Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 07:3 (Summer 1993)
Article: Good News For Women Is Good News For Men
Author: Frances F. Hiebert

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PP 7:3 (Summer 1993) p. 1

Good News For Women Is Good News For Men

Frances F. Hiebert

Frances Hiebert is chair of the Mennonite Central Com mi lien U.S. Committee on Women’s Concerns. She is a member of Mennonite Brethren Board of Missions/Services, and works as international student coordinator at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. This article first appeared in the Jan/Feb 1993 issue of Women’s Concerns Report, and is reprinted by permission.

Feminism is supposed to be good news for women; but does that mean it is automatically bad news for men? Many people assume that it is. What is given to women must necessarily be taken away from men. This is the old “slice of the pie” or “limited good” theory. There are only so many pieces in a pie and therefore a limited number of people may be served. And when people believe that theory, battle lines are drawn. In this case, if women are to get more of whatever share of the pie men have traditionally been given, men will lose something.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ, however, is about unlimited good. It is true that it involves sacrifice, but paradoxically the sacrifice only brings about great good. Those who lose their lives for the sake of the Gospel will find them. The seed analogy makes the same point. When a seed falls into the ground it dies, but fruit is the end result. Jesus taught that the servant attitude makes one great in the kingdom of God.

Then how could Christians have fallen for the old pagan idea that having authority and power all to themselves is the right of men in human society? Or that having to share these things with women somehow diminishes their manhood?

The reason is that in a sinful world what is really unnatural according to the plan of God, has become natural. For example, Gordon Houser attended the conference on “Men Working to End Men’s Violence Against Women” in Colorado last winter. He writes that there he began to understand that the system which was as natural to him as walking, was in fact an oppressive system. As with so much that is considered “natural” in human nature, it takes a conversion experience to turn away from it and begin to live like a child of the kingdom of God.

In the kingdom of God, there is unlimited good, and mutuality between women and men expresses the true nature of humanity. So men are not losers when they take the egalitarian position. In fact, the opposite appears to be true. Men have much to gain by following the example of Jesus who emptied himself of divine power, took on himself a slave-like role, and allowed himself to be executed like a common criminal. But the example of Jesus does not end there. Because he gave up everything, God has “highly exalted him” (Phil...

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