I’ve had this conversation many times over the years with women, including my wife, that women often don’t get the respect they deserve from people they work with.
I’ve witnessed it with my wife. One time my wife and I agreed that we wanted to purchase a piece of equipment, and she went to find the equipment and buy it. The first salesman she works with says, “I have to talk to your husband about this.” He totally blew her off thinking she couldn’t make the decision. We have never gone back to that business.
My wife is not unclear about what to do, let me assure you! She is strong in her convictions and clear about what is right and what is not. And she makes intelligent decisions. The above salesman’s prejudice against women blinded him to working with her just as he would with any man. I’ve seen the same type of treatment in other situations too.
In my own prayers for rectification of this error in society, it’s helpful for me to remember that God’s woman is just as commanding as God’s man. Any woman has the same God-given authority and dominion to make decisions and produce good results that any man has.
It’s not that we rely upon strong human will to get our way. That can become a fight between two human wills. The truth is that God made man “male and female” (Genesis 1:27). The female aspect of God’s “man”—which is the spiritual man—is just as worthy and substantial as the male aspect. They stand on equal footing and are both deserving of respect and honor. One is never better than the other. They complement each other.
Humanity has a long way to go until the full rights of the “male and female” of God’s creating is recognized and honored in all its glory, but progress is happening. We will get there! It’s inevitable.
God’s woman is just as commanding of respect and worthy of honor as God’s man. It’s a truth that will continue to gain traction and prevail. Truth is always inevitable!
Bravo, Evan!
I recall once I was on a business trip and staying in a very nice hotel in the Midwest. It was in the middle of winter and my heater went out of commission. I called the front desk and they made arrangements for a repair man to come first thing in the morning.
He showed up with a massive toolbelt around his waist and I spontaneously stated I thought it might be the heating coil. He rolled his eyes and said he would check it out. This was at 8:00 a.m. I had meetings to attend offsite and when I returned to my room after 5:00 p.m. I was surprised he was still there, just finishing up. I asked him what he determined the problem was and he mumbled, barely audible enough to hear “it was the heating coil.” I was shocked and thought to myself “it took all day to discover that or did he stretch it out on purpose?” I wasn’t thinking defensively but I thought it was funny that he probably could have checked that out first and finished the job sooner. I’m not mechanically inclined and I felt it was Mind revealing the problem because it was so intuitively spontaneous. But I distinctly noticed the resistance when I said something, — most likely because I am a female and it was possibly laughable to him that I would be so forward in stating what I felt the problem could be. I was just trying to be helpful to make his job easier.
And this applies to age as well. I don’t tell my age as people think one is too young or too old to do things.
Evan thanks for addressing the God-given equality of men and women, and how this equality is often not manifested in society. The practice of patriarchy (domination or power and control in a society by males) is more common in Western society but is not natural or inevitable and not universal. There are matriarchal and matrilineal societies in other parts of the world, going back in time and continuing now. I did a quick internet search and found many references, here is a recent article from National Geographic magazine if anyone is interested.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/angela-saini-patriarchy-matriarchy-gender-equality
Yet it’s no better to have women dominating men than it is to have men dominating women. Equality and shared power, respect and rights is the spiritual ideal.
Good point, Rose. We don’t need for women to dominate men either.
Mrs. Eddy wrote about the laws of our Church like this, and includes “equality of the sexes”.
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The church is the mouthpiece of Christian Science, — its law and gospel are according to Christ Jesus; its rules are health, holiness, and immortality, — equal rights and privileges, equality of the sexes, rotation in office. (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 247:5)
Mrs. Eddy demonstrated her own ability to do what might have been considered men’s jobs,
including starting up a newspaper, and overseeing it.. And even the belief of ageing couldn’t prevent her from demonstrating her God-given ability to do whatever it was right for her to do. She treated everyone as an equal, seeing them as Christ saw them, and didn’t recognise any personal sense or personal power for herself or anyone. She saw no limitations, because she understood that we were all reflections of God, and that we all included male and female qualities and abilities. She gave God all the power and all the glory.
What a wonderful example she gave for us, as she followed the teachings of Christ Jesus so faithfully She would let Christ go before her in everything, and wait for as long as was necessary to hear from God what she should do. in any situation.
Appreciate this blog entry more than you know. I also aim to address the correct viewing of God’s woman too. Very grateful and blessed to have a younger sister’s example who has demonstrated breaking stereotypes in her career. (She has served the Army and has a mechanical engineering degree).
Thank you Evan and Kathy for this clearer recognition.
God who is predominantly the head of all of us. Governs each of His children. Therfore, there is no special previledge, which is given
to men, as appose to women….the same decision a man can make. A woman cando it same. All power comes from our Father-Mother.
In my family experience questioning the ability of women vs men was never a question to even consider. This falsity simply didn’t arise.
Thankfully that was true in my family also.
I thought we experience error because we have a belief in a power outside of God ?
Inequality and prejudice aren’t real, so why would we want to make them real ?
As someone somewhat new to Christian Science, I find this giving power to mortal mind confusing.
Didn’t that never happen to who your wife truly is, and who the salesman truly is can’t have behaved that way, so none of it is real not even the power of the grudge held against the business ?
Please, no offense intended. Just genuine searching. I see articles in publications doing the same thing, and just feel confused by it.
Thank you.
This is marvelous and I sent this Blog to many of my friends who are not from church. Last summer I gave someone a series of articles. She came across the concept of God as mother and asked me where in the Bible it said it because she had always believed it but couldn’t find support for it in Biblical writings. I pointed out a few such as Isaiah’s words “ as a mother comforted her children so will I comfort you” and the parables from Jesus that start with “ The Kingdom of heaven is like a woman”
Here is a quote from an article titled God’s law of ascending order by Barbara Cook Spencer , “Referring to the order in which the divine creation is unfolded in the first chapter of Genesis, Mary Baker Eddy writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “The Mind or intelligence of production names the female gender last in the ascending order of creation. The intelligent individual idea, be it male or female, rising from the lesser to the greater, unfolds the infinitude of Love” (p. 508). She also explains in Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, “In its genesis, the Science of creation is stated in mathematical order, beginning with the lowest form and ascending the scale of being up to man” (p. 57).
To me this means that the divine idea, female, is the highest visible manifestation of divine Love in the world today because it was the last idea created in the ascending order of being.
Thanks, Evan-
There have been many times in my life when I have been discriminated against and/or not taken seriously because I am a woman.
Jesus never saw woman as less but equal. There are many instances in the Bible where that is demonstrated. I have heard that much of women’s contributions in Biblical times were erased due to the prevalence of the Patriarchy. But we do have Esther, Abigail, the Mary’s and others to draw from.
Doing a deep dive on male and female, manhood/womanhood, masculine and feminine, etc., in The Bible and Mrs. Eddys writings is something I have begun to undertake in my spiritual study as of late. It is eye opening. We are equal in Gods eyes right now and that is all that matters. The human will catch up with the divine. Maybe not today but it will inevitably.
just a slight change in perspective: I’ve often had men — particularly with car repair and plumbing — be very kind and protective of me, explaining what I need to know to NOT be taken advantage of. I don’t think being “commanding” is in my repertoire. I don’t know much about what’s traditionally been make territory, but I’ve learned a lot from men. So it’s also true that men can be as kind and caring as women, and of course honesty has no gender.