Modesty and Reflection

Find a heated modesty argument here.

 Like most Christian women who grew up in the church, I have heard countless sermons, lectures, and comments about modesty. Growing up, my mother would only allow me to wear shorts or skirts that were an inch past my fingertips when I stood with my arms at my sides. She used to remind me that, “we have attractive bodies and that can be very powerful, and so we must be respectful of others and of ourselves in the way that we dress, speak, and move.” In eighth grade, I went on a youth group retreat and the girls, independent of leaders, had a big discussion about

whether or not we were going to wear two-piece or one-piece swimsuits in order to respect the boys. Modesty seems to be a key portion of Christian indoctrination. At the end of her chapter on modesty, Evans concludes, “it’s not what we wear but how we wear it. And like clothing, modesty fits each woman a little differently” (Evans 140). Her conclusion sources from her discussions with Ahava and a Mennonite woman.

Ahava describes tzniut, the term used for modesty in Judaism as “more that just a list of rules about how to dress. It’s a state of mind. The idea is to avoid dressing in a way that draws attention to your outer self, but instead to dress so that your inner self is allowed to shine through. You should try to be pretty, but not alluring” (Evans 122). Here we see an idea supported by Paul in 2 Timothy 2:9, “I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.” Both the idea of tznuit and Paul’s writings in 2 Timothy advocate for guidelines that dictate how a woman appears so that the emphasis is instead placed on her heart.

The Marylike Standards of Modesty

The question then becomes what sort of dress guidelines are appropriate. Paul firmly states that “every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head” (Corinthians 11:5). Deuteronomy 22:5 requires that women “not wear men’s clothing… for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this.” The Catholic Church has codified modesty into The Marylike Standards of Modesty which stipulates sleeve and skirt length, amount of coverage required (measured in inches), the moderate use of more decorative fabrics (laces etc.), and to what amount clothing may emphasize any part of the body. Isaiah writes a fiery passage against accessories and as we saw in 2 Timothy, Paul echoes that view. Many, many religious groups have guidelines about modest dress, and very few of them look alike. So it seems that if the Bible has a cohesive set of modesty guidelines, it will require a significant amount of analysis to reveal them.

I’d like to shift our focus just slightly. Because while tzniut and many Scriptures offer rules for modest dress, Evans proposes that the rules aren’t really what matter. In spending time with a Mennonite woman, Evans realizes that “there are women for whom the bonnets and aprons foster humility and women for whom the same things foster pride.” She then continues to argue that our efforts to codify modesty have less to do with the pursuit of modesty and more to do with our desire to take the easier road. Modesty is complex and it can often seem easier to measure skirt lengths than to wrestle with Scripture. By codifying modesty, Evans argues (and I agree) that Christians get tangled up in the rules and lose sight of the true goal which often leads to more conflict and more bunny trails as Christians argue over how modesty is best manifested. But really, modesty is about humility. It’s about acknowledging that we are not the best and about finding contentment in our Spirit-filled selves rather than creating ways to draw attention to ourselves.

All of this sounds great, and I agree that Christians have lost themselves among the rules of modesty. But I also hesitate, because modesty is important, and as Christians we are called to hold one another accountable. I worry that allowing people to personally define modesty according to what they see as appropriate places humans above God and leaves no room for Christians to hold one another accountable. God has given us rules to guide us. They are scattered across the Bible; so it’s hardly accurate to say that God does not believe in rules. As we see in the Christ narrative, Jesus reframes and deepens the law from external to internal, requiring that we examine our hearts. But even as Jesus deepens the law and addresses our hearts, he does not remove the law from its place. If we apply the Christ narrative to modesty rules, we find that the rules do indeed have a place, provided that we remember their primary role in shaping and guiding our hearts rather than our closets.

I don’t have an answer for what the list of modesty rules should include. The Bible was not written to speak to today’s fashion trends and so this issue is quite convoluted. But in reflecting on the last several months of considering biblical womanhood, I’m reminded of the general theme that has emerged: biblical womanhood is about a woman correctly placing God at the top of her list, the center of her life, and the authority over all she does. So maybe Evans is right; maybe the best approach to modesty is to pursue a relationship with God, to ask him questions, and to listen to the answers. If I’ve learned anything in this journey of musings, it’s that God wants to respond to our questions. He wants help us wrestle with the complexities of our beliefs, and he loves to liberate us.   

