Cultural Connections
Cultural Connections is a podcast that tackles the real-life issues modern people face every day. From trending topics to personal struggles, each episode approaches today’s cultural conversations through a Biblical lens. Our goal is simple: to help you navigate everyday life with timeless truth.
Cultural Connections
Episode 2: What is a Woman?
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Join Pastor Cox and his wife Marie for real conversations about faith and everyday life.
In this episode they tackle one of the most controversial questions of our time: What is a woman? From Supreme Court hearings and dictionary changes to Genesis 1, they give a clear, biblical, and scientific answer that cuts through the confusion.
Simple. Honest. Always grounded in God's Word.
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đź“Ś CHAPTERS
0:00 Welcome Back to Cultural Connections
0:25 “What Is a Woman?” – The Question Everyone’s Asking
1:10 Ketanji Jackson Brown Supreme Court Moment
2:29 A Woman Is a Female Image-Bearer of God
4:12 How Dictionaries & Culture Changed the Definition
6:58 When “Gender” Was Invented (1950s)
9:16 Science Proves It’s in Your DNA
12:10 God Uses “Female” Attributes to Reveal Himself
18:38 Gender Is Not a Social Construct
21:13 The Powerful Meaning of “Help Meet” (Ezer Kenegdo)
29:07 Women Set the Temperature in the Home
34:34 Why the Church Must Defend Biblical Womanhood
42:26 Ideas Have Consequences – Men in Women’s Sports
44:34 Matt Walsh Documentary Ending (Hilarious!)
New episodes coming soon!
Thanks for watching — we’d love to grow this with you.
#WhatIsAWoman #BiblicalWomanhood #Genesis1 #FaithAndCulture #ChristianPodcast #JesusAndGender
Well, welcome back to the podcast. And this is Cultural Connections, and we are having conversations of some things that are ripped from the headlines. And so we put a video camera in front of ourselves and just try to have a conversation about some things that we think that you're talking about. And certainly in the last couple years, our culture has been trying to ask what for millennia I think was a pretty self-evident question. What is a woman? So I remember a couple of years ago, uh Katanji Jackson Brown was running for, or I guess she was being interviewed regarding uh a Supreme Court seat, and a senator asked her that question. I think it was Marcia Blackburn from the great state of Tennessee, right? A woman asking another woman.
SPEAKER_08I think so.
SPEAKER_00In a southern draw, what is a woman? Like, what is a woman? And I never forget what uh the justice said. She said, I don't know. I'm not a biologist. And kind of wrapped up in that answer was really decades, I think, of confusion, maybe deliberate, maybe not, of what is a woman and how do we define what is is foundational. So we were having a conversation in church last night about where we are as a society in relation to the feminist movement that really uh we could argue kind of began with Margaret Sanger into kind of the 50s, 60s, 70s. We have the cultural sexual revolution, we have the onset of rock and roll, and kind of questioning a woman's place. Is a woman's place in the home? Is it in the workplace? And we started having those conversations. Now we're at the place where we went from gay rights to trans rights, and now we're questioning in the midst of kind of female power, what does it mean to even be a female? So I kind of start with you. Uh I I searched for the greatest woman I know, and so I'm gonna ask you, what is a woman?
SPEAKER_08Well, a woman is the female version of an image bearer of God. That's what a woman is. Um there's been I I I guess people attempting to define it. I've heard phrases like, well, a woman is a a birth giver, but not all women can a birthing person. A birthing person thinking.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I just saw recently a biological man was having a or a biological woman who was trans, was a man, now was giving birth. It was the first man to give birth, and so now maybe the definition a birthing person. Um our our friend Jeff Redlin said um years ago, it kind of feels like we're playing a little bit of a game. But I come back, I interrupted you.
SPEAKER_08Well, I I was just going to say I that so obviously that definition isn't going to work because not all women maybe have the physical ability to give birth to a child. And that that's that's only one part of being a woman is a mother. There's there's there's many parts to a woman. So I put it, I think, in the simplest form, uh, a woman is the female part of the image bearer of God.
SPEAKER_00So we'll kind of come back to that uh imagery from Genesis chapter one. So it's it's not necessarily uh a person who can give birth, would it be someone with the potentiality of producing a child?
SPEAKER_08Okay.
