At the Threshold
Whose voice gets to be called credible and whose outrage gets to be counted?
Content warning: sexual assault, abuse
Then he commanded the men whom he sent, saying, “Thus shall you say to all the Israelites, ‘Has such a thing ever happened since the day that the Israelites came up from the land of Egypt until this day? Consider it, take counsel, and speak out.’”
— Judges 19:30
I’ve been stuck on a story from Judges all week long. Obsessively toiling over it. Taking it apart and putting it back together again. That story ends with this verse.
It’s a bit ironic, because it’s a story about what cruel men do to women. As he packages up pieces of a woman’s body to be sent to the corners of the land, this is the message he sends with them. Yet, he bears responsibility for her abuse, death, and dismemberment. He didn’t save her from her fate, but he uses it as a symbol — encouraging others to act with brutality against others.
There’s a gap — between speaking out and the abuse that happens. He didn’t speak to guard her from it or to stop it in progress … but he does in the aftermath because it’s finally useful.
The Levite’s Concubine
The story is from Judges 19, and it’s one of the most devastating stories in Scripture, in my opinion. There is a Levite whose concubine runs away to her father’s house. After some time, he comes to get her and after a respite in her father’s home, they leave for the Levite’s home.
It’s a long journey, and they started late. So they have to stop over in another town. It takes a while to find a safe space to stay, a foreigner offering his home because the town square is too dangerous for them. We soon discover why.
The story continues with men banging on the door of the home they’re in. They are demanding the guest be sent out so they can have sex with them, but the foreigner, ever the “good” host, offers his virgin daughter and the Levite’s concubine. After some back and forth, the Levite grabs his concubine and shoves her out the door.
All night long, she is sexually assaulted and tortured. To the point that in the morning, she is found at the doorway to the house, hand outstretched reaching toward the threshold, and unconscious.
The Levite tries to wake her, but she’s unresponsive. So he loads her up on his horse and heads home. Once he arrives, he dismembers and sends her pieces out to the tribes of Israel to incite violence against the city where she was tortured. The Hebrew doesn’t tell us if she was dead or alive when he took his knife to her body.
His outrage only shows up after he’s taken her apart. She was convenient fodder for his agenda.
How often are we guilty of the same thing (even if unwittingly)?
What a Woman’s Voice is Worth
For years, women have sat in churches, classrooms, and homes having to do defend their gifts and their roles. I know because I’m one of them, a childless woman who has a gift of teaching and who is not geared toward domesticity.
For years, women have done deep scholarship to expand the view of women in churches too. Cynthia Westfall, Sandra Glahn, Marg Mowczko, Beth Allison Barr among many others. (These are just the women combatting bad theology on the complentarian/egalitarian front. Many other women are doing work that expands the way we think of God and living faith from their lived experiences as women like Wil Gafney, Mitzi Smith, Kat Armas, Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz, Kwok Pui-lan, and others). And for them, this goes beyond an academic argument. It’s their lived experience too. They know the arguments intimately because they know what it’s like for these words and ideas to be wielded against them.
In a religious tradition that claims to follow a God who sides with the vulnerable, women’s voices too often fall on deaf ears in the American church. Instead, they have been subjected to spiritual abuse, silenced callings, and lived experiences of deep harm.
This week, Preston Sprinkle released a new book about women in Scripture and church. And don’t get me wrong, I’m really glad to see another person publicly change their minds and present those findings for others to learn from. (I am also hoping that his search doesn’t end here, and he continues to examine his beliefs around gender and sexuality and do so publicly to counter harm he has done in that arena.) He does platform women and he has found his own way through their scholarship too. I do believe that good will come from this … and yet, I find a bit of resentment within myself too.
Why does lived experience plus scholarship only become credible for some when it passes through a male voice?
He is most credible to some not just because of his sex, but also because he is distant from the lived experience of a woman. He is not “too close” to the subject because he’s not been on the bitter end. Why does it take his voice to say what women have been saying all along?
The Women are Watching
A recent finding from PRRI shows that Gen Z women are leaving the church in droves, while young men are finding religion. The voice and experience of men continues to be centered, and the women are paying attention.
Women aren’t leaving because they’ve become “too woke” or have been “backsliding” into feminism. They looked around and watched what happened to their grandmothers, mothers, aunts, and friends. The brilliant minds ignored because of they had the wrong genitalia. The women trapped in offices, cars, and homes with men who exploit, assault, and abuse them. The women who spoke up and get put under investigation, excommunicated, or slandered in public.
Churches are lacking credibility for women because churches refuse to listen women screaming about their experience and shouting their expertise from the rooftops.
They clearly see their place, so they’re leaving it.
Their Bodies Count the Cost
I remember the first time I realized that I didn’t have to justify my presence in a seminary classroom at my mainline seminary. A male classmate asked me what I thought about something we were discussing, and I realized that before I had to muster courage and strength to offer my thoughts in classrooms at church and school, but here I was listened to and proactively asked. I nearly cried when we left because of how that felt.
Until then, I hadn’t realized how caught up in the system I was and how deeply it had impacted me. And I didn’t even experience abuse on a personal level in those spaces.
Right now, the metaphorical bodies of women are strewn about the church. Their voices go unheard, so a message is manufactured on their behalf. The women recognize the pain and devastation, and the men see it as confirmation they were right about women all along.
I’m glad men like Preston Sprinkle are finally hearing our voices and taking heed. I’m angry that some will only listen now because the right messenger has shown up. And I’m devastated that some women are still trapped, hand at the threshold, wishing they could come into to safety but knowing the door will never be fully open to them.
When will the cost that women pay be enough to satisfy the collective conscience of these American churches so they make a change?
** Closing note: I go to a fantastic church that sees women and honors their contributions wherever they choose to make them. You do not need to channel your worry or your anger on my behalf, and I know good churches exist. I’m equally as angry that a segment of churches gets the most attention when there are incredible churches doing what they do not.
Open Book: James 4:1-12
This is a paid subscriber only section where I help you dive into a passage or book. It’s a chance to explore the Bible together with honesty and curiosity. Today, we’re talking about what James, Jesus, and the 10 commandments have to say about the connection between our hearts and our actions.
This isn’t just for me to give you facts about the Bible. Most of these will actually originate from my lessons for my Sunday school class at church, which are discussion heavy. So I want to prompt your own reflection and insights. It’s light on the info and heavy on the chance for you to see something in the pages of Scripture.
