Did you know that many of the e-mail letters we get here at Visionary Womanhood are from doulas with “successful practices”, pastors, or pastor’s wives? The doulas all hate the placenta eating article. And while the religious leaders are against mommy cannibalism, they do get upset about other stuff.
I have yet to read a letter that makes a case for their side of the issue. You could sum up their letters in two words: “You’re wrong”. And that’s that. I’m longing for someone to make some points, back them up with examples, including Scripture, and convince me that they are thinking through the issue Biblically.
Here’s a timely example that came in about a week ago:
Dear Visionary Womanhood,
It is with great disappointment that I write this email. I am a South African mom, living way down **** and a mom of 3. I have a theological degree and my husband and I are pastoring a church.
I have really enjoyed the articles that have come through Visionary Womanhood but today’s contribution was nothing short of bad. I really feel that scripture was misused and the point that was trying to be made was trivial. Do we really believe that the choice to homeschool or private school or go to a public school is covered in the bible? There is much wisdom we can gain from God’s Word as we make such a decision – but that decision is based on a number of factors and what is right for one family is not necessarily right for another. I think using the 10 Commandments in this context is using scripture to back up a point we want to make and not allowing Scripture to speak for it’s self. To be honest, I could hardly bring myself to read the article word for word, it made me so angry. The amount of scripture that is quoted out of context is really shocking.
The only reason I have taken the time to write to you is that I have really enjoyed your blog posts and have recommended it to others to read. Just this past week my husband addressed in his sermon the need for us (especially women) to be cautious with regards to the blogs we are reading and making sure that we don’t allow these blogs to take a higher priority in our lives than God’s word. We are finding that a lot of women and moms are reading blogs, like yours, and finding it encouraging and challenging but that they are often putting all that they have read into practice as they have emotionally been moved by what they have read. I am not sure if you are aware of the power that you have in having this blog – you are influence not just moms and women, but families as they apply what they have read to their lives.
I am disappointed that this article made it onto the blog – I am surprised that there wasn’t someone on the team that was able to see that this article is very extreme in its thinking and although uses Spiritual language, is not theologically sound.
We Are All Wemmicks
Before I get any further, please note that this post is not written to the writer of this letter. This is for the benefit of all the readers of Visionary Womanhood, and I chose to pick a recent letter that addressed the subject of education since that is our theme this month. Because these are the kinds of arguments that get circulated around the internet (and in “real life”) on a regular basis, I want to walk us through this, step by step, so we can understand how to think about these things rationally and critically rather than emotionally.
We need to first of all understand that it doesn’t matter what our country of origin is, what color we are, what our educational background is, how many kids we have, or how many years we’ve been in ministry. We are all Wemmicks from our Creator’s perspective. It’s not a matter of how important or powerful we are in the eyes of fellow Wemmicks, but rather, where do we stand in our relationship with God? (Read Best of All to your little ones for insights into this.)
If you had to give a speech to, say, George Washington and a group of slugs, and the slugs all hated your speech, while George Washington’s jaw dropped with admiration, would it bother you? You know…about the slugs? If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31)
If you are a “highly educated” doula with a “successful practice” or a “pastor”, that’s groovy. But that, in and of itself, does not make a case for your side of an issue. You’ve got to put some teeth to your argument. You need to go to Scripture and make your case with the Word of God. The opinions and emotions of Wemmicks are ever-changing and mostly silly. We must rely on the plumb-line of God’s Word to figure things out.
Let’s Take a Closer Look
I appreciate this writer’s care and concern for the women in her sphere of influence. She is looking out for their best interest by investing her time in crafting a letter, and this is commendable. She is a treasured child of God and a sister through the shed blood of Christ. My intention is not to pick her apart; but rather to analyze this letter as representative of the thinking of many people out there. Again, this is exactly the kind of letter I get on a regular basis, so it is standing in as a “model” for us to look at. I could just as easily have chosen a different letter on a different topic that had similar statements.
