<\/span>So here we go, part three of \u201cThird Way Womanhood\u201d. \u00a0Last week I wrote about my experiences with what I called, \u201cThe Fearlessly Feminine\u201d camp (and can I just say, even with a whole week of working on that post and consequentially writing the word \u201cfeminine\u201d like a billion times\u2014I still manage to misspell it. \u00a0Thank God for spell check!). \u00a0This week, I\u2019m going to share my experiences with what I will call the \u201cLiberated Christian Woman\u201d camp or LCW for short. \u00a0The titled \u201cliberated woman\u201d comes from Rachel Held Evans, a leader of this group, who identified herself as such in her recent New York Times Bestseller, \u201cA Year of Biblical Womanhood: How A Liberated Woman<\/b> Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof and Calling her Husband \u201cMaster\u201d<\/a> (emphasis mine). \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Unfortunately for the LCW, with great enlightenment, comes the temptation to be proud and arrogant. When we allow ourselves to get our life and identity from what we know and how well we can communicate it, the same destructive spirit of the mommy wars<\/a> creeps in and creates an unnecessary tiered system of acceptance. \u00a0<\/span>
<\/span>\u201cAt first I was afraid; I was petrified\u201d Gloria Gaynor<\/b><\/span>![](\"https:\/\/oshetablogs.files.wordpress.com\/2013\/01\/holyburningbra1.jpeg?w=245\")
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<\/span>The only thing I knew about this camp of women who asked hard questions and didn\u2019t take platitudes as viable answers, was that most of them were (gasp) egalitarian which means that most of them were \u00a0(clutch my chest in horror) feminists. \u00a0Feminists were so vilified by the other camp as women who have rejected the Word, that in the beginning of my foray into liberated Christian womanhood, I was incredibly nervous.\u00a0<\/span>
<\/span>Confession: the first few months of learning from Liberated Christian Women, I made sure to wear my Targ\u00e9t bras instead of my fancy Vicki S. <\/span>brassieres<\/i>, just in case the power of their words caused me to break out into a bra-burning fit of ecstasy. \u00a0<\/span>
<\/span>Just kidding. Maybe. \u00a0<\/span>
<\/span>In any case, I found that stereotype to be untrue, so I settled in (fancy bras and all), added their blogs to my RSS reader, and sighed with relief. I thought I had finally found my home with the Liberated Christian Women. \u00a0<\/span>
<\/span>These women are impressive. \u00a0Truly. \u00a0As Elizabeth Bennett says in the 2005 version of \u201cPride and Prejudice\u201d, such accomplished women are \u201c\u2026a fearsome thing to behold\u201d. \u00a0 They are scholars, intellectuals, activists, writers, and professionals. They are plucky, strong-willed, rebellious, and courageous. \u00a0They are the stuff of legendary heroines. \u00a0<\/span>
<\/span>Which is why I gravitated towards them when I realized I didn\u2019t quite self identify as \u201cFearlessly Feminine\u201d.\u00a0<\/span>
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<\/span>\u201cAll of me, why not take all of me?\u201d \u00a0Billie Holiday<\/b><\/span>
<\/span>\u00a0When I think of these women, I think of Jesus\u2019 teaching in the first part of Luke 10:27 where he gives us the \u201cCliff Notes\u201d on a life that pleases God. \u00a0<\/span>
<\/span>\u201cLove the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0<\/i><\/span>
<\/span>This holistic approach to faith that Jesus teaches is a game changer and the Liberated Christian Women do this incredibly well.\u00a0<\/span>
<\/span>I love the way they\u2019ve married intellect and faith\u2014worshipping God with their minds and not just their mouths. \u00a0I love the way their passion to reject social mores in the same way as Christ causes them to seek God\u2019s Shalom<\/a> in this broken world. They are using their strength and privilege to \u201cget stuff done\u201d<\/a>. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>The LCW looks a lot like Christ and a<\/span>s a \u201cThird Way Woman\u201d who values Christ-likeness first and culture second, I\u2019m inspired by these women to jump up and down in applause. \u00a0You go girls!<\/i><\/span>
<\/span>\u201cLet me upgrade u\u201d Beyonce<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
<\/span>Within in the LCW camp it looks like this:\u00a0<\/span>
<\/span>If you say\u2026 write strongly worded articles calling chauvinist pastors to account, speak of hierarchy like it\u2019s the machinations of the devil himself, and throw in comments like, \u201cI hate the Proverbs 31 woman\u201d\u2014then you, my dear, are at the top. \u00a0Your Disqus comments will get \u201cbig ups\u201d<\/a> and you\u2019ll be hailed as a truly, liberated woman.<\/span>
<\/span>If you say\u2026write eloquently about oppressed women in third world countries, have pictures of your recent trip to Africa on your website, and raise money to build orphanages or schools for starving children \u2014then you, my dear, are the darlings of this camp. \u00a0You\u2019ll get speaking invitations, you\u2019ll raise tons of money, and the ladies on the top tier will write blog posts about you, calling you a \u201cwoman of valor\u201d<\/a>.<\/span>
<\/span>But, if you are in this camp and you choose to submit to your husband because of Christ\u2019s example, you want to be a great homemaker so that your home can be a place of ministry to all who enter, and you view your motherhood as a ministry to your children \u2014then you\u2019d better keep that to yourself. Quote Ephesians a lot and throw in an anecdote about your hatred of cleaning for good measure. Shhhh\u2026<\/i>keep it a secret that you\u2019re truly this way because if they catch wind that you affirm a more traditional expression of femininity then you, my dear, may be pitied. \u00a0Some of them may even make it their labor of love to correct your antiquated and misguided thinking\u2014hopefully upgrading you from an uninteresting housewife to a fiery, modern woman. \u00a0<\/span>
<\/span> This reminds me of a scene in \u201cMona Lisa Smile\u201d. \u00a0Katherine Watson (played by Julia Roberts), is a modern, freethinking Berkeley graduate who accepts a position as an Art History professor at Wellesley College, a prestigious all girls school in New England (not too far from Cambridge, where I live). The movie follows Watson as she challenges the girls to actualize their potential and be more than the homemaker and mother that was expected of a well-bred 1950\u2019s woman. \u00a0When Watson learns that one of her most promising students, Joan Brandwyn would have to turn down her acceptance to Yale Law School to marry her boyfriend who got into Penn State, Watson sprang into well meaning liberated woman \u201cupgrading\u201d action. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>
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