WEDNESDAY this week marked International Women’s Day.
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In a bit of clever timing, 10 female pedestrian lights appeared in Melbourne as part of a 12-month trial.
They came from the Committee for Melbourne, a non-profit organisation made up of Melbourne-based businesses and community groups.
The Committee of Melbourne hopes to see equal representation on traffic lights across Victoria
To be honest I hadn’t realised pedestrian traffic lights had a gender at all! I’m all for half of them being female though. It’s a bit of fun, and a great reminder that there’s two very valuable sexes in the human race.
There’s more to International Women’s Day than traffic lights, though.
Tragically, sexism, discrimination, and all kinds of poor treatment of women around the world – including in Australia – mean that the proper treatment of women needs to be in the public discussion.
A lot of that discussion, if the discussion about Melbourne’s traffic lights this week is anything to go by, seems to be quite unproductive.
There are a lot of people talking past each other, and being unable to find common ground from which a healthy discussion can even start, let alone flourish.
Which is why I’d love people to start from where the bible does.
Here’s what I think are three of the most important things God says about women.
First, he made them. Women (like men) are created in God’s image. Just as a daughter is like her mother, women are in some way like their creator.
God’s love for women goes hand-in-hand with this. God loves them, as his own.
Second, Jesus loves and values women. In a culture that didn’t value women very much at all, while the men about the place didn’t think to bother including women in anything too important, Jesus took the time to talk to, care for, listen to, and validate women (check out the Gospel of Luke some time and see how Jesus never disgraced, belittled, or stereotyped any women).
Third, Jesus lived, died, and rose again to save people – women included.
When Galatians 3.28 says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus”, God is telling us that no one has intrinsic privilege above anyone else, but we all saved through Jesus.
There are churches all across Bathurst that try to be shaped by this gospel.
They’d all welcome you to join them, whether you’re a woman or a man.