When someone says:
I really feel that scripture was misused and the point that was trying to be made was trivial.
Our response should be:
What Scripture was being misused? I couldn’t find any, and since she did not give any specific examples, I do not know what she is referring to and therefore can’t address it.
And the point of the article was that over-taxing citizens is stealing. That’s trivial? Scripture addresses the issue of taxation, including over-taxation, in several places. So while it might be trivial to some Wemmicks, it isn’t trivial to the Wemmick-Maker. The things that are important to God ought to be important to us.
When someone says:
Do we really believe that the choice to homeschool or private school or go to a public school is covered in the bible?
Our response should be:
Do Christians really believe that something as important as what we teach our children, how we teach it, why we teach it, when we teach it, and who ought to be teaching it…is NOT covered in the Bible? Really? The Word of God is all about education. Educating the human race in the wonders of their Creator and the wonders of His Creation. And it answers all of those questions above–over and over again.
I’m going to be bold here and say that if someone is not seeing the topic of education covered in God’s Word, then what Scriptures are they reading? I encourage everyone I know to take the following challenge: read through your Bible in a year, and while you’re at it, underline in red all the verses that answer the questions above. In addition, dig up verses that talk about wisdom, learning, teaching, passing on information, discipleship, and so forth.
I did this one year, and I couldn’t find Darwin’s theory. What I did find blew me away and changed my life. Do it. I double dare ya.
When someone says:
There is much wisdom we can gain from God’s Word as we make such a decision – but that decision is based on a number of factors and what is right for one family is not necessarily right for another.
Our response should be:
I still swing on pendulums. I’m a Wemmick, after all. But I love to work toward taking different issues and measuring them against the Word of God to find the Truth. This balances a lot of pendulums and keeps us from swinging too far one way or the other.
Sisters, the subject of education is not a pendulum issue.
It’s as black and white as your piano keyboard. Nowhere in Scripture will you find instruction or permission to teach anyone (let alone an innocent child) that God doesn’t exist, or that He is irrelevant. In fact, there are harsh words from Christ for those who do in Mark 9:42. If God takes this seriously, don’t you think we should too?
We either give our children a Biblical education, whether that be under our own roof or delegated to a private institution or tutor (the public education system used to, but no longer, offers a Biblical education), or we give our children a secular education hostile to the mere idea of a God as well as His laws.
{By the way, I’m not talking to families who have no choice, due to circumstances that result from living in a fallen world. But even those families can be praying and working toward the goal of a Bible-saturated education in spite of less-than-desirable situations. I’ve seen God set families free when they are pursuing it with all their hearts. God is GOOD and He is POWERFUL to help those who cry out to Him.}
Many Christians believe that while a Biblical education may be right for one family, it may not necessarily be right for another family. Where do they learn that? Do they find that in the Bible? Would God want only some of His children to have a God-fearing education while not giving a rip about the rest?
My kids dropped their jaws when they heard that there are pastors who believe this. They are simple children who believe that God cares deeply about everyone. And they are right. Our culture has twisted the truth and brainwashed us. And if our spiritual leaders have fallen for it, God help the people.
When someone says:
I think using the 10 Commandments in this context is using scripture to back up a point we want to make and not allowing Scripture to speak for it’s self.
Our response should be:
We ought to be using Scripture to back up EVERY point we make…AND we should allow Scripture to speak for itself. These are not mutually exclusive.
When someone says:
I could hardly bring myself to read the article word for word, it made me so angry. The amount of scripture that is quoted out of context is really shocking.
Our response should be:
We need to set our emotions aside so that we can think clearly, in light of Scripture, about what is being said. We ought to pray, ask God for wisdom, and then study the Scriptures being used in the article. We ought to prayerfully think through the points that were made in order to sort things out in accordance with God’s Word. We must be Bereans. (Acts 17:11)
The writer never gives a single example of a verse that is being used out of context. Her shock appears to be a smoke screen. I can’t respond to an argument that isn’t there.
