Talk of Hephzibah House

My friend, Joe at Incongruous Circumspection is coming to the defense of the abused again.

I just love it when he does that.

http://incongruouscircumspection.blogspot.com/2012/01/tim-dunkins-hephzibah-house-faux-pas.html

I like seeing strong men in action. He and men like Lewis Wells boost my faith in men.

http://thecommandmentsofmen.blogspot.com/2012/01/when-sycophants-spit-against-wind.html

These are true brothers to their sisters. They are not like this Tim Dunkin who defends the strong by further abusing the already down-trodden.

Lost Comments

When Blogger hit its most recent hiccup, I lost at least two already approved comments. One from Waneta and one from Hannah.

I don't know how many unapproved comments were lost that I never saw.

Also, that hiccup kind of threw me. I was on a roll but due to not being able to post and having the posts I had made being scrambled and otherwise mistreated my roll was thrown off.

I hope to get into comparing and contrasting true brothers of women to the false brethren who don't want to be brothers, but rather lords, masters, high priests, and little Christs to their women.

True brothers inspire their sisters onto godliness.
The false ones push down, push back, reduce, and weaken their women. And though the false brothers may be brothers in the sense that they call upon the name of Christ, they undermine their position of brothers in the lives of women by trying to be more than what they are called to, by thinking more highly of themselves than they ought.

And I wanted to get into comparing and contrasting the True with the false because women need to be careful of whose voices we listen to. Not all men who claim to love God know how to love and encourage their sisters.

Houses of Healing

There is a scene from Lord of the Rings that didn't appear in the theatrical version. I've shared it elsewhere. But because it seems to go with this series on strong men and men who have the heart of true brothers towards women, I've decided to link it here for those of my friends who haven't seen it yet.

Jesus taught us to treat one another as brothers and sisters. And this view is so lost when you start dividing things up into boxes and roles and giving one gender the lesser role. When in fact we are all called (male and female) to be warriors and brothers of light. The chapter that immediately follows Ephesians 5 is Ephesians 6 which tells us, regardless of gender, to take up the full armor of God. Yet the role pushers want to make only men warriors and relegate women to helpless damsels in distress, or victims. And such a set up sets women up for failure. Then when failure comes, the woman is relegated to the level of strange women and her humanity, brother/sisterhood is lost and she becomes even lesser still and a thing to be mocked, warned against, and even further used.

More about that later.

This scene opens up with a heart wrenching cry from a warrior brother who has discovered his sister's body on the battle field and shows his anguish over her. Then it quickly moves to the following scene in the houses of healing and what follows there.

The reason I like this scene is because it shows a couple things. One, the love of a brother for his sister (who refused the box of her culture and went into battle thus fulfilling an ancient prophecy and gaining a huge victory). And, two, the healing of this sister by another man who is not her biological brother, but is most definitely her brother in arms and in heart.

There is a third man shown who becomes a love interest later, but in this scene it shows his attraction and admiration for her heroic actions on the battlefield.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6UhO9K7F3I

True brothers want to make the church into a house of healing for all, including women, no matter where the women come from or how they are wounded. True brothers believe that the name of God, "The Lord our Healer" still applies today and is more important than their own 'advancement' and authority in the Kingdom of God.
False brothers are only concerned with their own authority, controlling women and making extra rules for them that men don't have to obey, and extra sins that men can't be guilty of.

Strong Men, Jon Zens

Jon Zens has worked since 2001 to help women out of the sex trade and has seen the destruction that patriarchy has wrecked on the lives of women and girls in the Christianity and noted the parallels between them.

He is disturbed by the trend of Neo-Patriarchy that is laying siege against the truth of freedom in Christ. And he has raised his voice along with other men against the abuses he has seen perpetrated in the name of Jesus Christ.

Besides speaking out and having an Internet presence, Jon Zens has written a book called, "No Will of My Own (How Patriarchy Smothers Female Dignity and Personhood)".

There is an article at the link below concerning Jon Zens and his book. And linked in the article is an interview with Cindy and Jocelyn about the book on Blog Talk Radio.
http://undermuchgrace.blogspot.com/2011/05/jon-zens-talks-about-his-new-book-no.html

Thank you, Jon Zens, for being my brother and a brother to those in the sex trade and those oppressed by patriarchy in the 21st century church.

Strong Men, P.C.

Here is another fellow that I'm unsure what his name is. But he has a video on youtube where he is talking about men using the Bible to hurt women. The video is listed under Prophecy Channel, Hence, for this post, the man speaking is dubbed P.C.

Where as I.C. demonstrated his view through anger, you can hear the catch in P.C. voice as he goes through Ephesians 5 and talks about how it has been abused to hurt women. He's imploring men, and a certain man in particular, to not look upon headship the way the present world looks upon headship, but rather look at it from a Roman culture stand point.

