The Radicalization of Young Women

The radicalization of young women—that is a topic we'll discuss today, right here on the Christian Worldview Radio program, where the mission is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. I'm David Wheaton, the host, and our website is thechristianworldview.org. Studies are showing what you are likely seeing with your own eyes. Women, particularly younger women, are radicalizing in their worldview. In other words, moving away from a biblical worldview.

Do you recall who was prominent on the front lines against ICE as they arrested illegal immigrants in Minnesota this past winter? Women were. Who was standing outside the courthouse cheering on Lindsay Clancy during the trial for murdering her three children? It was women. Listen to the type of moral reasoning about marriage that women are hearing on ABC's daytime program, The View.

The diplomat star Carrie Russell has been in a relationship with actor Matthew Rice Rice for nearly 13 years, but on a recent episode of Chelsea Handler's podcast, Carrie said she doesn't feel the need to walk down the aisle with him. Take a look. I know for a lot of people, marriage is something different. People used to have to be married to have a credit card. I, we can have credit cards now.

Yes. I, I don't need my last name to go away. Yeah. Like I'm, I'm, I'm cool. If you want to be here, be here.

If you don't, that's cool too.

So I'm supposed to ask all four of you, married people, is getting married necessary anymore? Marriage rates have been on the decline for decades, and is it is it important? One of the things she said is, I know marriage means different things to other people, so. Obviously, it's like it's to each to each their own. If it works for you, it works for you.

Do whatever floats your boat. I'll do whatever floats mine, and you know, let's just. Not be so judgmental of each other. What I would point out is, it's important to recognize that marriage is a privilege because you look at people that fought so hard to be in the rooms when there are medical emergencies where the families maybe wouldn't let a gay partner in or something.

So there's a community and a group of people that fought hard.

So although I agree with the sentiment that without kids, I don't know if I need to be married. It simplifies it with children. I do recognize the privilege of the choice to be able to be married and marry and. Marriage easily. It came to me.

Yes, yes. Love who you want to love. Yeah, yeah. Different strokes for different folks. I'm a marriage gal, personally, but I thought of the same thing.

Our my husband's second cousins were the first gay couple to get married in Massachusetts, and something our family is very proud of. Yay! Think of the first. I love a first. But you think of especially like the elder gay community that didn't have that option for so many years.

It's important to to honor that history. All of that was just a mishmash of flawed human reasoning, with women in the audience applauding it.

Now, of course, these examples are anecdotal, but the data is not. A social media post showed the graph of a Gallup poll plotting the political ideology of young men and young women. The headline states, "Women have moved radically leftward at a scale and speed with no modern precedent, while men have, on the whole, remained largely steady and unchanged." The partisan gap between young men and women almost doubled in the past twenty-five years. The radicalization of young women is not simply taking place in politics.

However, it's moving professing Christian women in evangelical churches to take moral positions at odds with Scripture. In his recent column titled "We Need to Talk About the Radicalization of Young Women." David Mitzenmacher, chairman of Founders Ministries and pastor at Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Florida, writes: Young Christian women are consistently more supportive of abortion, same-sex marriage, and broader LGBTQ plus acceptance than their male peers.

So, what is driving this leftward shift? What can women do to fortify themselves against the internal and external pressures to conform to the world? And what should pastors, parents, and husbands be doing? David Mitzunmacher joins us today to discuss this troubling development that seeks to destroy God's wise and wonderful design for women. David, it's good to have you back on the Christian Worldview Radio program.

Before we get into our topic today, remind us about your background, how God brought you to saving faith, and what you do at Founders Ministries and Grace Baptist Church. Absolutely, and thank you for having me on again. The Lord very graciously and kindly saved me when I was in high school. I was brought up in a non-religious household, and I was actually saved through the ministry of Gideons. They were handing out Bibles at my high school, and I took one honestly to be obnoxious as a atheist agnostic.

I'm going to see all the holes in this thing, and started reading the New Testament. And the Lord used that to save me, and I've been trusting Him ever since. And as you said, I have the privilege. I serve as one of the pastors at Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Florida, and I also have the privilege of doing some work with Founders Ministries. What a great story!

How God uses His Word—nothing more powerful than that. Let's get into your recent column that you wrote for Founders, entitled "The Radicalization of Young Women." You write, "When evangelicals talk about radicalization," The conversation usually runs in one direction about young men.

However, a more consequential reality has been quietly taking shape in both our society and within the church. While young men are drifting to the right or holding steady, young women are racing leftward at an unprecedented pace. The result is a widening gulf, not only in politics, but in basic moral reasoning. If we care about the future of our society and the health of the church, we need to talk about the radicalization of young women.