SPEAKER_00So uh uh Simon or Simone Simone de Beauvoir. The great thing about French is I don't know if it's right or not, it just sounded good coming off the tongue. Uh she said uh that a woman that of women there is no biological destiny that defines the figure that the human female takes on in society. Uh Keir Starmer, he is the uh Prime Minister of uh Great Britain, said recently a woman is an adult female. And then I was looking at uh some newer definitions. This is from the Cambridge Dictionary. It's really interesting, by the way, how dictionaries can overnight overturn terminologies. I think it was in a uh a um Supreme Court hearing that the term, I think it was um uh Amy Coney Barrett, used the term sexual preference and overnight Merriam-Webster's dictionary redefined that term. So we've got to be really careful. I think me and you always try to define our terms on the show because uh he that gets to control the verbiage kind of wins the debate. Uh but Cambridge uh updated the definition to this an adult, a woman is an adult who lives and identifies as female, though they may have been said to have been a different sex at birth. So there's kind of a philosophical uh conversation I just want to have really quickly before we get to Genesis chapter one. Uh Francis Schaefer years ago tried to define like how do how do we as a society get to this, what he labeled as like a if you imagine a two-story house, we have the ground floor, we have the upper floor. And he said in in modern terminology, the ground floor is where facts and science and logic and data live, and in the upper floor is where religion or morality live. So in society today, we've kind of split there's science and then there's faith. There there's uh there's empirical data and then there's belief or morality. And Nancy Pearcy wrote about this in her book on toxic masculinity. She said our concept of what it is to be a human being has also become fragmented with the body in the lower story and the real person in the upper story. So I know you've talked about kind of uh what does it mean to be a woman uh biologically, and not until I think it was 1950, 1952, uh money, George money, John money, George Money.
SPEAKER_02George.
SPEAKER_00Uh the term gender was actually created. For years we used the term sex, which in the Latin means to divide or separate. That's really kind of leading into Genesis chapter one. There's a very distinct separation. Our creator God, he created darkness from light, night from day, he created with distinction. Six days are separated from the seventh day. And then he creates man in his own image, and he created them male and female. It's that last definition that we're kind of taking up, or distinction, I should say, we're taking up male and female. So for millennia, we talked about sex, male or female, and then in the 1950s, researchers developed this idea of gender that throws gender into the upper floor. So you have biology now in modern terms, you have biology and you have psychology, if that's the right word to use. We have we have uh anatomy, but we have self-identity. Does that am I saying that right? Yeah. So I know you've talked with a lot of kids in school and and some who maybe claim claim to be gay or trans or non-binary or cisgender or whatever term they want to use. What what did they think they mean by those terms? Do they know what that means?
SPEAKER_08Well, they can define it because I I recall one time speaking to someone and they said to me a term that I had not heard. It was the first time I had heard it. It obviously is much more popular now, you would hear it, but the term was pansexual. And so I said, I I'm not familiar. Could you please define that for me? And and that person was able to define it, you know. Um but it was the newest, it was the newest title. It was the newest one to choose. Um so can they define it with words? Yeah, but can they define what that truly means? No.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_08Um so you you do see that. I I feel like it's like um, what's the newest trend? What's what's the newest word to pick out? What's the newest um I guess gender is the is the word because that's what they're calling it. Although we would say there's only two.
SPEAKER_00Sure.
SPEAKER_08Um, but in their mind there's there's multitudes of it.
SPEAKER_00And in their mind, this is kind of the easiest way to find community or validation in in claiming something that's new. That's but we're making a faith argument today, but I think we're also making a pro-science statement today as well. That uh Paula Johnson uh physician noted that we're not just sex in our uh genitalia for lack of a more delicate term, that we are we are gendered even down at the cellular level.
SPEAKER_08Yes, yes, our our DNA. I mean, you could take a portion, let's say hundreds of years from now, they dig up our bones somewhere, and maybe they just have a fragment piece. They could take that and and with some testing determine whether we were a male or a female without fleshly genitalia. So so in other words, it's down to the the very molecular DNA level. So uh it's just funny because we're people say as Christians, well, we don't believe science. Well, we're here as Christians saying, here's the science.
SPEAKER_00Trust the science.
SPEAKER_08So it's they you know, they they pick and choose when they want to trust the science and when they don't.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_08Um and I I have no problem with science, science that is factual and true.
