Female Influencers and Ladies' Bible Studies

In which I seek to articulate a Biblical and wise Patriarchy regarding these two topics without erring to the right or to the left.

1. CONSERVATIVE FEMALE INFLUENCERS

I am here fleshing out "the other side" of the conversation in my recent post about Allie Beth Stuckey.

A good litmus test for conservative female influencers when it comes to their trajectory is this:

Are they more interested in telling young women that they do not have to get married, have children, and keep house, or in encouraging them to do so? (Titus 2)

Would they wince at the idea of telling their followers to be like Sarah, who obeyed her husband and called him lord? (1 Pet. 3)

Do they encourage women to have a gentle and quiet spirit, or to be fierce, brave and strong?

Do they model lovely womanhood, or “FAFO” womanhood (to quote Katy Faust)?

I know there are caveats. I know there are exceptions. But we do not have to create a legalism to be able to embrace Biblical normatives.

Ladies, if you do not like the men online who are yelling at women and telling them to go home, and you wish that they would instead lead out in Godly, honorable masculinity (and they should), then you need to lead out in embracing femininity.

Just like it is a shame for men if they have left a void in the political arena that women must step up and fill, so it is a shame to women if they have left a void in the Titus 2 discipleship that men must step up and fill.

Glow about your husband. Fawn over your kids. Extol the glories of submission to a Godly man. Spend time on tips and strategies for making a beautiful home.

Just because Scripture doesn’t say that this is the only thing you’re allowed to talk about does not remove the clear fact that this is Scripture’s focus for Christian women.

The fact that, whenever this conversation is had, the same six or seven Biblical heroines are pointed to is very instructive. Yes, there are exceptions. Also, in the entirety of Scripture, the number of exceptions probably doesn’t even break single digits.

Our job as Christians is not simply to obey God on a technicality. We want to embrace His heart. We want to pursue wisdom, love, what is good, and delight in what He delights in. If a gentle and quiet spirit is precious in the sight of God, then it should be something that every Christian woman aspires to, and that every Christian man wants to marry.

I say all of this being well aware that there are plenty of ladies who would like to be wives and mothers, but have not yet had the opportunity. I understand. I am not suggesting some sort of legalistic construct in which ladies are not allowed to leave the house or have a job or speak their mind.

I am rather saying that we should glory in what God says is good, not see how far we can push the boundaries.

So ladies. Trade the pantsuit for a dress and the brazen face for a smile. Call your husband “my lord.“ Cook an amazing dinner.

Not because you are a weak doormat playing the tradwife role in some sort of fetishistic cosplay of a 50s family.

No, because you’re a strong daughter of the King, you are fearless in His service, you trust Him, and you glory in fulfilling what He calls you to be as a woman.

In a world of OnlyFans starlets, Hollywood warrior-women, and hardened boss babes, weaponize the kind of power that only the Christian woman has.

Glorious, radiant, feminine beauty.

You have no idea how powerful it is.

2. LADIES’ BIBLE STUDIES

With all due respect to Ethan Holden, I cannot get behind his argumentation condemning all women’s Bible studies, and here is a point-by-point discussion, including quotes from his OP, of why.

Point 1: “Women are to remain silent in church.”

Response: Amen. Explicitly Biblical. If the ladies’ Bible study in question is happening during the general assembly of the congregation of the saints (which is the consistent usage of the Greek word for “church” in the referenced 1 Cor. 14), then I would have a problem with it.

Point 2: “If they have questions, they are to ask their husbands.”

Response: 1 Cor. 14:35, the referenced passage here, is specifically and obviously referring to ladies wanting to learn more about what is being taught during the assembly of the congregation. Paul says, to paraphrase, “be silent in church, ask your husband at home.” He literally concludes his command for wives to ask their husbands at home by reiterating that the point is “it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in church.” This is an issue of church order.

To turn this into a unilateral prohibition of any woman asking any theological question to anybody other than her husband is going far beyond the Text.

It is also worth noting that Jesus interacted with many women, some of whom we may assume asked Him questions (Luke 10), and some of whom Scripture specifically records as having theological conversations with Him (John 4). He did not rebuke these interactions in the slightest.