Broken and Beautiful

           In Evans’ February chapter, she explores biblical beauty, including what the Bible says about sex. The chapter begins with a discussion of

“…the sentiment that the Bible holds women to a certain standard of beauty that must be maintained throughout all seasons of life and that wives must devote themselves to pleasing their husbands in bed…” (Evans 100)

Evans tells stories and shares comments from her readers that describe the Church’s expectations regarding sex and beauty, and the all too often associated feelings of guilt, shame, confusion, and general suppression. Even though the geographic area in which I was raised has a very different set of societal expectations from the society with which Evans is familiar (Evans is from the South and I am not), and even thought my parents very carefully and intentionally framed conversations about beauty and sex within the Christian faith, I did not escape feeling some of the same feelings expressed in Evans’ stories, especially in related to the concept of beauty.

Here is a blog post about "finding contentment with the girl in the mirror."

             As in the case of the Proverbs 31 woman and her checklist, I am inclined to advocate that Christians set aside their beauty related squabbles in favor of prioritizing seeking God’s face. However, I’m also reminded of my own struggles with beauty and the ways in which God has used my mother to form how I, as a Christian, think about beauty. I’m reminded of the many girls and women I know and have known over my relatively short life that have expressed insecurities about their appearance and desirability. And above all, I’m reminded of the many, many times when the only thought that kept me from hating my appearance was the knowledge that to the Creator of the Universe, I was more precious than sparrows. In many ways, I think the underlying issues beneath beauty-related insecurities, confusion, and guilt stem from misplaced identity. If we look at the story of the Bible, if we look at beauty in the context of creation, Christ, and Christ’s future return, our identities clarify and perhaps things will fall into a better-formed perspective.

“…So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them... God saw all that he had made, and it was very good…” –Genesis 1:27, 31

            We could argue all day about how God created mankind, whether through immediate construction of matter and breath, or through the gradual, delicate process of evolution. That is a discussion for another time. The Genesis narrative is quite clear: “In the beginning God…” (Genesis 1:1, emphasis mine). God authored, motivated, and directed the creation of the world. God authored, motivated, and directed the creation of humanity. And he deemed his creation, humanity included, very good. We, as creation made in God’s image, share closeness with him. Not because of any personal honor or pride, but because it is yet another manifestation of God’s love for his creation and his desire to be close to us in relationship. From Genesis 1:27, we can learn that humanity has been important to God from the very beginning.

Now, we must acknowledge the distortion and disorder brought about by sin. It is true that sin is enslaving. Paul tells us that we cannot escape its grasp (Romans 3:9). But I find it important to note that even when sin enters the world, God does not revoke humanity’s likeness to the image of God. Even in sin, God desires closeness with humanity. Even in sin and disorder, we are important to God.

“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” –Matthew 5:48

“For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.”

–Colossians 2:9-10

            Christ, as the answer and solution to sin, embodies, teaches, and clarifies what it means to be a Christian and to base one’s identity around a relationship with God. I will not endeavor to explore all of the many, many aspects of our identity in Christ, but I will emphasize a point that I think is important as we consider beauty: In Christ we are complete. In Christ we are fully loved. In Christ we are to source our authority and direction from God. In Christ we are made whole.

"The Truth About Me" by Mandisa

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty thunder peals, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready…” And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are true words of God.”

Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your comrades who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” –Revelation 19:6-10

            In Revelation, we find a perspective of how we will function in our most complete self, in the moments when Jesus returns, justifies the world, and transforms the phrase “already, but not yet” into “already and now.” The perspective is not new, but is a continuation of we saw when we looked at how Christ completes us. In Revelation, the focus is on Jesus Christ. In the most complete, whole state that will exist in eternity, the focus is on Jesus Christ.

            The Genesis and Christ Narratives clearly position a person’s identity on the firm foundation of God’s love rather than on the shifting sand influenced by societal voices. If we apply this idea to the concept of beauty, we find a perspective that encourages people to fix their eyes on God rather than ascribing to the perspectives that assign identity based on appearance.