SPEAKER_00Um so I'm encouraging people today to reject the split, the the the the bottom floor, the upper floor, and this is this is kind of uh Pearcy's argument as well, that a coherent worldview unites biological reality with identity, with morality, and with meaning, rather than placing these on different floors of truth. In other words, we are fearfully and wonderfully made. So, what does it mean to be a woman? There is a biological answer to that, uh, but there's a spiritual answer to that as well, and I think that's kind of where we want to get to today is what it means to be a woman. You said is to be a female image-bearer of God. So you're referring to Genesis chapter 1, God created man in his own image, and the image of God created he him. Male and female created he them. So I want you to talk a little bit about the Bible paints uh the identity of God for us, and when we think of God, we often think of that those masculine qualities that make God God, or that we would see a man emulating certain characteristics of God, and we would say that's a manly thing. But there's a lot of evidence in the Bible that really paints God having those uh what we might culturally call those female qualities as well. So, what did you find in the Bible about God manifesting himself to women, maybe, particularly in some of those characteristics?
SPEAKER_08Yeah, and I I like to use the phrase God revealing himself to us, utilizing female attributes. And I I think I I always kind of want to lay the foundation because I never want someone to think I'm saying something that I'm not saying. Um so I start with the fact that God transcends gender. He created gender, and we see that clearly in Genesis where God created gender. You just quoted the verse, and that is the moment that that gender began. God transcends that. God is doesn't take on a gender form like we do, that that's not who he is. Um that being said, we know that Adam was created in the image of God, and I think this is where people sort of fall off the wagon, yeah, is they they know Adam was created in the image of God, but then they falsely state that Eve was made in the image of Adam. Yeah, but that is not what scripture says.
SPEAKER_00I've tested that publicly before.
SPEAKER_08Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Say uh who was Adam made in the likeness of, and people say God. And and with without necessarily not just rare exception to that, and Eve was made in whose image. And people say Adam.
SPEAKER_08I'll say Adam.
SPEAKER_00But that is not what Genesis says.
SPEAKER_08That is that's not what God claims at all.
SPEAKER_00Male and female.
SPEAKER_08Male and female created he them in his image. And of course, we I think most of the time when when in our own minds, because we live in a gender world, it would be hard for us to try to understand something without a gender. If something is is a living creature, like even with in the animal world, we think of it as a male or a female. We have these clear distinctions. So in our own minds, we kind of have to humanize God a little bit to try to understand him. So I think in most of the time we're we are viewing God as a man, so he's just like this. And and and understandably so, because God is in the Bible scripture speaks and uses he, him, father. These are all manly terms to refer to someone. Um, so I think it's natural that people believe that, and it what is overlooked are some of these things that I want to share with you, which helps me as a woman, and I think will help other women to understand that we too were made in the image of God. Well, how? Show me how. How is God saying this? So there's just several portions of scripture where God is revealing himself to his people or to the world, and he uses these, like we said, these female attributes. So the first one is Hosea 13, 8. And God is saying, I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps. So, in other words, God is God is saying, if my children are being hurt or attacked, I am going to come and rescue them the way a mother bear would for her bear cubs. And as a woman, we we can really relate to that. I mean, we we even use that phrase, oh, I'm a mother, I'm a mama bear, or whatever. And what do we mean by that? Like I will protect my child at all costs, no matter what. I mean, nothing is like a like a mother bear that's just been, you know, triggered. And so God is saying, Yeah, I'm like that too when it comes to my children. So, right there, I think a woman can say, Wow, that that is like the image of God that I'm seeing in my own life. The next one is Isaiah 49, 15. Um, the Bible says, Can a woman forget her sucking child or a child that is nursing? And then he says, Yay, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee? And God is God is doing something pretty amazing right here. He's stating that I cannot forget my children. They're like nursing babies to me. And and what does that mean that when we say we're a nursing mother or we have a nursing child? That child is receiving its full sustenance from me as their mother. And that's what God is saying he is to his children, which is just an amazing. Um, I could keep going, but he feel free to enter.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, maybe one more.
