed the egalitarian presuppositions of the Enlightenment,
Christians routinely deny that there are in fact God-ordained sexual
roles. And why should we be surprised? Look at our churches.
In January, 1996, John Ortberg, then a teaching pastor at Willow Creek
Community Church,
authored a position paper distributed to staffers at the Illinois mega
church. Mr. Ortberg wrote that on the issue of gender equality, the
church “has sought to insure an appropriate level of consensus on this
issue with new staff members” in order to avoid a divisive environment
that “would be destructive to authentic community and effective
ministry.” Ortberg goes on to say that “when the Bible is interpreted
comprehensively, it teaches the full equality of men and women in status,
giftedness and opportunity for ministry.” Really?
Christians who aren’t embarrassed by their Bibles might beg to differ and
could point to numerous texts, including Deut. 22:5, where we read, “The
woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man
put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord
thy God.”
The law obviously made reference to clothes, but the meaning is far
broader. The intention is to maintain distinctions between the sexes. As
R. J. Rushdoony said in commenting on the text, it “forbids imposing a
man’s duties and tools on a woman, and a woman’s on a man. Its purpose is
thus to maintain God’s fundamental order.” That fundamental order is
hierarchical and, for lack of a better word, patriarchal, and you
shouldn’t allow braying theologians with more degrees than sense tell you
otherwise.
It is also striking that the Bible calls gender-confusion an
“abomination.” There are various Hebrew words translated “abomination,”
but the word used here is toebah, which according to Strong means
“something disgusting” or “an abhorrence, especially idolatry.” Keep in
mind that it is the person, not the act, which is considered loathsome.
The elimination and obliteration of distinctions between the sexes is
rooted in rebellion against God’s order. Indeed, egalitarianism denies
the very principle of order and attempts to arrange creation on its own
terms. Equality thus becomes a philosophical and religious faith that
demands the fidelity of every individual and institution. And since
“conservative” evangelicals have been loath to do battle with the
egalitarian ethos in our homes and churches, what shall we say when it
attacks the military?
The Abu Ghraib prisoner scandal and the capture and rape of Jessica Lynch
should have put the issue of women in combat into the national dialogue.
That it did not shows the degraded character of our culture and the seared
state of our collective conscience.
The inclusion of women in active combat roles has been an ongoing feminist
preoccupation. Today, according to
Bonnie Erbe, women comprise 15% of the active-duty military, 24
percent of the reservists, and one in seven soldiers in Iraq.
But again, the Scriptures are clear that there is a comprehensive pattern
of differentiation between men and women. It is men who protect and lay
down their lives for women, even as Christ died for the Church, and it is
women who bear a responsibility as nurturers. In Joshua 1:14, we read
that the “wives, young children, and livestock” of Israel remained on the
other side of the Jordan River while the “fighting men” crossed the river
to wage war against the Canaanites. Today, Christian men prefer to send
their wives, sisters and daughters to die on foreign battlefields instead
of fighting themselves.
The progressive desexualization of our culture is running amok, and the
distinctions between male and female are increasingly blurred, witness the
rise of the “metrosexual.” To quote Rushdoony again, “modern culture has
a strongly transvestite character. Here as elsewhere it prefers the
character of perversion to the law of God.”
Where are the pastors with the courage to preach on what God says about
sending women into combat, and where are the Christian publications and
leaders who will stand up and call the problem of women in combat what the
Bible does: an “abomination”? Where are the teachers who will call the
doctrine of equality what it is: “heresy”?
July 22, 2004
Darrell Dow writes from Jeffersonville, Indiana where he works as a
statistician. A misanthropic Paleoconservative, Darrell is the husband of
Kathy, and the father of Joshua and Andrew. To see pictures of the boys
and get a small glimpse into the Dow house, visit the family
website. Darrell
also maintains a
website and a new blog.
Darrell can be contacted here.
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