            So when the mirror mocks and jests and reflects insults sourcing from our own minds, how are we to respond? We are to respond by remembering that we are created in God’s image and He desires closeness with us. We are to respond by rejoicing in God’s desire to be pleased with us. We are to respond by claiming our identity, complete and whole, in Christ. We are to respond by thanking Christ for dying on the cross for us. We are to respond by yearning for Christ’s return, and the moment when we will be united with him in Heaven.

            In middle school, one of my friends wrote a phrase on my arm. “Broken and Beautiful.” As humans, we are broken by sin. As God’s creation, we are beautiful and he redeems us every day.

"Beautiful for Me" by Nichole Nordeman

Wrestling with the Proverbs 31 Woman

          It was a glorious spring afternoon, made all the more glorious by the freedom of a Friday schedule. We had pulled three extra chairs up to surround the small wooden table nestled under a formidable oak tree and for the hundredth time, we bowed our heads and asked that God would bless the time shared in discipleship. About 30 minutes later, our leader Lauryn told us, amidst many giggles, of a male she thought was the cat’s pajamas. “There’s something about him,” she said, her eyes bright with excitement, “I want to be a real Proverbs 31 woman for him.”

A chalkboard doodle of my discipleship group, fondly called "d-ship."

That was the first time I had ever heard of this character, the Proverbs 31 woman. So when Lauryn mentioned her, I asked for clarification. As she explained Proverbs 31, which she characterized as an ideal that Christian women should pursue, my initial thoughts were something along the lines of, “Why on earth would you do that? Where’s the Proverbs 31 man? If this passage is truly critical for life as a Christian woman, then I have been poorly educated. And if Proverbs 31 isn’t critical for life as a Christian woman, then why would you care about it? And honestly, why are you pursuing an ideal to be worthy of a male when the eternal goal of Christlikeness still remains? Shouldn’t a Godly man want a Godly woman? And isn’t a Godly woman formed by pursuing God, not a Proverbs 31 caricature?”

I mentioned in the last post that my Atlanta born-and-raised mother was very intentional in raising my sisters and me (as any good parent should be). When I asked my mother why I hadn’t ever heard of the Proverbs 31 woman, she told me her goal was to connect her children’s hands with the hands of God and to leave room for God’s whispers to each child. Her perspective of indoctrination emphasized organic relationships rather than a set curriculum. My mother and father taught me that pursuing God is of the greatest importance, and that God will not leave me without teaching.

Rachel Held Evans exploration of the Proverbs 31 checklist culture opened my eyes to a legalistic Christian faith that I did not understand. I did not grow up pursuing the P31 standard, but I know young women here in college who are defined by its guidelines.

Evans advocates that Proverbs 31 was never meant to be a checklist. Her friend Ahava, the wife of Jewish Rabbi living in Israel, explains that she is

“called an eshet chayil (a valorous woman) all the time. Make your own challah instead of buying? Eshet chayil! Work to earn some extra money for the family? Eshet chayil!... Every week at the Shabbat table, my husband sings the Proverbs 31 poem to me. It’s special because I know that no matter what I do or don’t do, he praises me for blessing the family with my energy and creativity. All women can do that in their own way.” (Evans 87-88)

This liberating interpretation of Proverbs 31 sounds pretty great to me. I’m all for celebrating women’s investment in the infrastructure of the household. And yet, this interpretation doesn’t settle all of my questions.

The crux of my questions seems to hinge on this: Jesus asks Christians to pursue what might seem to be impossible ideals. In Matthew and the Sermon on the Mount we are asked to rejoice in the face of persecution (5:12), reconcile hatred against others immediately (5:23-24), resist lust (5:28), love your enemies (5:44), and then, as if the previous list wasn’t hard enough, Jesus asks us to “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (5:48). Following Jesus isn’t meant to be easy. God calls us to resist the devil and to pursue Christlikeness, requiring that we make incredible commitments and take drastic action. This does not mean that we will not make mistakes, but it does mean that we are not left alone in our efforts. It is through Jesus that we are able to pursue Christlikeness. It is through Jesus that we are able to resist sin. It is through Jesus that we are made perfect.

