Sociology
...another essay I wrote for East Gate College..... :)
Sociology
is the study of our society, our governments and how we act and respond in a
community. Although some worldviews deny
the fact, most views recognize three main institutions; the church, the family
and the government or state. However, as
is a Postmodernist worldview, they replace the church and the family with
economy and society respectively.
Women’s role in society is hotly debated and from that comes differing
views on children rising, marriage and even leadership in the church and
home.
The Feminist movement is which was
started mainly by Secular Humanists.
They claim that women are equal, in every aspect, with men, and should
be given the same rights and same respect as men. Feminists believe that a homemaking wife and
mother is practically destroying the life of the woman. A housewife is less than human, one that has
been shrunken to fit behind her husband and her children – she lives for them
and has no other purpose in life. If a
woman is to have any sort of life, she is to throw off the restraints of
marriage, family and housekeeping, and instead have a career, and make a name
for herself. Being a housewife and
totally devoting oneself to making a home and marriage prosperous is no longer
viewed as a worthy career, or even a career it all. Rather, it is seen as the beginning of the
end, the slow death of an identity and a life of her own.
With these views, comes the problem
of children. Once the joy and the esteem
and value are taken out of the housewife and mother picture, then children are
no longer seen as a blessing but rather as a burden, a problem and as an
unwanted accessory. This problem of
children has been addressed with childcare centres, before and after school
care, maternity leave and so forth. A
mother can get six weeks of paid maternity leave when her child is born. When that child is six weeks old, they can be
enrolled in a childcare centre, where they can stay seven days a week, often
twelve hours a day, until they are ready to start school. This allows the mother to go back to her
career, to continue making that name and that mark upon society. However, there are some who believe that the
care of children should become solely the government’s responsibility. This
view, which is prominent among Marists-Leninists and Secular Humanists, states
that children should be given into an institution where they cared for and
raised by the community and by the state.
With this, comes a non-traditional view of marriage as well, where men
and women are ‘free’ and have no concerns in the realm of children because all
children are cared for by the government, legitimate or not. However the problems with this view are that,
although the physical cares and education of children would be seen to, the
emotional needs would not be. Children
need a solid home to come to, they need a mother and they need a father. Without these solid pillars in their life,
they experience emotional hurts which go far deeper than one could ever
imagine.
The other institution which most
worldviews try to be rid of is the Church.
Marxist-Lenin sits believe that the church is merely a walking stick for
those who aren’t self-sufficient enough to care for themselves. Others believe it leads people astray,
controlling and condemning those who wish to lead a free and open
lifestyle. Those who believe in
alternative lifestyles, feminism and other radical, non-traditional viewpoints,
believe that the church is only there to enforce rules and regulations. True enough, the Church does have rules and
regulations, but a true Church of Jesus, would have those rules straight from
God’s Word, and hence are important enough to uphold in any situation. A true Church, also, would look beyond the
sin and the lifestyle to see the person and want to help them. They might not be able to include them in
their congregation until some changes have taken place, but they should be more
than willing to be out there, helping people come right before the Lord.
So what does the Bible say about
these issues? Well, the Bible is very
clear on the matters of the family. This
is so important because the family is the basis of
the Church, the basis of society, and without it, we have no functioning
world. The family was so important that
God took especially care to outline to Adam the particulars of marriage, Therefore a man shall leave his father and
mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh,”
(Genesis 2:24) and the
particulars of the family. God’s design
for family is to be threefold picture; a mother, a father and a
child/children. This picture, so simple
and yet so powerful is what Satan has tried all of the world’s history to
destroy. And you can see throughout
history, where the family has been undermined, such as in a Communistic
government etc., there has been great evil and problems which go far beyond the
home. However today, the church has to
be on its guard against undermining ploys of Satan in his attack against the
family. In the 19th and 20th
centuries, divorce was something that was shamed, disgraced and virtually
unheard of. If a couple were divorced,
then their names were shamed, their children disgraced, and they lost all
social standings. However, in today’s
world, and even within the Church, divorce is seen as normal and acceptable,
just one of those things which happens.
How long will it be before alternative lifestyles are also seen in this
light? We must pray and stand firm
against Satan, and pray that that day will never come.
In regards to feminism and children
in light of the church and the Bible, God has made it very clear that children
are a blessing, and that the parents have the responsibility and the privilege
of raising their children to follow and love God. If the government were to take over the
raising of children, then the role of parents would become obsolete, and the
position in which God had placed them would become invalid. God designed women to be mothers, to have
that caring instinct. We are designed to
want to take care of our children and our husbands and our homes. When we suppress that part of us to become
masculine and successful in a worldly sense, we are destroying a part of us
which defines our characters and our God-given purpose. This is not to say that women don’t have a
place outside the home or in ministry, but the home and the family must come
first. The home and family are our
primary workplace and our most important mission.
The Bible has a lot to say about
Feminism, the Church, the family and marriage.
God counts the family and marriage as very important, because it is a
picture of Christ and the Church. Many
will try and justify alternative lifestyles to either make excuses for friends
or family or even themselves. However,
God’s laws are clear and it is these laws which we will be judge by on that
final day, and we will not have any excuse.
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