My Podcast Show, Your Radical Truth, was unique for two different reasons. One, it was my first podcast. And secondly, the listeners came away with a uniquely different slant on the topic of Patriarchy.

When one reads the Creation narrative in Genesis, we are given God’s actual design for humanity. Could God, have been any clearer in his views for both men and women to follow? “God made them, women and man in his image.” They indeed are both equal. They both were meant to carry out God’s vision and not have to be a part of this man-made system of Patriarchy.

Carolyn, said, “Jesus empowered women, he reached out to those discarded by all the rest of the culture. He heard the cries of the desperate.” For any women today for centuries now, we have been living in an alternative universe devoid of Jesus’ actual words for us. Even my Catholic Church still proposes that there are five biblical reasons why women cannot be priests in our Church. Their first reason, women not being made in the image of God, is a direct contradiction to Jesus’ actual words in Genesis 1:27. I think so many times for myself as a woman, the definite pink elephant in the background of any discussion on women priests, is definitely patriarchy found practically on every page of the Bible.

This Patriarchal System isn’t exclusive to women only, it also included men and children. In so many words Carolyn explained how this system requires men, the first-born sons of a family to have sons for the next generation. When you really think about it, Jesus’ own life in no way exemplified any aspect of the Patriarchy System. Jesus, never married or had children, he spoke and acknowledged women.

They were the ones who literally were supporting him.

When Jesus came on the scene with his vision for both men and women, this patriarchal system was already well entrenched in the culture of ancient Israel.

Were men who already had the taste for power going to give that up, to women?

There simply was no way that this would ever fly. Carolyn, mentioned, “patriarchy matters because it is the cultural backdrop of the bible… But patriarchy is not the Bible’s message.” We indeed, all have to get back to what Jesus wanted for all of us. And in no way does this patriarchal system embody the principles of the loving person of Jesus Christ.  

To learn more about this topic, be sure to opt in for a chapter of the book, Scandal in the Shadows. Click the image to the right.