Here is a blog post typical of P31 material. 

It may be true that Proverbs 31 is meant as a poem, as an anthem, as a praise, and as a celebration of womanhood, but in the midst of the arguments between the Proverbs 31 checklist culture and the Proverbs 31 praise culture, I think it’s important to remember that God calls Christians to a higher standard, a standard that is not of this world, a standard that is difficult to pursue. If we concede for a moment that Proverbs 31 is indeed best interpreted as a checklist for a Christian woman, then we need not tremble in fear. It is through Jesus that we are made perfect. So if we are going to resist the Proverbs 31 checklist culture, we should not resist it because its difficulty, or apparent impossibility does not align with God’s desire for our Christian lives. It isn’t as though God doesn’t ask us to do difficult things in other areas of our lives.

So if we are going to resist the Proverbs 31 checklist culture, what should motivate that resistance? I do not presume to have all (or even any) of the answers, but my musings are as follows: Proverbs 31 tells of a woman who is hard working, has a big heart, and loves God. Her hard work, big heart, and love for God manifests itself as she “gets up while it is still night,” “provides food for her family,” “considers a field and buys it,” “opens her arms to the poor,” sews garments to clothe her family and sell in the markets, “speaks with wisdom,” “does not eat the bread of idleness,” and fears the Lord (Proverbs 31). In my mind, it is not the specific chores listed in Proverbs 31 that are important. Any time we place a construct in between God and ourselves we run the very real risk of that construct becoming our god. I could follow the Proverbs 31 checklist literally for a lifetime and still miss the real goal. It is the themes of Proverbs 31 that should draw attention, most importantly a woman’s love for God.

Here is a blog post reacting to the Proverbs 31 checklist culture.

At this point, after a bit of wrestling, I think I’m back at where I began. I am a Christian. I love God. I believe Jesus is the Son of God and he came to earth, died, and rose again. I believe loving God and pursuing Christlikeness is the most important goal a person can have. And that places Proverbs 31 lower on my list of priorities. I find it hard to believe that in pursuing God, learning from him, and responding to his teachings, that I will not also be worthy of the praise written in Proverbs 31. And if I ever get that kind of praise, it will be nice to hear, but it will not mean the fulfillment of my life’s goal.

Musings on Gentleness

            I am convinced that God has a well-developed sense of humor. I’m sure He grinned when he saw the look on my face as Chapter One of A Year of Biblical Womanhood fell open and I read “October: Gentleness, Girl Gone Mild.” You see, in December, I began feeling a subtle, quiet pull towards the idea of gentleness, and I realized that there are very real parts of me that are not gentle. I, and several of my close friends, call my un-gentle character “Steamroller.”

This, unfortunately, accurately describes my actions when I act as "Steamroller."
(Photo credit: nakedpastor.com)

When I operate as Steamroller, I become wholly results oriented and tend to place results over relationships. I become blinded by my work and deadlines and my blindness often wounds my relationships with friends and coworkers. These realizations hit me, and I decided, a bit begrudgingly, that perhaps I should spend some time contemplating the meaning of the fruit of the Spirit gentleness. Not even a month later, I found myself reading a chapter on the meaning of gentleness within the context of biblical womanhood.

            It soon became apparent that Evans and I have a fair amount in common. When she told her female friends that she was working towards a gentle spirit, several laughed “in a sympathetic, knowing sort of way” because they knew what Evans was up against in her own character, and

Meet Rachel Held Evans. (Photo credit: Wikipedia))

because they had heard the “gentle and quiet heart” speech from a young age (Evans 6). When I told my friends that I wanted to learn more about gentleness, not so that I could force the fruit upon myself, but so that I could invite it into my heart, many of them nodded in affirmation, as if to subtly and respectfully say, “Yes, as your loving friend, I am so glad you are doing this.” Interestingly enough, I, unlike Evans, had never really heard the “gentle and quiet” lecture reserved for so many Christian girls. This may have had something to do with the western region in which I was brought up, but I suspect it largely had to do with the dedicated efforts of my mother, who was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia amongst all that Southern society has to offer, including the “gentle and quiet” lectures. Talking with her has revealed that she was quite intentional in how she raised my two little sisters and myself, but that is another topic for another day.