SPEAKER_08But Isaiah 42, 14 is a powerful one. Um, God says, I will cry like a travailing woman. In other words, a woman who is is travailing in childbirth. I will destroy and devour at once. So he's saying, I will fight and I will come to like the jaws of death, how we describe childbirth, to bring forth life into this child. And God says, I do the same thing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um, so I think if we zoomed out a little bit and tried to think about God created human beings as a means of putting his image in us for for what purpose? I think the purpose is to say we don't live in a world in which God physically manifests himself, as you said. God uses metaphors or relationships that we identify with to try to understand who he is. He has to use the earthly as a means of teaching us about himself because we only have an earthly perspective. So Adam and Eve are created in a world in which people will not necessarily know or perceive or understand the full revelation of God. And God says, I want the world to know who I am. And so Adam is a projection. We think of the sun and moon, right? The sun obviously produces its own light, the moon is a refractor or reflector of that light. Adam does not have his own light, he's a reflection of the glory of God. So when the light reflects off of Adam, people see God. And what it means to be made in God's image, we could talk about this some other time. But yeah, God's a trinity, maybe we're a trinity of parts or a maybe multifaceted uh inner-outer life. But it means so much more than that. I mean, God is creative, he's personal, he's relational, he's emotional, he's creative, um, he organizes structures. And that's that's what it part of what it means, I think, to be made in God's image. And I ask God to kind of broaden my perspective on what that means. But also it means when Eve is interacting as a mother, as as a wife, as in some of those facets that make women women, I think the world goes, oh wow, that's that's God too. That's what you're saying. That's God too.
SPEAKER_08That is. That's exactly what I'm saying. And and I think part of why we see women swing the pendulum so far, maybe is to the feminist movement or whatever else you're seeing. I mean, it changes. But it's be they're reacting to to a false assumption about who we even are. And okay, well, yeah, a man is made in God's image, and I'm obviously nothing. Well, no, you are. You you are beautifully made in the image of God as well. And so many of these characteristics that that we would use to or maybe we associate with a woman, um, they're from God Himself. And it's just it's a it's an amazing thought really to view it in that way.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the Apostle Paul even uh writes to the Church of Thessalonica and he says he he was as a father among them, he nourished them, he strengthened them, he challenged them. But as an as a mother or as a nurse, he cherished them. So he he was playing that I want to project for you the full nature of of God. So I think what we're trying to say then is gender is not a social construct.
SPEAKER_02No.
SPEAKER_00Okay, maybe that if if I said gender philosophy is a social construct.
SPEAKER_07Or gender roles, I think we could use that phrase too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and that's where I was going. So, yeah. Great minds think alike, right? So cultural, so gender is not a social construct, or if we use the word sex, okay, male and female. That that is a creation of God. But gender roles are a social construct.
SPEAKER_08Yes, and they're very cultural. I mean, you could go to different cultures, and the the way a woman or a man is expected to behave is going to be quite different.
SPEAKER_00Right. So that's confused. I think that's confused people. Um your mom loves to fish.
SPEAKER_08She loves to fish. She loves to play sports. She taught us all how to play sports.
SPEAKER_00We have a friend whose husband has allergies and she likes to mow the grass. I think traditionally, culturally, we would say, man, that's a guy's job to mow the grass, or to take out the trash, or to pay the bills. Um so we're not saying that the Bible doesn't give us a list of um, man, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had to take out the trash. And uh and Sarah and Rebecca and Rachel, they they have to cook all the food. That's the Bible doesn't say that to us, but essentially, there are some distinctive things, I think, about what it what it does mean to be a woman.
SPEAKER_08Yeah. Uh I I maybe if we even use the word positionally, um, I don't know if that's a good word to use it, but but God makes it clear, and we see that in in Genesis as well. And God, God gives us our our biblical role. And for a female, it's to be an help meet. And it's that's also something I really enjoy to speak on or talk to women about because it's so powerful. Um, the the phrase, the Hebrew phrase for help meet is azir connecto. And it's it's really powerful. Um, the word azir simply means help, but maybe what what some people don't understand is the word is used multiple times in scripture, and most of those times it is used in reference to God Himself. Himself as being our helper in times of trouble. And I have some some scripture references on that that I could read here in a moment. But that that word help, I think, because when we think of that word, especially in our English version of the Bible, the word is help meet. And so we we kind of take the word help and we think, at least for me, I think of the word helper.
SPEAKER_00Are you thinking inferiority?
