Read the 2nd Edition of my book on Substack

God and Women: Deconstructing the Christian Caste System

To all my subscribers, thank you for reading my column. You are greatly appreciated! Your subscriptions, whether free or paid, encourage me more than you can know.

To my paid subscribers: Soon I will be making the 2nd Edition of my book, Woman this is WAR! Gender, Slavery, and the Evangelical Caste System, available on this column as an early release, in a chapter by chapter set of serialized articles.

All other articles that are not one of my books will continue to be available to all subscribers.

The 2nd Edition of, Woman this is WAR!, will be released later this year, under a new title, God and Women: Deconstructing the Christian Caste System. The book will feature a new cover as well. And you, my dear paid subscribers, get to read it first!

There are many who are interested in the subject of God and Women but cannot become paid subscribers or buy my books at this time. My policy of offering free PDF copies of my first three books to anyone who cannot afford to buy them has not changed.

Jocelyn Andersen is author of, Woman this is WAR! Gender, Slavery, and the Evangelical Caste System.

WHAT READERS ARE SAYING: A unique approach to the modern-day evangelical "war" over women: Andersen is a gifted writer, and the book was easy to read even as it covers thoughtful and sometimes technical information. I am glad I read it.

I’ve read a great deal about women in the church and home, and it is easy to think there is nothing new to be learned or considered – but this book has a unique approach and covers aspects overlooked by others. Everything is well documented with footnotes in case you have questions or want sources. … In the opening chapters of this book, I had never made the connection between the abolitionist or anti-slavery movement in the late 1800’s and the women’s rights movement. As Christian women back then began to speak out against slavery, they took push-back and criticism because they were stepping outside the women’s sphere of the home – and speaking in public, even from pulpits, when an anti-slavery meeting would take place in a church. There is interaction in the book with Frederick Douglas who saw similarities between how women and blacks were treated. Women were bound by a caste system too, thus the book’s subtitle: Gender, Slavery, and the Evangelical Caste System.

From the book: “Women’s rights movements rarely seem to have begun from what would have been a legitimate effort to simply better the condition of women themselves, but rather out of frustration from attempting to better the condition of others and finding themselves seriously handicapped in the process.” (page 34-35)

Early feminists were Christians and they, along with modern evangelical Christian feminists, are sadly mis-characterized, sometimes grossly, by certain Christians and complementarians. It is shameful, but more than that it is unfair. They should at least fight fair. They sadly often do not, truly distorting Christian egalitarian views.

There is much food for thought and “prophetic” words – meaning much needed straightforward truth speaking. Perhaps the book title seems a bit extreme, but it really is not.

Finally, I was pleased that translation bias was covered in a chapter, an issue that needs to be addressed, and one that I find quite hard to bring up with lay people or everyday believers who lack knowledge about Bible translation. We can trust our Bibles, but we also need to acknowledge that certain passages are hard to translate, and bias can come into play. ~~ L. Martin (4-stars)