P.C. also carries the heart of Jesus for his sisters, being brought to tears over the abuses that his sisters have faced in the name of God. He wants to bring comfort to hurt women and correction to men who don't know how to be brothers and uplift women.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVloUiTwdO8&feature=player_embedded

Strong Men, I.C.

Yep, you read it right. I.C. because I don't know his name. But he has a blog and I was made aware of it through Lewis's blog.

A certain fellow by the name of Spencer came to Lewis's blog one day, and was determined to set us all straight on the clear Biblical teaching of female subordination and the need for tactics for fathers to control their rebellious daughters.

I.C. wrote an open letter to Spencer on his own blog, and I'll tell ya. I.C.'s anger and indignation was not unlike Jesus going into the temple with a whip and chasing out the money changers. Jesus said that God's house was to be a house of prayer but men were making it a den of thieves.
This is what is going on in sections of Christianity. There a thieves who are stealing freedom from others. Jesus said that you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. But the thieves have exchanged the truth for a lie, labeled it 'biblical' and even called it 'clearly scriptural'. And the lie has brought deep bondage into the lives of women.

With the same zeal that Jesus drove out the money changers, I.C. set about to boldly confront a truth exchanger who is seduced by the lies of patriarchy.

The truth exchangers pretend to be brothers, and even in a sense may be Christian brothers. But they are very misled brothers like my sister-in-law's bio brother who didn't know how to be an actual brother. (May 9th post)

I.C.. along with Lewis, knows how to be a true brother, a defender of women against the thieves who are out to steal freedom in Jesus. It's exciting for me to see men who are strong and love women with the love of the Lord rather than with the love of gaining seats of honor for themselves.

You can read I.C.'s open response to Spencer here and take comfort in his zeal for our freedom.
http://incongruouscircumspection.blogspot.com/2011/04/my-open-response-to-spencer.html

Strong Men, Lewis

Most of my readers are familiar with the blog "The Commandments of Men".

The host of this blog is Lewis Wells who had a close encounter with Neo-Patriarchy that has left him shattered. He relates this encounter in his, "The Joke was on Me" Series.

He has received a severe wounding at the hands of supposed 'brothers' in the 'Church' but instead of turning around and wounding others, he has found strength in Jesus Christ and has become a watchman on the wall, warning others against the false doctrines and commandments of men being held up as gospel.

I could say a great deal more but would like to quote one of his commenter's on his "Steadfast Daughters Leaves Me Quivering Once Again" thread.

DoaHF said to him at 12:16 pm on November 22, 2010: "Three cheers, Lewis. Thanks for standing up for us. You didn't have to, and you sure didn't have to care at all after what they did to you, but here you are. You keep us laughing, make us think, and bring us through the hard days. Much love."

Lewis is being a true brother who sees his sisters as valuable and worth defending against men who conspire to use religion to control their women. He wants people, including women, to be free in the love of God and Spirit of Christian brotherhood.

As DoaHF said, he doesn't have to care or stand up for the downtrodden, but he does.

And here is a quote of his that explains his motivation that he has a the top of his blog: "When we become unwilling to risk everything for the sake of the right thing, our salt has lost its savor, and we no longer season our world."

Thank you Lewis, for being salt and a light in the darkness. The light you shine for your brothers and sisters showing them the way out of the darkness of patriarchy is much appreciated.

You are a strong secure man that I can honor and am proud to call brother.

http://thecommandmentsofmen.blogspot.com/ (link for anyone visiting who hasn't been to his blog yet)

Strong Men, My Brother

I'm proud of my younger brother and could make a very long list of the reasons why.

But for the sake of my strong man series, I want to relate one, on-going story, that makes me know what sort of man he is and how he views women.

My brother's wife, Tracy, also has a brother. But her brother isn't nearly as decent as my brother. In fact, some of the stories of her growing up that she has told me have rather been upsetting.

Tracy is an awesome person and has many friends. Her brother hasn't been able to keep good friends, and has been jealous of Tracy and her friends. But as Tracy puts it, he's always been jealous of her but never wanted to be her friend. She has male cousins who have been far better 'brothers' to her than her biological brother ever was.

Tracy's family, her mother and father, herself, and my brother, have put up with a lot of bad behavior from Tracy's brother over the years.

Until finally my brother had enough and put his foot down. Tracy's brother had insulted one of Tracy's dear friends and was even lying about her in front of 'the guys'. My brother stood up to him, called him on the lies and told Tracy's brother that he would not stand by and let this man slander this woman unchallenged.

Tracy's brother didn't like it that my brother didn't play along with the he-man woman haters club game.

There is much more history that follows than I can't relate here. But one thing led to another and my brother finally told Tracy's brother that he's not welcome in their house until he learns how to treat people .

My sister-in-law, Tracy, feels loved and well protected from her brother that doesn't know how to be a brother to any woman.

So my hat is off to my brother, one of my heroes. And I figured he would be a good one to start off this series.

My strong men series is about men who I'm proud to call brothers because they are real brothers as opposed the the small, insecure men who are more concerned with making themselves overlords of women than being brothers.