Caitlin Ware

I re-read the book of Judges recently. Because of other conversations taking place in our church about women in leadership, I was keenly aware of the trajectory of the treatment of women in the book of Judges. Early on: a woman is a praise-worthy judge (Deborah!); a woman (Jael) acts courageously to kill a wicked general; then an unnamed woman flings a stone from a tower to kill a bully. But things get worse. Women play the role of temptress in the Samson story. By the end of the book, an unnamed concubine is given over to a mob of lustful men, and she is killed. Her body is then sliced into pieces and sent throughout the nation to spark outrage. Think of it: Women go from being a judge to being a prop. And what's the headline of the book of Judges? "The people did what was right in their own eyes." Left on its own, the trajectory of a sinful culture results in the degradation of women. It is the redemptive action of God in the world that elevates and empowers women. For all the insinuation that women in church leadership is the result of "cultural corruption" , I have become convinced it was the influence of sin that excluded women in the first place.