Today, March 8, is International Women’s Day. On this day, we remember the struggle of women to secure rights equal to men. In the workplace, women continue to lag behind men in pay, earning just $.77 for every $1 a man earns. Beneath the inequity in pay is a presumption of male primacy, the foundation of Patriarchy–a social structure that we see practiced throughout the Bible. But Patriarchy is not a ‘kingdom of heaven’ order–it is the order of the Fall. In Luke 10: 38-42, Jesus takes a sledgehammer to the glass ceiling, affirming Mary’s choice to sit at his feet (the posture of a student/disciple) and refusing to “take it away from her.” The gospel liberates women (and men) from the oppression of Patriarchy! What Jesus has destroyed, let no man (or woman) reconstruct.
International Women’s Day
Tongue on Fire 
Incidentally, the Russian Revolution of 1917 began on International Women’s Day, with a group of women who took to the streets banging pots and demanding bread. The Bolshevik party initially tried to discourage them because they were afraid of repression, but the women went out anyway. They ended up sparking a general strike, and three days later they had toppled the centuries-old Romanov dynasty.
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Who knew? Thanks for sharing this bit of trivia that isn’t trivial.
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