It is generally believed that the church is a gatekeeper of patriarchy. This belief has led to some women shunning church since they refuse to believe in a god who relegates them to second class citizens. Allow me not to comment on this assertion.

I grew up in church but I made my choice to follow Jesus over twenty years ago. I must say though that women things did not intrigue me that much and I had to try really hard to fit in. I would listen to teachings where a woman who was not domesticated would be classified as foolish. I, for one, had decided very early in life that my womanhood was not defined by domestication and therefore found it hard to absorb such messages. Unfortunately, I had to walk that journey alone. Everyone around me believed that’s what real women were made of.

I was often asked in a rather sarcastic tone who’d marry me. Well, I am married to a man who was ready to take me just as I am. I must add that I revealed upfront that I was not the typical woman (you know how they say women love shopping, cooking and so on-one size fits all approach), so he understood who I was. This has led me to the conclusion that domestication does not necessarily qualify one for marriage. Now that’s a topic for another day.

Back to the topic at hand, is this what God intended the woman to be? Do we have biblical reference? Have we not perhaps carried our patriarchal culture into the church as the only way of life we have ever known and used scripture to support us? Just how much does God love the girl child? These are some of the questions I have battled with over and over again. However, I am convinced that God loves the girl child as much as he does the boy.

This morning as I was preparing to go to church I listened to a message by Taffi Dollar of Creflo Dollar Ministries. She made an effort to unbundle this rather controversial topic. What caught my attention was how she created the context of the scriptures she read. She related them back to the historical times and gave the Hebrew context-I find this intriguing because oftentimes scripture is read in isolation. She made reference to the following verse from the Holy Bible;

Genesis 2:18 NIV

The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

According to Taffi Dollar, a helper has superior ability. I’m inclined to agree. Naturally you call for help when you have exhausted all means within your power. Nevertheless, the common interpretation in the church is that of men assuming authority over the women and not having a complementary relationship. She goes further to explain the word help in Hebrew:

‘Azar means to protect, aid, help, succor, support, give material or nonmaterial encouragement (www.preceptaustin.org).

Help, she says is also used in reference to God (eg. Psalm 46).

I found myself nodding in agreement. It is clear that God created a woman for something much more meaningful than domestication. There is a huge contribution that she can make in the church and society at large. I sometimes wonder -if the sole purpose of a woman on earth is to serve a man then what is the place of a single woman? Is she less of a person? I am reminded of my Standard 6 teacher who used to encourage the boys to beat me and top the class. It did not make sense to me then but as I grew older reality hit me – that boys were expected to do better than girls.

The Bible does tell us about God creating man (male & female) in his own image. I have a strong feeling that christians should introspect and regard God’s image in sync with the creator.

In a nutshell, the domesticated woman is nothing but a social construct. God loves the girl child. She is his spitting image, he has endowed her with wisdom and prowess to conquer the world.