Church: Where Women are REAL Women

But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.  Every man who has something on his head while praying or prophesying disgraces his head.  But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying disgraces her head, for she is one and the same as the woman whose head is shaved.  For if a woman does not cover her head, let her also have her hair cut off; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let her cover her head. (1 Corinthians 11:3-6 NASB)

One of the big reasons I decided to work with 'biblical languages' in my graduate degree was to deal with passages like this.  I wanted to study the hard stuff and see for myself what was said or written.  I wanted to be able to work with the text myself rather than rely on what someone else said about it.  In the process, I discovered that I still don't know anything.  But I also discovered that I'm in good company.

There are passages in the Bible for which we have completely lost the assumed cultural or liturgical context.  In this specific passage, Paul makes some references that no longer make sense.  There aren't other New Testament references which help us understand the reference.  There aren't even things we can find outside of the New Testament that help.  The reference which made so much sense to the church in Corinth because of their specific circumstances (cultural or worship practice or something) is now baffling.

In essence, Paul is advocating that women wear something on their head while participating in either prayer or prophesying in worship.  His reasoning is a bit odd and hard to follow.  He refers to 'head' which here is not a reference to authority, but to relationship: Christ to man, man to woman, God to Christ.  And then makes this odd statement: "Every man having down head disgraces his head."  The first question is typically, "What does 'having down head' mean?"  After that is, "What head? Christ or his noggin?" or "Having what down his head?"  Anyway, you get the point; it's not really clear.

Gordon Fee in his commentary on 1 Corinthians in the New International Commentary on the New Testament really unpacks this whole argument very thoroughly.  If you really want a good treatment of this, I refer you there.  So, what I'm going to do is work off what he wrote, and unpack some application for me today, in this culture.

The really unambiguous element here is a distinction made between men and women.  While in other places Paul says they have the same standing within God's kingdom treating them remarkably equal (see 1 Corinthians 7:1-17), here Paul acknowledges and calls for a marked distinction.  He derives this from creation as presented in Genesis, and applies it to worship; in other words, when the church comes together.  So, the problem being addressed is that this distinction was being blurred (however it was happening), and he addresses the problem by applying the Scripture on creation to correct it.

So, regardless of how women were blurring the lines in that church, it was happening.  Paul writes to address the women blurring such lines.  He makes two interesting caveats though.  First, this isn't about 'authority'.  Second, this doesn't limit or restrain them from praying or prophesying in worship.  The only mention of 'authority' is in the authority the woman has over her own head in verse 10; 'symbol' is an added word that is probably both unnecessary and wrong.  The practice being corrected is the mode in which a woman prophesies or prays, not the praying or prophesying itself.

So, I'm left with asking myself in what ways can I protect the distinction between men and women in my own life.  Keeping in mind that, in many ways, I live on the verge of drowning in an 'estrogen pool', this can be a real issue for me.  I have one specific place that I cannot fail here, I must succeed; and that is with my daughter.  I must help and encourage her as she enters womanhood.  I have to.  It really scares me in some ways  and for a variety of reasons.

I have lived a lot of my life enslaved to degrading images of women.  And I know intellectually that such women live degrading lives, enslaved to an insidious evil.  Having a daughter brings this 'intellectual knowledge' right into my heart.  I hate and fear what our society does to women, and therefore what it might do to my daughter.  I say to my shame that to protect my daughter, I fear at some level that she be pretty.  I realize this, and accept this as a consequence of my sinful track record.  And I also accept that it's something I must not give into. 

I have a responsibility before my Master to encourage my daughter in His kingdom.  That means that I have to encourage her to be all that He has designed for her.  In my case, my Master has made my daughter very beautiful.  It scares me, and I will mercilessly hunt down and eliminate any would-be predator who sets sights on her.  As a bumper sticker I saw lately, "I have a gun and a shovel. You will not be found."  At least that's my intent, what my surging emotions place on me; I'm shaking as I write this.  This world has no mercy on my daughter, and therefore I will give it none in her defense.  Tough talk, and it comes from my fears.

I suppose my application is to remind my daughter that she IS beautiful, in my eyes, and in the eyes of my Master.  She needs to know that.  I have to overcome my fears, for her sake; I can't let her believe the lie that she's not beautiful just to protect her from what I fear.  It's neither fair to her nor being responsible as her father for me to fail at this point.