            If I’m honest, the bulk of Evans’ recounting of her month’s gentleness journey did not have much salience in my own musings, aside from the occasional outburst of laughter. Evans is quite funny. However, towards the end of the chapter, as Evans looked back on her month, she wrote a section that rocked my world. In reflecting on her experiment with contemplative prayer, Evans wrote this impactful paragraph:

Photo credit: news.ayekoo.com

“…gentleness begins with strength, quietness with security. A great tree is both moved and unmoved, for it changes with the seasons, but its roots keep it anchored to the ground. Mastering a gentle and quiet spirit didn’t mean changing my personality, just regaining control of it, growing strong enough to hold back and secure enough to soften” (Evans 16).

In one fell swoop Evans reconciled the tension between God-given personality traits and the concept of gentleness. Being a gentle person does not mean that I must give up the parts of myself that yearn to fight for justice and right action. It does not mean that I must imprison the parts of myself that laugh loudly with glee and assert their beliefs. Gentleness does not require that I lay down every part of myself in submission to whatever may cross my path. Now, this does not mean that I do not submit to God’s teachings and will or that I allow my personality to run rampant, but rather that, in gentleness, I have permission to acknowledge the person that God has created in me, even in the strong parts of my personality.

You can find Evans’ blog post on this subject here.

This discussion reminds me of the story of Deborah in Judges. God raised Deborah up, placing her in leadership roles as a prophet and judge. In her divinely appointed assignment to assert authority over religious, political, judicial, and military aspects of Israel, Deborah was in a position that often required that she exercise a strong personality in order to fulfill her duties. I refer to the example of Deborah not to suggest that we have a duty to exercise our strong personality traits whenever we feel we have been placed in a role for a specific reason, but because it is an example that contradicts the traditional “gentle and quiet” spirit teachings directed towards females. Deborah would not have been able to act as an effective prophet or judge if she listened to the some of the Christian voices that cry out, “Be gentle and be silent always.” Instead, she acted within the appropriate boundaries of her strength and derived her strength’s authority from God.

            On the flip side, Evans also tackles the aspects of gentleness that temper the strong personality traits. When I first brought up my desire to better understand gentleness as a fruit of the Spirit, my mother immediately reminded me of what it means for a horse trainer to gentle a horse, to take them from unbridled strength and passion, to controlled strength and passion tempered by the leadership of the trainer. 

A video of one approach to gentling a wild mustang. Start at 30 second mark.

A horse that is well gentled can operate within its strengths without feeling the need to lash out and demonstrate control. It is also confident and secure in its relationship with its trainer, acknowledging his leadership and authority in its life. You can probably see where I’m going with this analogy; God is our trainer, we are the horse. When we allow God to gentle our souls, when we invite Him to soften our rough edges, when we spend time pursuing His teachings and His heart, we are reminded of our security and strength in Christ. The temptation to assert our dominance falls away and we begin to operate from within the assurance of our identity in Christ rather than a need to validate our own existence.

            I am reminded of the Gospel author Mark. His Gospel narrative is largely fact based, emphasizing the destinations and events related to Jesus’ actions on earth rather than including prose or descriptions of Jesus’ journeys from place to place. The events in the Gospel of Mark happen “immediately” after the preceding events and “immediately” before the following events. I can’t help but infer that Mark has a strong, perhaps results driven, personality. But even in Mark’s strong personality, he submits to the authority of the Jesus Christ narrative. From a literary analysis perspective, the Gospel of Mark demonstrates Mark’s strong personality and passion, but only so far as to point to the events and authority of Jesus Christ. Based on my current understanding of gentleness, I think Mark provides another interesting example of someone who is strong and yet yields his strength to God’s authority.