SPEAKER_08Yes, an inferiority thing. And and a lot of times I I don't know that what comes to my mind when I think of a little helper is a teacher in assigning a person. Oh, you get to be the teacher's helper today. And so it's like, oh, okay, give me my little task. I get to hold the door today, or I get to do that today. And then you're just waiting for the teacher to assign you some really special job, and you're like a helper. But that's not what scripture is saying. Although that's a great thing, but that's not what scripture is saying. Um it has more of this idea that I am ready to help and rescue in this extreme um moment of battle, spiritual battle, right? And and the the wife is here ready to help you and to maybe help your blind side or come in in those places where there's some shortcoming on your end and be there and ready to help as a whole, working together. And then conegno, um, also very interesting, it has this idea that we're together, yet we're opposite to. And um it's sort of like I I like to use the illustration in at the wedding altar, when we see the the father comes and he brings the bride there to the altar to be given to the groom. And the the preacher then says, Okay, will you take the the bride's hands? And and he has us face each other, at least this is what our pastor did. And we faced each other and we held hands together. And that's a beautiful picture of what connecto means. I'm I'm opposite of you, we're we're we're facing each other this way, but we're together. And and that's really what it means. I am your helper, I'm different than you. I come in and I I can make up those shortcomings that you have. I'm I'm there to kind of fill in those gaps as you are with me. And so we're coming together in this beautiful picture of what the the Bible calls and help me.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I like that. I I think too, because the image of God is is a set thing. Uh G G.K. Chesterston, the um the English apologist, talked about a coin that was minted maybe in England that was marked and marred and run over in the streets and fell in the filth and mire of of London, what gives it value? He said the king's image is on it. And I used the illustration last night about a mirror. Okay, we're created in God's image. Uh even if a mirror is broken, there's still a reflection. But to say help me kind of means, and kind of back to this cultural gender role thing. I think when you find your other person, there it's not a static set of um this is how it works together, in the sense of there were things that made me me, there were things that made you you, and those aren't the same for all my friends and their spouses or your friends and their spouses. It's when God brings people together, He He knows our deficiencies or our strengths, and you're part of my sanctification. Now we've talked about that recently, and I've been part of your sanctification as well. It's completing the picture. That'd be a great way to say that. God, God through marriage, he really does complete the picture.
SPEAKER_08I just read a quote. I'm sorry to interrupt, but it made me think of what you just said. It said, God did not give you a spouse to make you happy, he gave you a spouse to make you holy. And I thought that was a really great quote. And that's really what we're doing. And and we we we use the phrase opposite attract, right? The opposites attract. And so we we kind of have people, and and we would say that about ourselves. We're very, we're very different. And then in some ways, we're we're very similar because we've we've lived together for so long, we've taken on each other's sort of likes and preferences, but at the end of the day, we're very different people. But where maybe I'm strong in one area, you might be weak in that area, or where I am weak in that area, you're strong in that area. And we're we're just really kind of working like sandpaper to just kind of work off the rough edges of each other. And I think I thought that was a really great way to say it. I I you weren't given to me to make me happy, although you make me very happy. Thank you. That that you were given by God to me to make me holy.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's awesome. That's that's really, really true. And when God brings people together, if you're married or not married, but when God brings people together, there is that work of sanctification. And how many people have we seen uh stop God's good work of sanctification in their lives, maybe resisting something in their partner that maybe wasn't part of that image that they expected? And even in our brokenness, God trying to meet us in that place, wanting us to invite Him into our brokenness to make it all work and create something beautiful out of it. And people leave that process to to maybe restart it with someone who's going to maybe represent even still those areas that they they should have they should have stayed in the saddle, so to speak, and let God let God use that relationship. Like no no relationship, no, no human relationship based with with two imperfect people is is a pr is is perfectly smooth. There's there's struggles and trials, obviously, but it's God that's in the in the midst of all of that, make making it work for his glory.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, for sure. I have those scriptures. I don't know if you wanted me to read some of them. Because I think they're really helpful in reference to Azir as as we were saying too, as God being our help. I think they're really powerful. So Exodus 18.4 says, the God of my father was mine help or my Azir and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh. What a powerful thought, right there. That that God was the help when his people needed to be delivered from Pharaoh. That's the kind of help we're talking about. Or how about um Psalm 70, verse 5? I am poor and needy. Make haste unto me, O God. Thou art my help or my Azir and my deliverer. I am I'm very weak in this moment. I I'm really needy. There's something about me that I need to be, I need help from. And God says, I'm your Azir, I'm your deliverer. And that's just the same phrase that he gives to a woman. And it's just, it's amazing. There's so much strength in that. And strength takes on so many different maybe ideas. I think sometimes, especially in our culture, when we think of strength, we think like maybe masculine or or or physically strong. But as we see in Proverbs 31, strength looks different than that. Strength is very different than maybe what the world says strength is.
