Seeking women’s equality an act of Western Imperialism?

Dr. Vishal Mangalwadi in his lectures entitled, “Must the Sun Set on the West?” made the following profound observation about the secular West’s rejection of God yet insistence upon the equality between men and women:

You reject the biblical worldview, reject the New Testament worldview, but the idea of equality between male and female comes from the same worldview. If you reject that worldview, and make a statement, “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men and women are evolved equal,” that statement makes no sense, because by definition, evolution is explanation of inequality. Why are species unequal? Evolution is an explanation of inequality. Why are men and women equal? There is no ground for believing and affirming equality of human beings except that both were created in God’s image and they share the likeness of God. So even though they are biologically different, intellectually there might be differences, economically, physically there might be differences, there is a moral equality, which is equality before God, equality before law, etc. etc., which is desirable. So in rejecting the biblical worldview, the notion of equality has also got to be rejected—will be rejected. For West to demand that other cultures—Muslim culture, Hindu culture—should treat men and women equal is Western Imperialism. West is imposing its value of equality on other cultures. United Nations is becoming an agent of America and the West in imposing equality. Unless! Unless, equality in fact is a metaphysical truth, which is, of course what the Bible is teaching.


When I consider how the many people in the West who celebrate women’s equality are often associated with paganism (e.g. Wicca), I think what a shock it would be for them to find out that the liberation they so cherish is not found in paganism but the very Christianity that they have so desperately attempted to be separate from. In fact, it is one of the peculiar elements of New Testament theology that women are placed on equal footing with men.

As for thinking globally about things, things that I consider to be a gross mistreatments of women, like widow burning (sati) or female circumcision, which have been practiced and/or are continuing to be practiced, it is the equality inherit in the concept of male and female being created in the image of God that ultimately offers the moral basis for why people should rally the world to stand against such mistreatment of women.

Peace.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Grappling with the Craziness of an Election Year with the Book of Kings

Image
Well this is another election year, which makes the Tuesday after the first Monday in November the terminus ad quem for all the political madness that comes beforehand in the USA. With all the mudslinging, rioting, and overall incivility, it is hard to believe were still have over five months to go. I am going through the Book of 1-2 Kings at the moment, and the refrain “Only the high places were not taken away” caught my eye, and as I began to meditate upon them, I found them to be a bit helpful in grappling with all that goes on during these turbulent election years. Here a little background is needed. After the days of Solomon there came about a civil war that divided the children of Abraham living in the promise land into two nations—the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. There eventually came about a series of rulers in the kingdom of Judah whose reigns the biblical writer describes this way: Jehoash did right in the sight of the LORD…Only ...
Read more

The Good Thing About God and Judgment

Image
Today, I was continuing my trek through the extensive Paul and the Faithfulness of God by N.T. Wright. There is so much content in this extensive two-volume work, I can only soak in a small percentage of it. Working through Wright is always a work in progress. He is just one of those astute theologians who leaves no stone unturned in developing a point. Wright makes this observation about the way the larger story of the New Testament conveyed in Paul’s works concerns God’s judgment in the world, which is part of the way he has come to setup his rule over the world. On p. 481 Write notes,  The word “judgment” has of course been allowed to slip into negative mode in the contemporary western world, with “judgmentalism” one of the classic postmodern villains. But even a postmodernist whose car has been damaged by a drunk driver wants a court to pass “judgment” against the offender. “Judgment” is in fact a positive thing. It is what restores health to a society, a bala...
Read more

As the Dust Settles in Haiti…

Last Sunday as I was getting my groceries totaled up, the checker asked if I would like to make a donation to Haiti, which I did. The amount was practically nothing, but it did remind me that for the entirety of the previous week, it seemed as if the entire world zeroed in on what was going on that half of the Island of Hispaniola, which was devastated by a massive earthquake on January 12, 2010. News sources consider this the largest earthquake that country had experienced in the last 200 years, and many report an estimated 50,000 lives perished. Events like this always remind me that human life is so precious, yet at the same time, one can never know when life’s flame shall be extinguished. There were lots of voices chiming in on the Haiti situation, and many of them were quite helpful, instructing people on what they could do to help survivors. I even had an acquaintance share his intention to travel to the island to do some aid work. I say Godspeed! I also heard a few disheartening...
Read more