So, David, just to start off, when and how did this radicalization begin? And perhaps give us some examples of it. And is it just limited? To young women and not middle-aged and older women. If you want the cute answer, when and how did it start?

Well, it started at the garden. But if we're talking about recent trends, you know, I think really this has started to unfold in the data that I've seen, really over the last let's say decade or so, where we've started seeing pretty radical shifts in voting patterns, specifically of young women, but also women generally. But I think it's really intensified. Over the last two or three years or so, in fact, I started thinking about this column in the aftermath of last November's elections.

So that would be almost a year ago, and if you recall. At that time, that's when Zoran Mandami was elected mayor of New York City, and I just found it shocking. the The reports are anywhere from eighty to eighty five percent of women age eighteen to twenty nine voted for this self described Democratic socialist who has documented ties to Muslim activists. And then, in some of those same races, we saw the Jay Jones race in Virginia, where he had verified text messages fantasizing about the violent death of his political opponents' children, and he won because of women. He lost the men by eighteen points, but he won the election because of women.

And just across the board, we've seen that in the polling data. And it'd be easy to dismiss that and say, "Well, that's just something that's happening out there." But the survey data, the polling data, has shown similar trends within the church, which is really tragic and really shocking. And then you also asked, "Are we seeing this just among young women?" I don't think we are. Certainly, if we think about things like abortion, think about things like the normalization of homosexuality, the transgender movement, that has largely been accomplished on the back. Of votes from women in general, but certainly the two major blocks that have been driving that have been women 18 to 29, and then unmarried women of any age.

David Mitzenmacher is our guest today as we talk about the radicalization of women.

Now, you mentioned some of those political developments in New York City and elsewhere. Gallup also has shown studies on the the leftward move of women. They had a graph that I saw online that the divide between women and men, where they stand in their political views, was only twelve points apart back in nineteen ninety nine.

So. Men tended more conservative than women by twelve points in ninety nine. In twenty twenty six, it's moved to twenty three points, nearly doubled now. And men haven't moved that much; it's the women that have moved further to the left.

Now there used to be a liberal-conservative divide for women, depending on some of the things you just mentioned: married versus unmarried, or even where they lived. If they lived in an urban environment versus suburban, if they were college-educated versus non-college-educated, non-white versus white, some of these tended to be indicative of where someone stood, a woman stood, politically. Have some of those previous distinctions changed, and that's not predictive anymore? I'll just give an example of one of them. It seems like suburban women are much more liberal than they used to be.

No, that's exactly right. Many of those those historical predictors have lost some of their weight. I think we've all seen what was considered normal window of acceptable opinions 20 years ago, right? It shifted heavily to the left in hard ways, and so views that used to be viewed as extreme are now viewed as kind of the the Democratic Party platform in a lot of cases. And so, because of that, one of the things that's happened is we still see some of those indicators: urban, college educated, 18 to 29, unmarried.

Holding the more extreme views, but what's happened is that the whole of women—I'm talking about generally—I'm not talking about every single woman, but the whole of women have shifted over to the left and occupied positions that today are not viewed as extreme positions, but in 1999 would have been viewed as radically extreme to the left.

So we're seeing all of those things happen in concert. Former President Barack Obama had a. Symposium, or was speaking somewhere recently, where he said this about women in political leadership. Even when I was president, I sometimes fantasized about if you put women in charge of every government for like two years, and then just kind of saw. All right, how how things going?

I have a strong belief that things would they wouldn't be perfect, but they'd be but they'd be they'd be better. I'm I'm I'm I'm confident about that. I really do.

So now here in Minnesota, where we're based, both major races in this state for the governor. And for the U.S. Senate, they're all female candidates.

So Amy Klobuchar versus Lisa Damesh for governor, and for the Senate, it's Peggy Flanagan versus Michelle Tefoya. And this seems to be a increasing trend. Just anecdotally noticing this, you know, yard signs and so forth as we approach the midterms. What do you make of more women becoming political leaders as Obama wishes for? As you mentioned, it's interesting because this is happening both on the left and the right.

So we can't just say that this is just a progressive or liberal phenomenon. And I think on the right, particularly, there's a bit of a Deborah situation happening. Right? The takeaway from Deborah is not what an empowered, self-sufficient boss babe. The biblical read on Deborah is Brock wouldn't do what what he ought to do, and so it was to his shame.

That a woman had to stand in the gap.