            Ultimately, I find gentleness to have a certain quality of liberation in its character. Evan’s writings and my own musings speak of an interaction between our personality and God’s authority that gives both ample room to breathe. This makes sense given that Jesus did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17). I’d like to leave this post with one final analogy related to gentleness. So what does gentleness look like? Let’s say I’m a rock. Like most rocks, I am a hard, tough fragment of matter. Like many rocks, I have rough edges; some of those edges are even quite sharp. And if I suddenly find myself on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, overwhelmed by the constant, rocking motion of the waves, eventually my rough, sharp edges will erode and soften until I am a smooth rock. Inviting gentleness is about allowing God to erode our sharp edges away. Inviting gentleness does not mean that we suddenly lose part of our personality (i.e. the hardness of the rock), but that our spirit changes in response to God’s authority and security.

A Summary of Section 4: Chapters 10-12

            Evans dedicates the month of July to considering the concept of biblical justice, specifically how it applies to women and her personal role as a consumer. Her monthly task list is as follows: “Switch to fair trade products, especially with coffee and chocolate (Isaiah 58:9-12…); Start recycling (Genesis 2:15); Read Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, and become a better advocate for the equality and empowerment of women worldwide (Zecharaiah 7:9-10; James 1:27); Travel to Bolivia with World Vision (Proverbs 31:20; James 1:27)” (Evans 224). She begins the chapter with a Jewish folktale championing the pursuit of developing justice within oneself as a way to make the world a better place. She then moves into describing her personal efforts to analyze her habits as a consumer. This analysis motivates her to reconsider her coffee and chocolate purchases, which results in her scaling back on her coffee intake and a subsequent string of withdrawal symptoms. Evans also recounts horrific stories of women fighting oppression and violence in the developing world included in Half the Sky, forcing the reader to confront the realities of today’s twisted world. Throughout the rest of the chapter, Evans repeats the phrase “Women aren’t the problem. They are the solution,” a testament to the stories of triumph and success brought about by the empowerment of women across the globe (Evans 237). Evans’ trip to Bolivia allows her to experience many stories of women bringing justice to their community out of their empowerment. Evans ends the chapter considering the implications of Jesus’ actions as they relate to justice: “Justice means moving beyond the dichotomy between those who need and those who supply and confronting the frightening and beautiful reality that we desperately need one another” (Evans 246).

            Evans considers silence during August, remaining silent in church, avoiding teaching, spending three days at an Abbey, and visiting a Quaker congregation in order to explore what biblical silence means as a woman. Evans tackles the two verses that are most often used to silence women: 1 Timothy 2:11-14 and 1 Corinthians 14:34. Her research and analysis related to these passages reveals that perhaps Christians have turned Paul’s epistles into a version of the Torah, when in reality, they were written to specific people in specific contexts, for specific reasons. With this view, the passages silencing women do not apply if you are not a promiscuous widow attending a church in Corinth. Evans then transitions into describing her experience with contemplative silence at St. Bernard Abbey in Cullman, Alabama. What began as an uncomfortable experience characterized by massive efforts to remain quiet and contemplative, culminated in a few, deeply quiet moments of simplicity. Evans visit to a Quaker congregation provided her a new vocabulary word, “Weighty words,” or, “a few words, when carefully chosen, [that] are so much more powerful than a lecture or sermon” (Evans 278). August began as a battle against silence, but at the end, Evans reflects that there is a significant difference between being silenced and silencing oneself, especially when one is silencing oneself before God.

            September, Evans’ last month in her biblical womanhood project, serves as a time of reflection and a time to consider grace. To foster reflection, Evans makes challah from scratch, observes Rosh Hashanah and the Taschlich ceremony, makes a list of New Year’s resolutions, and cuts her hair. Her reflections reveal that she has grown and changed as a Christian and as a woman. Nasty comments on her blogs don’t bother her has much because her experience with contemplative prayer has provided a strategy to aid in controlling her reactions. She may even enjoy cooking. To bookmark the end of her journey, Evans develops ten resolutions: “Try a new recipe every week. Eat more ethically. Identify and praise women of valor. Embrace the prospect of motherhood. Nurture the contemplative impulse. Make room for ritual and remembrance. Champion women leaders in the Church. Partner with World Vision to work for the education and empowerment of women around the world. Honor Dan. Keep loving, studying, and struggling with the Bible” (Evans 294). Ultimately, Evans reflects and concludes that there is no such thing as biblical womanhood. The Bible is full of many kinds of women, some warriors, some prostitutes, some prophets, some mothers etc. Evans asserts that biblical womanhood is not a static role, but rather, is related to one’s calling, which as a Christian is to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. She hypothesizes that perhaps she began this project searching for permission to be herself, to be a woman, but she reached “the end of the year with the quiet and liberating certainty that [she] never had to ask for it. It had already been given” (Evans 296).