SPEAKER_00Sure. So Yeah, I mean, if if if a guy is like intimidated by a woman's strength, wait until we have to produce children. Like I think it was up to guys to bring like progeny into the world to be like, we'll just stop it right here.
SPEAKER_08If you can't handle a man cold, you certainly cannot handle childbirth. There's that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so there's a moral strength about it, and I like that. There's a moral strength about it. So the woman is to be azir, strong, right? A help. Okay, so what happens in a society when women leave the natural use, they redefine their terms, they redefine their roles, they redefine their place, and a culture turns itself upside down in seeking to redefine womanhood. Well, we know what happens. We read about it in Romans chapter 1, that guys typically, if you if you read Romans chapter 1, you'll notice there there are some egregious sins that Paul mentions, but it really begins with the woman leaving the natural use and then the men likewise, Paul says in Romans chapter 1. And once that happens, then it's game on. So we we need women to embrace that role, not just to cook, clean, and conceive. I didn't think he would go there, but he just did. Our son heard a joke. It is a joke, but he heard the joke that a woman's place is on in the kitchen. Who else is going to clean the rest of the house? That's a traditional, maybe old-fashioned. It's insulting. There's no doubt it's insulting. But when when women leave the natural use of their identity in Christ, let's use that term. Their identity in Christ, their place to, um, if blessed with children, to bring children into the world to reflect to that child the likeness of God as it does come through women, when that ceases to take place, we we see catastrophe in our world.
SPEAKER_08Yeah. I I was just, as you were saying, I was thinking through maybe some things like that that uh that a mother really represents to her child, and I was thinking, um, really patience. You don't see a lot of that with a father. I mean, there everybody's different. There's different people, but just in general terms, like a mother is so patient with her children, it makes me think of God so patient with his children. Or or a mother is really emotionally in tune with her children. And sometimes I even with us, I'll have to whisper and say, no, honey, that's not what that's not what she means. Like you're going the wrong way, and I'm trying to like give them hints as what what our children are trying to say to him. What is that? I'm I'm just emotionally in tune with our children as as their mother. And how emotionally in tune is God to his children? Just a great thought.
SPEAKER_00Your pastor would say and had has often said that the wife is the Holy Spirit of the home. Um, I think I know what he meant by that, but I wasn't there for that. What did he mean by that?
SPEAKER_08I I think when he would say that, he would, he would reference that the mother is kind of or the the wife is is setting the tone. She's setting the spiritual temperature in that home. Because there there is this there is this strong, I'm gonna use a really present word, but there's a strong aura, if I can use that word. Uh your aura farming. Obviously, have teenagers.
SPEAKER_00They'll tell us if you lost your aura. Yeah, they'll let me know.
SPEAKER_08But there's this this strong that I remember my grandmother had a little placard in her kitchen and it said, if mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. And really, how how true is that? And how sad is that too? Because if she's not happy, everybody is gonna feel it.
SPEAKER_00This is true.
SPEAKER_08But if she is happy, yeah, everybody will feel it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_08And so she's setting the temperature, and I and I think that's what my pastor meant. He's not here for for me to ask him can you really define what you meant by that? But I as I heard him say that so many times, I literally thought about that placard in my grandmother's kitchen, and I thought, yeah, he's right. And we just if if mom ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. Because she really has this strong emotional, I'll use another word, vibe. That's that's kind of being it's palpable. And and understanding, women, that you do have that power, and it to me it it it it weighs on me like a heavy responsibility that I'm setting the temperature in this home right now. And where am I at with God? What does the temperature in my home look like? And if it's wrong, I I do some inward battle. It's just something that I've done, especially when I hear my children maybe when they're acting in a certain way or speaking in a way that maybe displeases me a little bit, and I think actually that sounded a lot like me. And it's it's that moment where God pricks you and says, Yeah, you you kind of need to work there because they're they're modeling after you. So, I mean, to give a long answer, I think that's what my pastor meant.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. What we can't do as Christians, and part of the reason we want to have this podcast and these conversations, we want to vigorously defend the Christian faith. If we give up on this institution of womanhood. And I would say, uh, and this is uh another show, that churches have not really done a very good job of painting womanhood in a biblical light, um, painting it in a fair light. Um, and there were some hues of oppression and inferiority that I think were very unhelpful, and we'll we can talk about that later. But we are we're not gonna give up on men and women are created in the image of God. Mother and father are created in the image of God, and and we live in a broken world, we we know that. You work with us a lot, I I see this a lot as well. We want to meet people where they are in their brokenness. But we're one we're going to defend the home. That there's a there's a wife, there's a father, they both have responsibilities, and ultimately, though the world is broken, we can still build families that honor God and still honor womanhood for what for what it is.
