What The H***!

HECK! I was going to say heck, since this is a “Christian” blog. But the sentiment would still be the same concerning what I am about to talk about.

So here I am sitting with the teen guys at our weekly youth group and the discussion is centered around the spiritual battle we all face every day. The question is posed to the guys, “What things in the world does satan use to tempt us, get us off track and cause us to sin?” Someone says “drugs”, someone else “drinking”, and someone else “television”. A bit of discussion insues. No one of course mentions our own fleshly desires, that would be too personal.

Plus some people in churches like to blame everything outside of themselves rather than our own wicked desires. That hurts too much to admit.

Then someone mentions “women” as a blame for unbridled passion and temptation…………….sort of like our father Adam telling God “It was the woman You gave me that caused me to eat the fruit”. So of course I was expecting the standard “Yes, it is the way women (girls), dress today so it really isn’t your fault” line. But I was wrong!!!! Instead I learned that women (girls) not only cause men (boys) to sin by dressing like bar room strumpets but women go further by trying to assume the role of leaders in the world and not only that……when they are not out trying to dominate men and take over the world they are at home between 1:00 and 3:00 PM (eastern standard time, I assume since I live in Buffalo, NY) watching those wicked soap operas.

So I said “what the h*** (in my head, not out loud, I WAS in a church) is going on here?

I am still trying to figure out how to repair this misguided and misogynistic teaching.

Being a guy I have seen and heard how some men treat the women in their lives. I have worked with women who have been abused by their “christian” husbands because they have been taught by the church to submit and just take it. But it is wrong!

The church needs to take a look at how it treats women. They are NOT second class citizens in the Kingdom, they are co-heirs with Christ just as men are and they are equally as important. It is time for the evangelical church to recognize women and let them grow in the giftings and talents God has given them for the Kingdom building of His church.

As long as they stay away from the soap operas.

2 thoughts on “What The H***!”

Thank you Mark. I agree with you that we should stay away from soap operas. I think it goes both ways. Women blame men for holding them back. Men blame women for their problems. I long for the day when we can declare with Paul, “there is neither Jew or Gentile, male or female, slave or free.”

Hey Mark, as long as churches rip verses out of their context and then paste them together to create “soft core sermonettes” , young people (and old people) will never understand the “grand themes” of Scripture! From beginning to end the Bible makes it clear, I am responsible for my own sinning, not females, soap operas, boss, friends, chance or luck. James 1:14; “each one is tempted when, by HIS OWN evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin….”. The saddest part of scapegoating someone or something else, is that we never get to truly taste how sweet God’s grace is in accepting us right where we are and we fall into legalism which is just bondage with a new face and name!