In last week’s post, I signaled that I’d be writing part 2 to the post Seven Demons More Wicked Than Intersectionality. But, alas, developments have developed, important ones, that have called for me to kick that post down the road. Those two developments are the Supreme Court leak that Roe is being overturned and the release of a new Canon Press documentary featuring Bekah Merkle called Eve in Exile. When God tears down an abomination and raises up something beautiful, we have to move around some furniture here at Reformation and Revival so that we might dance on the grave of abortion and praise feminine glory, which is nothing less than the glory of the glory of God (1 Corinthians 11:7)
I would simply begin by praising our good and sovereign God who rules the kingdom of men. He does all things well. The saints have prayed and labored for the death of abortion for many years now, and the indications we have from the Supreme Court warrant our highest praise of the Almighty. Christians all across our blessed land ought to fill the streets and light off more fireworks than a decade of July 4ths. Let celebrations resound in every town that put the decibels at the Super Bowl to shame. And let every pro-choice American know that we are not the least bit sorry that their blood sacrament has dried up.
Why will we not shed a tear? Well, that would mean we have to stop our joyful laughter and shouting over the death of death. My friend Wade Stotts brought perspective last week on Twitter when he gave voice to the lamenting pro-abortion leftists. He aptly tweeted on their behalf, “If right-wingers get their way, pretty soon we won’t be able to kill anyone.” So, be it known throughout the realm that we rejoice when the grave is thrown into the grave. We have every intention of seeing women do what God has designed them to do. We exult in the flourishing of femininity, and delight that the oppression of women for these many decades appears to be being lifted. That right. Make no mistake about it. Elizabeth Warren and the bloodthirsty Gavin Newsom who have already begun to bang the drums in favor of violating women’s wombs do nothing less than attempt the destruction of feminine glory.
Scripture says that woman is the glory of man, and man is the glory of God. Only our creature-worshiping culture could somehow turn that into a negative. Only our generation, which has been given up to a debased mind would go to saying that the crown of the crown is a position of dishonor. Glory radiates, and only fools would go to saying something disdainful about the outer most rays of the sun. Perhaps next we could shame the color red for being the highest on rainbow. The first woman sprang forth from the first man, and we have been springing forth from woman ever since. And we rejoice that this very Spring we have received indication that many more image bearers will be springing forth from woman.
Given this development of Roe’s overturn, now would be a wonderful time to pick up a copy of Eve in Exile. And while you read the book, you will want to subscribe to Canon+ and watch the Eve in Exile documentary. Our first father hit the nail on the head when he called his wife Eve, for she was mother of all the living. Bekah Merkle has fulfilled a similar role by writing a book that points to the path of life. It is fittingly subtitled, And the Restoration of Femininity. If you are interested in putting the pieces back together, and that is exactly what you should be interested in doing at a time like this, then Eve (the book) and Eve (the documentary) are wonderful places to start.
Bekah details and corrects feminism in the first part of her book. And we sorely need this survey of the lay of the land. Far too many saints, men and women alike, do not know what air they are breathing. They have not considered the influence of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Betty Frieden. Moreover, they have not thought through the blessings and potential curses of the dishwasher and the vacuum cleaner. (Now if that sentence doesn’t make you want to watch the doc, then nothing else will). In short, one of the key ingredients you will get in Eve is an education on the history of feminism and the damage it has done to the civilization you’re living in. But, Bekah doesn’t leave you there. She also charts the course for the recovery of femininity.
If we would recover femininity, then we must know what women are for. And nothing could be plainer than the fact that the feminine telos is lost on the culture of death. The heart of the problem is idolatry. Idolatry drives abortion. Idolatry leaves you blind. As the psalmist says, “Their idols are . . . the work of men’s hands . . . they have mouths, but the speak not: eyes have they, but they see not . . . they that make them are like unto them; so is everyone that trusted in them” (Psalm 115:4-5, 8). This idolatry runs deep. And if you grasp the idolatrous nature of feminism, you will be far better situated to face the days ahead.
This idolatry came out and flexed just last week as Chuck Schumer announced that the senate would vote on a bill to codify the right to abortion into federal law. In his press release he chastised Republicans, saying that they have been on “the wrong side of history.” We have grown accustomed to this phrase: being on the wrong side of history. But the language is more telling than you may think. Such terminology arises from the deification of history. Herbert Schlossberg has identified the idolatry of history in his book, Idols for Destruction. History becomes an idol when people refuse to see it as “the arena in which providence and judgment meet the obedience or rebellion of man,” and instead see it as “the vehicle of salvation” itself.
No peace exists between the Christian view of history and the idolatrous view: “The Christian doctrine of a Lord of history beyond history [providence], could not be reconciled with the idea of progress made inevitable by some teleological principle found within history.” Those who attempt to deify history refuse to see that the explanation of history lies outside of history. Strikingly, Schlossberg says that the idolatry of history results in “power politics” and “a system that people use to control other people” . . . like, little people. The ones who can’t stand up to you because they’re still in mother’s womb.
The idolatry of history, and all idolatry for that matter, exchanges the glory of God for the creature. It is no wonder that idolaters want to destroy feminine glory for feminine glory is the glory of the glory of God (1 Corinthians 11:7). So thanks be to God if Roe is overturned. But putting the culture of death to death requires nothing less than a return to the worship of the Triune God. So, further up and further in. And to that end, go watch Eve and Exile on Canon+.