Why The Church Needs More Ruth Bader Ginsburgs

We tend to accept the world we’re born into until we bump into inconsistencies or stories that don’t fit into the narrative we’ve believed. This is true whether we’re absorbing messages from our family about finances, input from our church on “acceptable” questions, ideals from media on what to consume, or thoughts on race from the diversity (or lack of diversity) in our hometowns. Not all of what we absorb is right or wrong, good or bad.

However, we must be aware that we create a story of what is “right” and “normal” from the sum of our influences. And not all of the stories we’ve believed are “good” or “right”.

One of the most harmful stories we’ve been telling since the Fall is that women aren’t truly equal with men. We’ve been telling this story through a long history of predominantly male leaders; we’ve been telling this story through unequal pay for women; we’ve been telling this story by silencing women’s testimony; we’ve been whispering this story every time a man jokes derogatorily that another man is “being a girl” or a woman is told she’s a “bitch” for showing initiative and giving commands.

And then someone like Ruth Bader Ginsburg steps into the story, and points out the inconsistencies. She sounds an alarm to let us know that the story is not just full of holes, but is harming the world. Women in leadership create positive and balanced changes. Women’s equality MAKES ROOM for human flourishing. Women’s inequality is a terrible lie; liberated women won’t cause the world to crumble- but to rise up higher.

But Ruth Bader Ginsburg doesn’t just show us that the story is untrue- she dares to REWRITE it. RBG stepped INTO the story we were believing and dismantled it, one gender discrimination case at a time, until NEW laws were made. Laws that changed the landscape- altered our culture- and thereby, allowed the next generation to believe a different story straight from the womb.

How do I know that the story is changing effectively? Because when I told my nine year old son that women couldn’t vote as recently as 100 years ago, he looked incredulous and asked, “Why?” His mind couldn’t even wrap around that story.

Just over one hundred years ago, boys were raised in a culture where women didn’t vote and that was “normal”. It wasn’t good. It wasn’t right. But it was the accepted story.

The fact that my son can’t fathom voting inequality based on gender is proof that the suffrage movement altered the narrative. It is proof that the changes Ruth Bader Ginsburg affected are still opening the door for even freer generations.

But as much as I see the world recovering from the false narrative of women’s inequality, the church is way behind.

The church needs some more Ruth Bader Ginsburgs.

I think back to Deborah, one of my favorite biblical women. In the book of Judges she was a prophetess, a leader of the people, and held court under “The Palm of Deborah” to handle disputes. Not only this, but she accompanied military leader, Barak, on his victorious rerouting of Israel’s enemy.

After their success, Deborah sings this song:

“Villagers in Israel would not fight;
they held back until I, Deborah, arose,
until I arose, a mother in Israel.
God chose new leaders
when war came to the city gates,
but not a shield or spear was seen
among forty thousand in Israel.
My heart is with Israel’s princes,
with the willing volunteers among the people.
Praise the Lord!” – Judges 5: 7-9

Deborah was a strong leader, a “mother in Israel”, a catalyst for courage and change. In fact, she says Israel didn’t step out in courage “until she arose…” Her feminine qualities didn’t diminish her leadership- rather they enhanced her ability to catalyze relationally. In all her ways she was “with” the people, very much as God is “with” us in Spirit and in Emmanuel.

Ironically, the church structures I’ve grown up in would not support a Deborah. She would have no place there, unless she was quietly called a leader by virtue of her relationship to her spouse, or if she wanted to only hold court for women. Maybe she’d be given a space as a small group leader, but certainly never as a vision-caster or shepherd.

Yet Deborah, Old Testament and all, defies modern church defined gender roles not in a rebellious way, but with God’s blessing.

God used Deborah to “rewrite” the false narrative for women like me who would one day realize a greater calling within them. God doesn’t chastise Deborah for leading. He doesn’t hint that there was a dearth of capable men to lead. He doesn’t minimize her leadership by making her a regrettable footnote. She is celebrated unambiguously through recorded history and in the ample space for her own song of joy.

Deborah is an RBG for me in the church. So are women like Beth Moore, Tara Beth Leach, and Anne Graham Lotz. Do I agree with where all these women stand on all issues of spirituality, or morality? No. But they are trailblazers who are paving wider roads for the rest of us women, and, more importantly, widening the STORY the next generation will inherit.

You may not have agreed with everything Ruth Bader Ginsburg did. God help me, I’m not even at the end of my life and I already disagree with plenty of what I’ve done. But Ruth stood for something powerful, and I’m truly grateful for the story that she allowed me to believe about myself that was MUCH closer to the story God believes about me. I’m thankful that she created space for me to breathe, to imagine myself in partnership with men, and to dream a broader image of the Kingdom.

Church, we NEED women leaders. We need “mothers” and prophetesses and relational catalysts. We need women who are introverted, and thoughtful, and creative. We need the extroverted, and the bold, and the messy. We need women who will hold court under their own “palm”; their own sphere of influence, as mothers, elders, politicians, wives, singles, deacons, career women, and more.

The church is hurting right now. People are feeling disconnected, confused, lonely and lost. People are wounded, scared, and anxious. The harvest is plentiful…let’s make sure we aren’t barring half the workers from joining in the harvest. Now is not the time to debate who gets to be in the field.

We need the church to stop silencing the better story not only in structure but in culture. We need the church to not only value women’s abilities, but also their opinions, by allowing them a place at the table to CREATE CHANGE. (We don’t need to be patronized by being “heard” but discounted.) We need the church to speak to women as leaders and not simply “supporters”. We need the church to acknowledge that we are not lesser “heirs…of the gracious gift of life”. We need the church to allow females who DO have a place (on staff, in ministry, in the pulpit) to be given ACCESS, RESOURCES, and an EQUAL place at the table alongside their brothers.

We need some men like Ruth’s husband who are willing to champion women until change comes, because they believe that the women in their lives are capable, Spirit-filled, and created for more. (I thank God every day that my husband is just as unwilling as I am to swallow the church’s version of the story for women.)

We need men to invite women into the strategy and solutions to the issues our culture faces today. We need brothers to see how their sisters are made to be shepherds too.

And we can’t say that women’s equality takes a backseat during Covid- no, it is precisely because of the crisis of Covid that we need liberated women MORE THAN EVER.

Ruth fought hard and ultimately got to stand higher on the storybook she helped rewrite. I fear I’ll never get to stand on the story I believe God wants the church to write for women. But I look at my daughter and I can believe that she’ll stand on that better story.

And I’ll go down fighting for that. Are you with me, Church?