            I sat in silence for a long while after finishing this final section. Evans has given me much to consider and explore. I predict the next several weeks will be full of emotional epiphanies and a great deal of analysis paralysis as I muse on these topics for myself.

A Summary of Section 3: Chapters 6-8

            Chapters 6-8, covering the months of April, May, and June, continue the established routine of wrestling with difficult subjects and the resulting liberating personal epiphanies.

            Evans dedicates April to understanding biblical purity. To this end, she includes “Observe the Levitical Purity Laws by undergoing twelve days of ritual impurity during menstruation (Leviticus 15:19-31), Camp out in the front yard for the first three days of impurity (Leviticus 15:19), and Eat only pure (kosher) food” to her monthly task list (Evans 146). Evans examines Scriptures relating to menstruation or, “the manner of women,” and participates in the Jewish tradition of niddah, a monthly time of separation in which the woman is forbidden from having any physical contact with males. Evans reports that observing niddah was easily one of the most difficult initiatives of her project, largely because she felt isolated, but also because it created awkward situations at a wedding. Chapter 6, which was unusually devoid of Scriptural references in comparison to previous chapters, ended with Evans’ musings on the story of the woman with a hemorrhage in Mark. Jesus made it his business to ignore the Levitical purity laws, for “when God became human, when he wrapped himself in our blood and skin and bones, his first order of business was to touch the ones that we would not touch, to fellowship in our sufferings, and to declare once and for all that purity is found not in the body, but in the heart” (Evans 171).

            In Chapter 7, the month of May, Evans confronts her personal struggle with motherhood as she examines fertility. As she reads a “stack of parenting books (Genesis 1:28, Ephesians 6:4), come[s] clean about [her] fear of motherhood (1 Timothy 2:15), and care[s] for a computerized ‘Baby-Think-It-Over’ for three days (Titus 2:4),” Evans wrestles with the current church’s teachings concerning motherhood (Evans 174). Her musings and research lead her to conclude that her “highest calling is not motherhood; [her] highest calling is to follow Christ” (Evans 180). Evans also expresses deep fear at bringing precious humans into a world that can do so much damage to its inhabitants, wondering if her heart could handle loving another fragile human. Her blog readers respond to her fear with hundreds of genuine stories about their own personal fear of motherhood, whether current or past. Evans begins to realize that it’s impossible to really understand, prepare, and minimize every fear related to motherhood because “faith isn’t about having everything figured out ahead of time” (Evans 188). Caring for a computerized baby brings a new level of stress for Evans, but also, a new level of confidence. Evans ends the chapter declaring that she knows she’ll be a great mom someday.

            Evans tackles the daunting concept of submission in the month of June. She tasks herself to “Submit to Dan ‘in everything’ (Ephesians 5:22-24), Serve as Dan’s executive assistant, based on Debi Pearl’s understanding of ‘helpmeet’ (Genesis 2:18), Observe the Good Wife Rules, circa 1950, and Find out what biblical submission really means” (Evans 201). For many Christians, the relationship between man and woman is essentially hierarchal: man leads, woman follows. Evans implements all but the most radical standards associated with a woman submitting to a man to her relationship with her husband. After a few days, Dan becomes thoroughly uncomfortable and commands her to stop abiding by the 1950s Good Wife Rules. Evans continues to examine Scripture and learns that Paul’s writings on the relationship between man and woman, master and slave were an effort to reframe the current cultural norms and give it a “dignity, either that of identification with Christ or of identification with the ‘holy women’ of Jewish antiquity” (Evans 217). She concludes that biblical marriage is designed to include mutual submission between husband and wife.

            With another three months completed in her Year of Biblical Womanhood Project, Evans continues her dedicated research and hysterically genuine initiatives in good faith.