{"id":5653,"date":"2018-01-06T16:45:36","date_gmt":"2018-01-06T22:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/?p=5653"},"modified":"2018-01-06T16:45:36","modified_gmt":"2018-01-06T22:45:36","slug":"hear-me-roar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/2018\/01\/06\/hear-me-roar\/","title":{"rendered":"Hear Me Roar"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Trevor Major<\/strong>
\nAround 1 BC, a\u00a0lovely\u00a0fellow by the name of\u00a0Hilarion\u00a0writes\u00a0a\u00a0letter\u00a0to his pregnant wife\u00a0Alis:\u00a0<\/span>
\nI ask and beg you to take good care of our\u00a0baby\u00a0son, and as soon as I receive payment I shall send it up to you. If you are delivered of a child, if it is a boy keep it, if a girl discard it.\u00a0<\/span>
\nThis is a reference to the very common practice of exposure\u00a0in ancient Greece and Rome.\u00a0Like\u00a0Hilarion, fathers were more inclined to\u00a0order the exposure of\u00a0girls\u00a0(and\u00a0sickly boys).\u00a0This\u00a0was not always fatal.\u00a0Some were picked up and sold to be raised as slaves, beggars, prostitutes\u00a0and gladiators. A fortunate few might have been adopted into\u00a0other families.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nAncient writers\u00a0took special note\u00a0of practices in other cultures.\u00a0Aristotle\u00a0brings particular attention to the fact that Jews rear all their children.\u00a0Josephus makes\u00a0exactly the same point\u00a0four centuries later\u00a0when he\u00a0defends\u00a0the Jewish way of life\u00a0against\u00a0its\u00a0pagan critics.\u00a0<\/span>
\nIn this\u00a0tiny\u00a0snapshot\u00a0of ancient life we see a truly staggering difference between the\u00a0prevailing\u00a0pagan worldview and the\u00a0Biblical\u00a0worldview. The\u00a0Hebrew\u00a0Scriptures\u00a0show a deep respect for\u00a0family and children.\u00a0Adam and Eve are\u00a0instructed to be \u201cfruitful and multiply\u201d (Gen. 1:28). The Mosaic Law specifies\u00a0penalties for babies who\u00a0are\u00a0harmed by violence (Ex. 21:22-25).\u00a0Josiah is marked out as a good king for\u00a0cracking down on\u00a0child sacrifice (2 Ki. 23:10).\u00a0<\/span>
\nNaturally,\u00a0as\u00a0Jews converted to\u00a0Christianity, they\u00a0brought\u00a0these\u00a0Biblical\u00a0values\u00a0into the\u00a0early\u00a0church. It is hard to imagine that they would countenance the practice of exposure among their Gentile brethren.\u00a0The New Testament\u00a0builds on this respect for\u00a0children.\u00a0Jesus has compassion on children (Mt. 19:13-15). Fathers are\u00a0instructed to\u00a0not provoke their children (Eph. 6:1). And\u00a0most of all,\u00a0perhaps, the\u00a0nativity accounts of\u00a0Jesus\u00a0show that life begins at conception, and never depends for its value on the judgment of\u00a0men\u2014neither\u00a0betrothed Joseph\u00a0nor King\u00a0Herod.\u00a0<\/span>
\nThese attitudes must have had a profound\u00a0effect\u00a0on pagan women who came into contact with Christianity. As a man,\u00a0I can hardly put myself in their position. Even so, it must have\u00a0been heart breaking\u00a0for a woman\u00a0to carry a child\u00a0to term and\u00a0give birth,\u00a0only to be told that\u00a0her\u00a0beautiful\u00a0baby is to be\u00a0discarded because she\u00a0is\u00a0(like her mother)\u00a0only a\u00a0female.\u00a0<\/span>
\nChristians not only had a different\u00a0view of\u00a0children, they had a different\u00a0view of\u00a0men.\u00a0There was no double standard on sexual\u00a0behavior: men were just as accountable as women\u00a0(Heb. 13:4). Divorce was limited and rare\u00a0(Matt. 19:9). Although husbands\u00a0were\u00a0the head of the family,\u00a0they were expected to\u00a0love\u00a0their wives\u00a0as Christ loved the church (Eph. 5:25), and\u00a0to\u00a0treat\u00a0their wives\u00a0as fellow heirs\u00a0of the grace of life (1 Pet. 3:7).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nEarly Christianity was pro-life\u00a0and, in a very real sense,\u00a0pro-women.\u00a0Sadly, the benefits for women declined over time,\u00a0for two important reasons. First,\u00a0church\u00a0interests became\u00a0increasingly\u00a0entangled in state interests. As the\u00a0imperial church\u00a0came to mirror society, it lost its distinctive appeal to\u00a0society\u2019s most\u00a0vulnerable groups, such as women. And second,\u00a0theologians\u00a0began\u00a0to develop views on marriage and women\u00a0that flatly contradicted Biblical teaching\u00a0(cf.\u00a01 Tim. 4:1-3).\u00a0Priests, forbidden from marriage, would\u00a0simply avail themselves of concubines\u00a0which, by the way,\u00a0were\u00a0a\u00a0vestige of pagan Rome.\u00a0<\/span>
\nSome might argue\u00a0that the\u00a0modern\u00a0state\u00a0now\u00a0protects the\u00a0interests of women and children, and offers\u00a0so much more\u00a0than the\u00a0ancient church\u00a0ever could.\u00a0Even if the\u00a0average Christian woman\u00a0was better off than her\u00a0pagan neighbor,\u00a0she\u00a0would have to submit to her husband\u00a0at\u00a0home and to male authority\u00a0figures within\u00a0the church.\u00a0This continues to\u00a0get under the skin of feminists, which is why they will always stump for political parties that lean in the direction of statism or central planning.\u00a0<\/span>
\nFeminists have\u00a0all but won the culture war\u00a0on this front.\u00a0\u201cI am woman, hear me roar.\u201d\u00a0And yet, when we look at\u00a0the\u00a0price of\u00a0victory\u2014men avoiding marriage, abortion,\u00a0divorce,\u00a0homosexuality,\u00a0population decline,\u00a0sex selection, legalized prostitution, sexual promiscuity, rampant STDs,\u00a0cohabitation (the new version of concubinage),\u00a0etc.\u2014we have to wonder\u00a0whether\u00a0the feminism has\u00a0simply won back\u00a0the pagan world.\u00a0And are we\u00a0all\u2014and most especially, are women\u00a0and children\u2014really\u00a0better off for that?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Trevor Major Around 1 BC, a\u00a0lovely\u00a0fellow by the name of\u00a0Hilarion\u00a0writes\u00a0a\u00a0letter\u00a0to his pregnant wife\u00a0Alis:\u00a0 I ask and beg you to take good care of our\u00a0baby\u00a0son, and as soon as I receive payment I shall send it up to you. If you are delivered of a child, if it is a boy keep it, if a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[46,66],"tags":[58,120,1270,1235,1236,450],"class_list":["post-5653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-children","category-think-excerpts","tag-children","tag-family","tag-january-2013","tag-smart-faith","tag-trevor-major","tag-women","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nHear Me Roar - Focus Press<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/2018\/01\/06\/hear-me-roar\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hear Me Roar - Focus Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Trevor Major Around 1 BC, a\u00a0lovely\u00a0fellow by the name of\u00a0Hilarion\u00a0writes\u00a0a\u00a0letter\u00a0to his pregnant wife\u00a0Alis:\u00a0 I ask and beg you to take good care of our\u00a0baby\u00a0son, and as soon as I receive payment I shall send it up to you. 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