On this Election Day, I am deeply concerned by the archaic and misinformed rhetoric coming across the airwaves surrounding women’s issues and women’s rights, such as the need to justify or define rape or explain to one’s employer the need for a health remedy recommended by one’s doctor. It seems that many who seek political office want to turn back the clock and erase many hard-fought victories and return us to a time when women were considered the “weaker sex” who required protection or, alternatively, were merely sources of sexual temptation and danger.
What is happening in the political realm is mirrored in the theological realm. A prominent preacher and dynamic leader recently addressed one of my favorite books in the Bible, Esther. But I found myself taken aback when I read his description of Esther’s “sexual sin” and “godless behavior,” and was almost hurt when the pastor described her as “painfully normal.”
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