Do you see how this kind of letter, while providing a sort of therapy for the writer, is not really helpful to anyone else?
When someone says:
We are finding that a lot of women and moms are reading blogs, like yours, and finding it encouraging and challenging but that they are often putting all that they have read into practice as they have emotionally been moved by what they have read.
Our response should be:
Yes. That is precisely why Visionary Womanhood exists. Because if Wemmicks are being emotionally moved through reading blogs and putting what they read into practice, then we want to be sure they are being moved by truthful, meaty reading material that is grounded in Scripture. And where we are wrong, we want to point them to Scripture to discover what God says is True. Our faithlessness does not nullify the faithfulness of God. Let God be true and every man a liar. (Romans 3:3-4)
When someone says:
I am not sure if you are aware of the power that you have in having this blog – you are influence not just moms and women, but families as they apply what they have read to their lives.
Our response should be:
You’re right. I don’t know the HALF of the power behind this blog. But my fervent prayer this day, and every day is that God would use it “to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21)
About Wemmick Girl Saved by Grace
AMEN! Excellent post and I’m glad you wrote it. By the way- I agree with you about home education
Excellent post. We should always use our Bible for making our point and not just emotions. Recently I have been talking with a Nouthetic counselor. See nanc.org for what I am talking about. I showed him a book that challenged me in my role as a woman. He read it and told me that any book who uses so much scripture to back up each point will rarely be wrong. I would say the same for a blog post. Now it’s one thing to put the reference but when you back each point up with a scripture verse typed out its pretty hard to go wrong.
I have thoroughly enjoyed your posts. They always challenge me and encourage me to look at what Gods word has to say and not my own opinion.
I really liked your thorough response to this letter.
I agree that there are circumstances due to the fallen nature of the world where a secular education is the only option for some families, but they are in the minority, I think. I too find it incredible that parents who are well able to provide a God saturated education for their children in one way or another choose to still send them to secular schools. It seems like the problem is that they do not grasp the gravity of their decision.
Thank you for writing this post! So many times we let our emotions carry us away and we blindly let them take us without giving a lot of thought to what scripture is really saying. If we are angered we need to be making sure it isn’t because there’s a chord of truth being struck that is making us uncomfortable. It has become shocking to me how many people wish to discount the truth of scripture because they have a different opinion.
Also, your post and others on this blog about the topic of education have been so helpful as my husband and I begin the discussion of how we want to train up our very young son. We were both in public school and had parents who bathed us in prayer, so I definitely agree that God is powerful to do a work. We both desperately want his life to be saturated in God’s word, and we both agree that will not happen if he is spending the majority of his waking hours in public school. We both understand the impact our decision will have on the rest of his life since we both still have to work hard to make sure our world view is biblical and not just culturally acceptable.
Again thank you so much and I look forward to continue reading
May God encourage you and give you both wisdom as you prayerfully seek Him on behalf of your son! I pray that your choice results in a ripple effect that will impact the souls of many for all eternity.
I really appreciate the transparency and truthfulness of this blog and of this post in particular. Very well written.
I also follow and recommend your blog, like the woman who wrote you that letter. And just like the woman who wrote the letter, have found much of what you write to be what I Biblically agree with, and other things are not. I am not passing judgement, just stating a current fact. Because I know that we are all learning, growing; you, me, the woman in that letter. We all, from what I can tell, simply and strongly desire to know the Lord well and follow His Word.
Not one person in the world has every single thing figured out perfectly, that’s why God refers to His “mysteries.” I have never gotten the impression that Visionary Womanhood believes that they’ve “arrived” or attained everything. I do feel however, WHETHER OR NOT I AGREE WITH THE POINTS IN THE WOMAN’S LETTER, that she not only handled herself with a measure of grace and loving accountability to a sister in Christ, but made it clear that she was only speaking out of concern for the clear representation of God’s Word and for the many woman who read your posts.