SPEAKER_08For sure. And it's it's something that obviously it's it's it's obviously a topic uh in in our country and our culture right now. But this is this is such a huge issue. This this is beyond even our American culture. Like when women lose their, and we see that in scripture. When the woman turned, society started dropping quickly, and so it's just a powerful thought or idea, I guess I can use that phrase, of of the importance and value of a woman really understanding who she is in God. This is important, and to not swing the pendulum so far. Yeah, there are uh oppressive things that have taken place and and and sadly to say even Christians, you know, and and churches have have added to it. But don't swing the pendulum so far that you you forget exactly who God has created you to be and has blessed you with some wonderful attributes that are exactly how God designed you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. If we were having a conversation about uh Bible doctrines or systematic theology, I would say if we get womanhood wrong, first of all, we violate theology because men and women are created in the image of God. If we get it wrong, we violate anthropology because the Bible teaches us the nature of manhood and womanhood. Or my good friend Anu Smyrna, in his prayers, used to call about, he used to pray for the brotherhood and the sisterhood. I'd never heard anybody say that before. Anthropology would be violated. Um I think there's downstream impacts to ecclesiology, like church doctrine. So I often like to say to people, I used the word inferiority earlier and wanted to come back to it. There is not inferiority in in the image of God. Uh I think any honest man would recognize a lot of times women are are more intelligent than guys are. So we're not talking about inferiority here. I I mean whether I'm smarter than you or not, I think there's there's ways you're smarter than me, and there's maybe some things that I know that you don't know. That I don't look at you in any way as being inferior to me. Spiritually, I don't look at you as being inferior to me. Because Paul says to the Church of Corinth that he'll have everyone know that the head of the woman is the man. And a lot of people go, Yeah, that's right. The head of the woman is the man. And then he says that I'll have you know that the head of man is Christ. And the head of Christ is God. Well, now we have a huge controversy because now what we call soteriology or salvation doctrine is at stake. Is Jesus inferior to the Father? No, he's not inferior to the Father. So if Jesus is not inferior to the Father, then the woman is not inferior to the man. It's it's a divine order and distinction that God has created, and this is God's design. And we we we must agree with God. So it's not about inferiority or superiority, it's just about God's design and recognizing who we are and what our role is. Ultimately, our role is to glorify God, enjoy Him forever. So you glorify God in a beautiful way as a woman. And I don't want to insert this as a rabbit trail, but there's also toxic masculinity, I think, that has played a part in women maybe fighting for rights that maybe there were some things that belong to women at large. And I come back to Nancy Pearcy, her books, uh Love Thy Body and The War on Toxic Masculinity are very thorough and very academic and very, very helpful in this way. And she basically says, and maybe I'll I'll bounce this to you in a second, toxic masculinity. She talks about the real man and the toxic man and the or the real man and the good man. The real man in the world today is he's buff, he's strong, he makes a lot of money, he sleeps with a lot of women, he he hangs his hat on how much money he makes and how many encounters maybe sexually he has. That's that's the real man. She says, that's the real man, but that's not the good man. The good man is he's righteous and holy and he's equitable and he's fair and he's he's meek and he's humble and he's dependable. That's a that's a good man. And she says, the real man is a virus. The good man is the original operating system. So the radical feminist is not a woman, it's a virus.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, and I mean God spoke about this in the fall. This is what he said was going to happen. Women were going to fight their husband now in in order to like, well, no, I'm not inferior to you. But that's that's the wrong view of it. Is there a divine order? Yes. And and God makes it clear. He he says it multiple times in scripture, and it's repeated in the New Testament, um, that husbands are to love their wives and women's are women are to submit a reverence to their husband. That's a divine uh order or or a role, I guess we could say it that way. But there is what we know from the fall is there gonna be this this competition, this fighting each other. Then this is the opposite of Azir Connecto, right? Because we're opposite, but but we're together. So in other words, I'm here to to meet in those places where you're lacking, not to fight against, to try to rule and to get the top, like I'm better than you. And and I use this illustration sometimes too, in regards to a man and a woman. Well, are we in competition with each other? Who's better? Who's who's who's more inferior, superior? But it would be something attuned to maybe a figure skater and a hockey player. Okay, so they both they both go on ice, they both were ice skates. But if we went to the Olympics and said, let's have the figure skater compete against the hockey player, well, this they're two different things. There's this this is not a competition. They're two different things here, and that's exactly what a man and a woman is. We're we're not in competition, we're two different things. And we're supposed to be working together.