Wake Up, Look Up

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hello everyone thanks for listening to

wake up lookup a podcast where we

connect events happening in real time to

the Gospel of Jesus Christ I'm Zach

wrock and in today's episode we're

asking the question do women belong in

battle this has been in the news this

week because uh soon to be president

Trump's nomination for Secretary of

Defense Pete Heth uh is against the use

of female troops in combat situations

now uh that has changed in recent years

meaning the United States has changed

its policy of using women in combat but

if it becomes Secretary of Defense hexat

that's something he wants to change and

what he cites as reasons for this are

that Studies have shown male troops

outperform female troops in combat

situations the United States Marine

Corps for example has done studies to

show that the physical ability of men uh

male soldiers trumps that of female

soldiers in in large they're bigger

faster and stronger which in combat

situations often leads to an advantage

the use of female troops in combat

situations also can present logistical

difficulties at least according to heg

what he says is that you have have to

find different gear and equipment for

the female body it is uh different you

have to think about Barra situations uh

uh mixed gender situations and high

stress environments that can lead to

difficulty uh for all these reasons he

plans on if his nomination is confirmed

trying to change the use of women in

combat now what's interesting about that

is it flies in the face of popular

American sentiment 66% of Americans

that's a pretty big number support the

use of female troops in combat that's

not surprising though because for a long

time our culture has elevated the value

of equality and defined equality as

everyone having the exact same

opportunities and access as everyone

else and in fact those who are

proponents of using women in combat say

that even the studies that show that

they might be lagging behind are

indicative of an inherent bias in fact

we're new to using female troops in

combat so of course we don't have the

gear of course we don't have the

logistics figured out so on and so forth

but if you give it enough time they

argue that will be eradicated so uh

who's right and how should we think

about this uh biblically well of course

I can't begin to weigh in on physical

stats of soldiers and United States

military studies I I'm not a soldier and

in my opinion anyone who serves this

country in any way in the military is

hero and impressive and I'm so grateful

for them but I am a pastor and a

theologian so I will argue this I think

the Bible teaches that combat a battle

is not the work of women that equality

and value between men and women the idea

that men and women both bear the image

of God they are therefore inherently

valuable and inherently equal does not

mean they play equal roles in fact this

is a chief way the Bible is against our

culture because what the Bible teaches

is that God makes people in His image

male and female and there's something to

be said about maleness and the way that

images God and femaleness and the way

that images God they're both doing the

same thing but in inherently different

ways and just as we would argue that a

man can't say he's a woman and a woman

can't say she's a man because God made

them male and female the Bible would

also argue that that plays out in the

economy of the home and in the economy

of the battlefield men and women play

different roles equality is not about

function but about value in fact the

Bible also would argue that it is

incumbent upon the men of the culture of

the Church of God's people to protect

women the Bible has a lot to say about

the value of women and the call of men

to defend that value to nurture it and

protected in Ephesians 5 for example

husbands are called to lay down their

lives for their wives wives are not

called to do that that's because we play

different roles and even if we set aside

different proof texts for the use of

women in combat uh here's the thing in

the Old Testament uh which is full of

battle stories stories of God's people

going to war what we see time and time

again is they're not using women to do

it they're not being told to use women

to do it even the offsitedatasync

people to go to war go to war it's the

men who are doing the fighting not the

women and that's instructive I think for

how we think about this the Bible

teaches the value of women go read

proverbs 31 and the high view of women

read the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew

chapter 1 and the four women who played

incredible roles in the Redemptive story

of God we could fill episodes of

podcasts with all the Godly women who

are in the Bible and in church history

who who have moved the kingdom forward

women have absolute value equal value to

men but that doesn't mean God wants them

doing the same thing that men do we all

have a role to play in the kingdom it is

the role of men to defend their families

and to defend their countes should women

be in battle no they should not not

because they're not valuable enough but

because in God's economy they're too

valuable to do that hey thanks so much

for watching this episode of wake up

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