Well, I think in some ways we've had the insanity of the last, call it twenty years or so. And I think in a lot of cases, men have been afraid to say certain things. And when you've had women on the right who are willing to say a man can't become a woman and a woman can't become a man, the men kind of were happy for the woman to say that and her take all all the attack and flak rather than being men and speaking truth to the public square.

So I think. That's happened a bit on the right, and I think that's to our shame. I think generally we look at how God has made men and God has made women, and we're not interchangeable. We're not men; aren't women. Women aren't men.

The standard of a man isn't a woman. The standard of a woman isn't a man. But increasingly, as we've catechized women, especially young women, that men and women are exactly the same except for some secondary sex organs. We've lost. What a man is, what a woman is.

We've lost the idea that God has made men with natural constitution to lead, to defend, to provide, to take on certain responsibilities. We've lost the fact that God made women with certain proclivities and virtues and vices. And when we view men and women as interchangeable, why wouldn't we see women serving in roles that traditionally we've expected men to serve in?

Now, speaking of catechizing women, in other words, a way of teaching them how they've been influenced or taught, I read a post on social media that studied this leftward move and was asking why this is taking place. And it says, "Four years surrounded by peers. This is in college, who all believe the same thing, professors who all believe the same thing." Reading lists in college pointing all in one direction. Disagreement is not even rare; it's socially punished. You learn to pattern match the acceptable opinions and perform them.

So this is women in college being just a mono worldview being thrust on them. Then they graduate. It goes on to say into female-dominated fields like human resources, media, education, healthcare. Nonprofits, where the monoculture continues from 18 to 35 ages, many women never encounter sustained disagreement from people they respect. The feedback loop never breaks.

And so, I think one of the most important questions you can ask someone is, "Who are the key influences in your life?" Because that will determine who you are as a person. And so, the key influences in women's life when they're younger is from one worldview in college and earlier in their career, and so forth. My question for you is. Aside from college and university, there they mentioned in that quote. What are some of the key influences that move or lead women to the left?

And this, a subset of that question, is this: How much do you think daytime television, with all these female programs, women only in the audience, let's say Oprah, The View, all the other popular programs that women watch during the day? How much do you think that, along with social media sites where women are prominent or visiting frequently, like TikTok and Instagram, how much do you think that contributes to this move left? No, I think that's absolutely right. In many ways, I think maybe wave one and two of this shift was largely driven through academia, but I think the current wave we're in is much more to do with media than academia. And some of that is just what's normalized.

If your social imaginary, if your framework, your worldview, if you will, of what is normal, what the acceptable ranges of normal look like, has been from a one particular picture of the world, then you may think that you're quite conservative. I was talking to a young woman who read my article and was lamenting that she was talking to some of her friends, and her friend said, "Oh no, I'm very conservative. I'm fine with homosexuality, but I oppose transgenderism." This range of normal has changed, and so I think you're right. I think daytime television certainly that has been part of it. I think when you have that echo chamber, and and again, the people producing these things, they have agendas, they have worldviews that they are pushing.

I think even beyond daytime television, even beyond television that's designed exclusively for women. Just look at how men and women are portrayed in mass media. Several people have forwarded me this morning. There was a advertisement that just came out for Apple Computer's new home product. Saw it, yeah.

And you watch this commercial. It's a three minute commercial, and it starts with a stay at home father whose son calls him "brrr" and calls him by his first name. The father is henpecked by all the women around him. The ending joke is that he's not. Allowed to adjust the thermostat in his own house because his wife says he's not allowed to.

She goes off to her big, important laptop job career. He starts shuttling the kids around to their school. It's shocking how not shocking that portrayal is. That's how men are portrayed. That's how women are portrayed.

And so, if women are taking in, if they are again being catechized by this picture of manhood and womanhood in all popular media. How many movies? The plot of the movie is men are buffoons. Every woman is infinitely capable. If you're just you're catechized with those things from birth, then you may never read a progressive academic book.

You may never attend a political rally. But if everything you've taken in since you've been a child with cartoons that are intentionally designed to push certain worldviews to young adulthood, To adulthood, if everything you've ever seen about men and women tell you a certain story, well, you might very well believe it. I saw that Apple ad for their new product as well, and it was one of the most depressing depictions of what the modern American family is like. And I think it's probably largely accurate for the. The dynamics going on in that family, that they portrayed.

David Mitzenmacher is our guest today here on the Christian worldview as we talk about the radicalization of women. We have David's article linked at thechristianworldview dot org, and it's also scheduled to be published in the next issue of the Christian Worldview Journal for Christian Worldview partners who receive that. With like a short break to tell you about some ministry resources, and then we have much more coming up with David Mitzenmacher on the radicalization of women, including how it's occurring in the church and how Christian women can resist this. I'm David Wheaton, and you are listening to the Christian Worldview. The September-October issue of the Christian Worldview Journal features a column by Rod Martin explaining why Christianity commands capitalism.

