Guest Post by Melinda Brito
Rebekah Merkle’s documentary, Eve in Exile, begins where all good theology does: in Genesis. It reminds us that in God’s creative order, work and specific mandates were given to man and woman. Man was created first, and then the woman was created to be a fit helper for man. They were designed to accomplish these God-given tasks together.
The documentary continues by presenting a historical overview of the rise of feminism. Merkle identifies three “waves” in the feminist movement. The second wave is probably most relevant for us to consider because it came after the rise of technological inventions and innovations. The result was that the fixed and fulfilling work that women had been doing, the arduous yet rewarding work of producing and preparing food, making and repairing clothing, and educating the children, necessary tasks for the survival and well-being of the family, began to change. With the advent of easy-to-use domestic inventions, these tasks that were the worthy work of women became less time-consuming. As a result, women could shop for their food and clothes, cook meals, keep a clean house, and still have time to spare.
In 1963, The Feminine Mystique, authored by Betty Friedan, found a sympathetic audience by a generation of women who felt isolated, bored, and discontent with merely being ornamental in their homes. Friedan’s answer to the problem was that women should find work and the fulfillment of a full day of labor outside the home. This effectively began “the tearing down of the house” by women’s own hands.
While Rebekah does a more than adequate job of demonstrating the shift of women from inside to outside the home, she also takes the opportunity to critique the Christian woman’s lack of thoughtful or biblical consideration and wholesale acceptance of the secular community’s answer to the problem. While we may find commonality in identifying a problem, the generation that opened their arms and embraced feminist ideals as their messiah did not consider the end of the matter. Even today, Christians fail to grasp that the “how” and “why” of how someone comes to a conclusion is just as important as the conclusion itself because the how/why will determine the path we take as we seek to deal with the problem. In this case, Christians blindly followed the path set out by unbelievers on how to deal with the issues of boredom, feelings of unfulfillment, and loneliness simply because they agreed that a problem existed. But Christians must contemplate a truly biblical response to the problem, rather than adopting unbelieving presuppositions.
My favorite part of the documentary was Merkle’s observations concerning I Corinthians 11. Misunderstandings are embedded in every Christian community because of the incorrect hierarchy that society (Christian and non-christian alike) has created based on a misreading of Paul’s text. In our minds, the hierarchical order should be God, Christ, man, and woman; in that order. However, Merkle notes this cannot be the correct understanding because we know that Christ is not under God but equal to him, as it says in Philippians 2. Christ humbled himself in obedience, not grasping at equality, and, therefore, became the glory of the Father. Similarly, a woman (wife) becomes the glory of a man (her husband) when she willingly submits to her equal. Merkle concludes that woman is not merely glory, but the “glory of glories,” the crowning jewel of glory.
Eve in Exile does not leave us in despair about the state of affairs in our world. Instead, it gives us an optimistic view of the job laid before us of repairing what has been torn down. We finish feeling encouraged to view work rightly, view being a wife and mother rightly, and set our hands to the restoration that needs to be done starting in our homes.
Melinda Brito is the wife of Kuyperian founder, Uri Brito, and a mother of five living in Pensacola, Fl.
Excellent review! I have been excited for this project!