Not everyone will always agree with or care for what I write, and that’s okay with me. But there’s a difference in my receiving “negative” messages/comments and “graceful disagreements,” and so I do my best to genuinely pray about what the latter person’s message to me is and try to hear where they’re coming from.
My question of encouragement to you is this: Would it be more Christ-like and honoring of other sister’s and brother’s hearts to teach your readers how to deal with negative words or disagreements from others Biblically or a how to thoroughly tear apart every detail of one of your reader’s letters publicly?
Please do not confuse my question with removal of support from Visionary Womanhood, or even disagreement with things you’ve said. The contrary is true. But I ask that you would please consider my genuinely heart-felt question in prayer over this issue.
With love,
Rebecca
I appreciate your heart, Rebecca, and I will mull over what you’ve shared here. I’m not sure I agree with your assertion that this particular writer was “only speaking out of a concern for the clear representation of God’s Word”, and here’s why: she never defends God’s Word, but only her own opinions. This is what led me to write the post even though it was not comfortable to write it. Perhaps some may agree that it was a “tearing apart”. I believe it was an important analysis. We must be willing to openly discuss these things in a responsible way in order to expose folly for what it is. Any letter to the editor is game for publication and public response, and identity is, of course, protected. For more on the topic of writing for the purpose of exposing folly, I recommend the book, The Serrated Edge, by Douglas Wilson. It is an enjoyable, enlightening book, and I think everyone who writes, whether it be books, blogs or letters to the editor, ought to read it.
Shoulder to shoulder with you, Natalie
Great post, Natalie. Well written and thoughtful, and full of helpful insight. Thanks for taking the time and care to write it!
I find your blog challenging and thought provoking.
there are many things in the Bible that I do not agree with and they cause me to pause, pray and ask God to change my heart, to take the scales away from my eyes so i can see and I ask him to help me believe and repent. I think that is what the Christian walk is all about.
Your blog is challenging and thought provoking because it makes me go to my Bible and research and see what it says about the topics you are covering.
I have repented and turned from my wicked ways many times. My hope is that i will keep doing it and not be led by my emotions or dislikes. The just shall live by faith.
PS I just had a revelation the other day that repentance really means changing one’s mind or thinking. When you begin thinking like God about a specific subject that means you repented.
I love this: “repentance really means changing one’s mind or thinking. When you begin thinking like God about a specific subject that means you repented.” Thank you for sharing that on here…
Natalie,
Thanks you so much for your serious effort to write this post. I know how hard it is to put into words just what you’re thinking, while being constructive and not destructive. I feel you did that well.
The topic of home education among Christians is a difficult one. Because we are free in Christ, we don’t want to tell others how to teach their children. But your question – “Do Christians really believe that something as important as what we teach our children, how we teach it, why we teach it, when we teach it, and who ought to be teaching it…is NOT covered in the Bible?” – is extremely important for each one of us to study and ponder. It’s just too easy for us to take what we know and walk in it, rather than STUDY God’s Word for His ways. Thanks for offering this concrete response.
It’s so easy to forget what the public education system believes and teaches. Your reminder that “Nowhere in Scripture will you find instruction or permission to teach anyone (let alone an innocent child) that God doesn’t exist, or that He is irrelevant.” is foundational in the purpose and plan of our Christian home education. Again, thanks!
And lastly, as a fellow blogger, I appreciate the intent of your website, and that is why I continue to write along with you. As bloggers, I appreciate your constructive reminder that women “are being emotionally moved through reading blogs and putting what they read into practice, then we want to be sure they are being moved by truthful, meaty reading material that is grounded in Scripture.” This is now highlighted on my computer as a filter to run my posts through!
Again, thanks for your time, energy, and passion.
Terry
Wow. That encouraged my socks off, Terry. Thank you. I’m honored and blessed to work with you toward promoting and defending the use of Scripture in all of life.