Missy Ropnak writes about Lindsay Clancy, who murdered her three young children, and the widespread sympathy she has received. And Pastor Matt Morell turns to beloved Psalm 23 and shows how God's names compel deeper love and trust in Him. The Christian Worldview Journal is a print and digital publication designed to sharpen your biblical worldview on current events and issues of the faith. The journal is sent to Christian Worldview Partners as a thank you for their support of this radio ministry. To become a Christian Worldview Partner or order an individual issue of the journal, go to thechristianworldview.org or call one eight eight eight six four six twenty two thirty three or write to Box four zero one Excelsior, Minnesota five five three three one.

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To order one or both, visit our website thechristianworldview dot org, or call one triple eight six four six twenty two thirty three, or write to Box four zero one Excelsior, Minnesota five five three three one. That's one triple eight six four six twenty two thirty three, or thechristianworldview dot org. Welcome back to the Christian Worldview. I'm David Wheaton. Be sure to visit thechristianworldview.org where you can sign up for our weekly email, the Christian Worldview Journal, monthly print publication, order resources for adults and children, and support the ministry.

Our topic today is the radicalization of young women, and our guest is Pastor David Mitzenmacher, Chairman of Founders Ministries.

Now I want to move from. What's taking place and how it's presented, or how it's been manifested in broader society and in politics, and drill down into what's going on in Christian realm, the church, and so forth. And you write in your column, study after study has found that young women have become significantly more liberal, with the political differences between young men and women more than doubling in recent years. We've talked about that. It might be tempting to dismiss that this as a problem.

Confined to secular culture, tragically, the evidence shows that a similar ideological shift is occurring among young women who profess to be Christians. I want to read just one more paragraph. Recent analysis from Ryan Burge highlights this trend with startling clarity. Among 18 to 24 year old Christians, 54 percent of women. Said that acceptance of transgender people is a positive change.

Now these are professing Christian women. Only twenty nine percent of men agreed with that statement. Likewise, young Christian men born in the two thousands are slightly more conservative on homosexuality than those born two decades earlier.

So men about remain the same on that issue. While young Christian women in the same cohort are dramatically more progressive now, the divide appears across issues. Young Christian women are consistently more supportive of abortion, same-sex marriage, and broader LGBTQ plus acceptance than their male peers. The data tells a sobering, but straightforward story. The youngest generation of Christian women is being radicalized.

Unquote. The first part of this question is: Are these professing Christians evangelical Christians? Because we know there's a wide tent of professing Christendom. If you get into the mainline denominations, this is not surprising that women in those would be far to the left. And then, part two of that question is: Why is this happening?

Why is the leftward slide happening with professing Christian women? Considering that, well, we have God's word, which gives us the truth on how we should think about the issues of our day. To the first question on the statistics, these statistics are self-professed, self-identified Christian women who identify themselves as believing the Bible, going to church, being Christians.

Now, you raise a really interesting question or point on: okay, are these what we would consider evangelical versus mainline?

Well, I think what we can, at the very least, derive from this data. Is this is showing a significant growth? Fifty-four percent of women said acceptance of transgender people is a positive change. That's up substantially.

Well, what's not up substantially over the same time period? Is the number of young women in mainline denominations? Even if we account for the mainline denominations have always been a bit wacky on certain things, the sheer number, fifty-four percent, and the growth would tell us that no, this is actually happening amongst evangelical women as well. And then I think just some of, and you may have similar anecdotes, but just practical experience, seeing what's happening in some evangelical seminaries, seeing what's being published by some. Evangelical publications, seeing what's going on in what was once the flagship evangelical magazine of Christianity today, would suggest that this is not just oh, the Episcopalians are at it again.

I heard a soundbite recently, David, from the Radio and Television Ministry Wretched with Todd Freyel, where he was critiquing something that Andy Stanley, the really well-known pastor from Atlanta, was saying about what drives his church. How is his church so "quote unquote" popular? And I want to play that soundbite and then just follow up with a question. How does a church become a mega church?

Well, there are two roads you can travel, and you probably have to travel both of them. Number one, you better have a kickin' band, and number two, oh, you better entertain them kids. Don't take my word for it. Our goal is for our children's programming to be so good that kids insist their parents bring them to church. That's the standard, because parents don't have to.