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So people are going to get hurt. I think spiritually they're going to get hurt, physically, they're being harmed. I mean, I I I see men in in b women's boxing, you know, men in women's sports, biological men competing. Someone's going to get killed. I mean, there there was a girl, I think last year, her her skull was fractured. And because uh ideas have consequences, and we want to fight those. I I I started today by saying we're pro-Scripture, but we're also pro-science. I mean, we we recognize there's there's a difference, there's a distinction. This was created by God. This is not just just God's um God's binary of control, it's God's it's God's distinction of order and prosperity. He created men and women to complement each other, not to be in competition with each other, to strengthen one another, to have each other's blind side, as you kind of depicted a second ago. And and until our society fundamentally comes back to, yes, we we we agree with that. This is the definition we're working from. We just spiral in and out of consciousness and you know, what's the bottom? Like in in gender theory. Like w where do we go from here? Like w where's the bottom?
SPEAKER_08I that's the scary thing. I don't know.
SPEAKER_00Trans species?
SPEAKER_08I mean I Well, you kind of already see that. So where is I I don't know where the bottom is. Um it's a scary thought. I mean the scripture tells us too that it's just going to wax worse and worse and worse. Um and even so much so or so much so as we see the day approaching with Christ Himself returning. So I I don't know the answer to that. But I I kind of just get back to what you said, which is a great way to say it. We don't we don't need to compete, we need to compliment. And I think that's really just a short, pithy way to really say what we've been saying. It's not about competing, it's about complimenting each other.
SPEAKER_00If you've watched there's a um a documentary put out by by Matt Walsh on this title, What is a Woman? Did you see that?
SPEAKER_02I did.
SPEAKER_00And it's there's some pretty crazy stuff in that in that documentary. It was available for free at one point. I was able to watch it. But I kind of thought it was funny how it ended. So he asked his wife, like, What is a woman? And she basically says, I don't know, but can you open this pickle jar for me?
SPEAKER_08It's a great way to end it.
SPEAKER_00It was. It was kind of pissed.
SPEAKER_08The woman who needs someone to open a pickle jar. That's what a woman is. She's someone who needs somebody else to open a pickle jar.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Look. And you gave the quote. Georgetown Day School is a private school. Yes.
SPEAKER_05Um that um Yeah, I I'm asking, do you agree that schools should teach children that they can choose their gender?
SPEAKER_06Senator, I'm not making comments about what schools can teach them.
SPEAKER_05Let me let me ask you this then. Uh United States versus Virginia, the Supreme Court struck down VMI's male-only admission policy. Writing for the majority, Justice Ginsburg stated, supposed inherent differences are no longer accepted as a ground for race or national origin classifications. Physical differences between men and women, however, are enduring. The two sexes are not fungible. A community made up exclusively of one sex is different from a community composed of both. Do you agree with Justice Ginsburg that there are physical differences between men and women that are enduring? Um Senator Respectfully, I am not familiar with that particular quote or case, so it's hard for me to comment as to whether or not I'd love to get your your opinion on that, and you can submit that. Do you interpret Justice Ginsburg's meaning of men and women as male and female Again?
SPEAKER_06Because I don't know the case, I don't know how I interpret it. I need to read the whole thing.
SPEAKER_05Uh can you provide a definition for the word woman?
SPEAKER_06Can I provide a definition? No. Yeah. I can't. You can't not in this context. I'm not a biologist.
SPEAKER_05The meaning of the word woman is so unclear and controversial that you can't give me a definition?
SPEAKER_06Senator, in my work as a judge, what I do is I address disputes. If there's a dispute about a definition, people make arguments and I look at the law and I decide.
SPEAKER_05So I'm not The fact that you can't give me a straight answer about something as fundamental as what a woman is underscores the dangers of the kind of progressive education that we are hearing about.