“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” George Santayana
“Well-behaved women seldom make history.” Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
When it comes to women in the Bible, the narrative has always been to show the spotlight on the best of the best – Esther, Ruth, Mary, and the Proverbs 31 Woman or to blame the worst of the worst as a cautionary tale – don’t be like Jezebel, don’t be faithless like Michal, don’t disobey your husband like Vashti … but the saddest stories and the worst episodes really get no air time at all. It’s time that we remember so that we do not repeat, it’s time that we lament so that no woman is forgotten, and it’s time that we honor women so that we see them for who they are – not what they are and not who they belong to.
One of my least favorite things about the Bible are stories where women are neglected, abused, raped, and chopped into twelve pieces. Worse than the stories themselves is the way in which God is silent about these stories. When Abraham sacrificed his son, God saved the day by providing a ram. When Jephthah sacrificed his daughter…she died.
One of my favorite things about the Bible is that it is full of people screaming at God, desperate to know why things happen and where we can find meaning in the midst of misery. Although I still don’t understand why these stories are in the Bible, or why God allows so much abuse to continue today, I know that one way I can find meaning in all of this is to remember their stories and tell them again to a world that so often doesn’t want to hear.
“Those who seek to…
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