What the scripture says, we are made in his image, we are co-laborers.

That is a radical thing to say in this kind of a world,

to say that we are made equally.

That's where all of the ideas of equality and justice come to play, and I'll get back to that in just a second.

I would also look at all of the examples in the scriptures where it does not push women down but rather it elevates women in a time

in a culture in a society where women were in fact oppressed.

One of the best books I've read on this

is Jesus through the eyes of women

by Rebecca McLaughlin.

And one of her quotes in the book says,

Jesus doesn't marginalize women,

but take women from the margins and draws them to himself.

Wow.

So she goes on and gives all these examples.

Hagar is a concubine woman's slave and God chooses her to whisper his name.

In Matthew, Jesus commends the faith of a Canaanite woman

after confronting male scribes and Pharisees and Mark.

Jesus heals a chronologically bleeding,

chronically bleeding woman

and he calls her his daughter.

And Luke, the good news of Jesus is first revealed to a low-income teenage girl from a

backcountry town who becomes a prophetic voice and mother of Jesus.

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