Point 3: “Older women may teach younger women, but only in a limited area: to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, and obedient to their own husbands. That does not require a formal Ladies' Bible study.”

Response: This is simply adding to Scripture. Let’s look at the Text:

“Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.” (Titus 2:3-5, NASB)

Is there a feminine focus commanded in these instructions? Absolutely! Is there a marriage/parenting/homemaking focus commanded in these instructions? Absolutely! Does the context of these instructions necessitate that we understand this teaching to be a private instruction of females and not a public instruction of males or mixed audiences? Absolutely!

Do any of these truths equate to a blanket prohibition of any level of theological instruction towards other women? Absolutely not.

Besides, this is, applicationally, a nightmare (as are all man-made legalisms). It’s arbitrary.

If a younger woman is being counciled by an older woman on how to love her husband, for instance, and her husband is an ungodly man, can the older woman comfort her young friend by speaking to her about the sovereignty of God? Or is this theological pastoring?

Can an older woman teach the younger women a curriculum on apologetics so that they can better educate their children? What if it’s not specifically taught as a homeschool curriculum? Is one sin but the other one is OK?

Can women discuss together what they are learning in their personal devotions?

This is nonsensical.

Point 4: “Nowhere does God establish that women need female Bible teachers.”

Response: Actually, we just saw that God establishes that the younger women need older women to teach them what is good.

So if by Bible teachers we mean pastors, then amen, this is absolutely correct.

But if by Bible teachers we mean teachers of what is good – loving husbands, loving children etc. – those are very difficult things to teach on from a Christian perspective without referring to Scripture.

So yes, amen, if we have this idea that the male pastors are just “for the men” rather than being for the entire flock, that is a problem. Ladies need male pastors too, and those male pastors need to shepherd the women in their flock as well – while maintaining Biblical boundaries, as established in 1 Tim. 5:2 and 1 Cor. 14.

But this is a far cry from establishing that women can’t teach women from Scripture.

Point 5: “He repeatedly affirms that only men are called and qualified to teach Scripture.”

Response: I would like to see a reference for this.

Scripture, repeatedly, affirms that only men are called and qualified to hold church authority, to teach Scripture in the assembly of the church, or to teach men.

But women are portrayed as teaching all throughout Scripture (Pr. 1:8, 31:26, Titus 2)- including, we should note, Priscilla’s involvement in teaching Apollos (Acts 18:18-28). Just because the feminists drastically over-apply this text doesn’t mean we get to ignore it.

Are mothers not to teach their children from Scripture? Are older women not to refer to Eph. 5 when they teach younger women to submit to their husbands? Can a Christian man not benefit from Scriptural wisdom in a podcast or book or conversation with a sister or mother in Christ? (Or, horror of horrors, with his wife?!?)

Where does it end?

An aside: I suppose now is as good a place as any to note that I’ve benefitted greatly from my conversations with my wife (and if you appreciate my posts, then you have too). I’m consistently edified by her love for Christ, her Biblical wisdom, and often times by her pushback and respectful rebuke.

Does this mean that she’s a feminist harpy?

No, she’s a gentle and quiet and submissive and godly woman. She listens to me, submits to my leadership, and humbly accepts and asks for my teaching and correction.

But she’s also wise, the teaching of kindness is on her tongue, and she has her own walk with Christ.

Further, I have no desire to be an insecure and petty tyrant who just tells her to shut up and let me do her thinking for her.

Point 6: “If the female teacher echoes the husband's own beliefs, the class serves no useful purpose and is unnecessary.”

Response: This is, respectfully, a little silly.

Christian teaching is regularly the reaffirmation of things that we already know. This constant practice of reaffirmation strengthens and shapes our beliefs, and helps them to become more and more ingrained in our souls.

So even if an older woman exactly agrees with everything that I teach, if she is reinforcing those teachings in her own way as she speaks to my wife, that is still going to add layers and strengthen the very things that I would teach my wife.

This is obvious by the very Titus 2 instructions referenced throughout this post. Surely the husband thinks that his wife should love her husband, love her children, and keep the house. Does this make the older woman’s instruction unnecessary? Of course not!

Furthermore, this sentence belies a creepy pattern within the hyper-patriarchal community. (Again, I mean no disrespect to Ethan, and would happily have a respectful conversation about any of this with any of my more extreme patriarchal brethren.)

Within this community, there is this idea that my wife must not hear anything that I disagree with in the slightest.

But here’s the thing. My wife is an adult. She is my fellow heir of the grace of life. She has her own walk with Jesus Christ, her own conscience, her own ability to think and learn and grow and study.

She’s called by Scripture to submit to and obey me. I am called to wash her in the water of the Word and to answer her questions and teach her and lead her to Jesus. Amen.

None of this justifies this bizarre need to make sure that she never hears anything that contradicts my views. What kind of insecurity on my part wouldn’t necessitate this?

She submits to me. That doesn’t mean that she always agrees with me. And if I am secure in my role as the king of the home, and in her willingness to submit to my authority, then I’m not really worried about her hearing something that I disagree with.

We will talk about it. Maybe she will convince me! Or maybe I will convince her. Or maybe we will disagree as mature adults. Or maybe it’ll be a practical issue where I have to say “no sweetheart, we need to do it this way.” And she will submit to me.

The infantilizing attitude that demands that she only think exactly the way that I think is not Scriptural- and it is disturbing. It has obvious tyrannical implications. If you think that this won’t result in wives being forbidden to confront their husbands’ sin, afraid to get help with issues of actual abuse, or unable to question anything that their husbands say, no matter how egregious… I would remind of the Scriptural warnings given to teachers.

Point 7: “If she teaches something different, it only creates issues the husband must correct.”

Response: This was largely covered in the above response, but it is worth noting the inherent assumption here. The female teacher must be wrong. It is impossible that she might’ve taught something correct, which, as the wife brings it in a submissive and respectful way to her husband, and they discuss it as fellow heirs of the grace of life, he recognizes as godly wisdom and changes his mind.

No, the clear precept is that the husband is always right and the wife’s goal is not simply to have a heart of submission toward her husband, but to actually become a mental and spiritual carbon-copy of her husband.

This is wildly beyond what is envisioned by Scripture, and it will do great harm to marriages, as it encourages men towards pride and tyranny, and reduces women to infantilized and defenseless doormats.

Do you think I’m exaggerating?

I would encourage you to look at the fallout from the previous wave of ATI/Vision Forum imbalance.

What is the solution? To reject patriarchy? Absolutely not! Rather, we must define patriarchy Biblically, and not err to the right or the left (Pr. 4:27).

It is certainly worth noting that our age makes this entire conversation much more complicated.

In previous times, an older woman teaching younger women, if not in the context of the assembled church, would by necessity be in some form of in-house small-group meeting.

Now, with podcasts and conferences and social media, a conservative female influencer may be targeting an audience of females, but her teaching is definitely public.

What do we do here?

We press in to Biblical wisdom. We do not construct man-made legalisms.

I would readily agree that things like ladies’ Bible studies are things that require Biblical circumspectness. Husbands and pastors should be involved in the lives of the ladies under their care.

The idea of a ladies’ Bible study that is focused on in-depth doctrinal instruction (“we are studying Calvinism”) certainly raises some questions and red flags in my mind.

Why isn’t this something that husbands are leading in? How is the pastor of the church involved?

That kind of heavy-duty study begins to look like authoritative pastoral ministry, which is not something that God has given to women, and runs the risk of replacing the teachers God has instituted with an independent “ladies’ church” not envisioned by Scripture.

I would like to conclude by noting simply that the patriarchal community’s propensity to create extra-Scriptural rules to make sure that no women end up going beyond Scripture is the exact same error that is committed by the “anti-abuse” community when they caveat a husband’s authority into oblivion and reduce it into insignificance to make sure that no husband can ever abuse it.

In both cases, we are called to pursue wisdom, walk in obedience to God’s Word, and trust Him with the messy details.

We cannot solve this by coming up with a better way to do it than what was commanded by God Himself.