If it's just oh, I just want to get a sermon fix. I mean, you can sermon fixes all week long from the best preachers or the ones you you know love. That's just it's ubiquitous everywhere, right? For us, we feel like our student ministry, children's ministry, is the secret sauce. It is the secret sauce.

You take away the children's ministry, the whoop-de-doo factory that they have to entertain the kids, and then they beg parents to come. I'm telling you, a megachurch will quickly become just a church, and probably an out-of-business church. You want two sure ways to identify a bad megachurch? Look at the rock show they put on, and walk down the hall. And when you see slip and slide, and inflatables, and all kinds of stages, and fun, and goofy adults.

And all silly, you got yourself a bad megachurch. As I heard that sound, as I heard Andy Stanley talking about what makes their church popular, it's the kick and rock show, as I think Todd Freil said it. The music, the highly emotional experiential methodology of the worship service, but then also he talked about. Children's ministry that kids are begging to come to. It's the amusement park style; have them have tons of fun, so they just want to.

They want to come to church on Sunday. Thinking about who would be interested in that kind of church, and you would think a mom would be, a female would be, because they're gonna want that more experiential. Again, generalization here, of course. There is men who want that too, but especially for the. Children's ministries that children are begging to attend.

Women tend to be the decision makers today on where the family goes to church, what homes they buy, where they travel, any decision that that relates to their children.

So perhaps you could explain that the mega church is a representative, is an example of how. There's been a female-dominated decision making, and the church has moved in the direction it is because of women. Yeah, I think there's probably quite a bit to that. I think you're right. Even the first part, the kick and rock band that makes you feel all the feels.

You know, much has been written and said about the state of much contemporary Christian so-called worship music. I won't rehash that all today, but certainly there's been a Focus on emotion and feeling, and what some. Might call Jesus is my boyfriend type lyrics, and that certainly is going to appeal to a woman in a way that it's not going to appeal to a man. You certainly are not going to. You may feel many things when singing the mighty fortress is our God, but you're not going to feel that Jesus is your boyfriend.

I think the style certainly has become more feminine. I think the programming has certainly become more feminine, and that's not coincidental. Much of the modern Sunday school move. Was driven by Henrietta Mears, a woman at Hollywood Pres, really was the mother of modern evangelical Sunday school. And if you think about the back door around only male pastors, is well, you know, the children's pastor doesn't count.

That can be a woman, and then you get programming that follows from that.

So I think there's certainly something there, and I think just generally, if it is true, which I believe it is, as you said, that more and more women make the decision. On where to go to church in their family, more so than even the programming. I think that influences what's happening from the pulpits. You're seeing more and more preaching where the cardinal rule is never, ever, ever, ever. Call out what we might call feminine coded sins.

You can talk about the feminine sin of giving too much of yourself, or of not being authentic, or of being messy. Those are okay if you wrap it in some therapy speak, but you certainly can't talk to what Scripture says women are uniquely susceptible to. Thinking about First Timothy two fourteen and Second Timothy three six through seven, women being deceived and led astray by their passions. If you're trying to build a Megachurch trying to pack the place out every weekend, and if most of the people there are there because the wife or mom or woman decided that's where we're going, you're not going to touch those passages. And I think we've seen in too many churches, especially large influential churches, a feminization of the church.

Now you say that the deeper issue here that's going on as we talk about the more Liberal move to the left, both politically and theologically, is theologically based. It's a theological issue we're dealing with. God designed women, you write, with wonderful strengths: compassion, nurture, relational sensitivity, and a heightened instinct to protect the vulnerable. These are good gifts of God's creation. But like every human faculty, these strengths have been corrupted by the fall.

Scripture warns that women are particularly vulnerable to deception, as you talked about there in First Timothy chapter two verse fourteen, and to being led astray by misplaced affections. You give a lot of different passages in the column. When detached from the authority of Scripture and the goodness of the created order, empathy becomes a solvent of truth. It dissolves truth. Just becomes all about compassion and empathy.

How would you recommend that Christian women push back against and overcome the tendencies, the good qualities that God created them with, that can sometimes be hijacked or undermined for moving the wrong direction? I think it starts with women recognizing, despite what you may have been told or how society treats you and how some churches treat you, you are accountable moral agents. Women can be sinners. You are sinners, just like men are sinners. We are sinners, and so when we think about how women can push back against or fight against this tendency for the effects of the fall on the natural constitution of women, the answer is no different.

Than for men, it's the gospel. It's recognizing that indeed these sins are sins. It's calling sins for what they are. It's viewing your life in the mirror of God's perfect law. Recognizing that you need a savior, trusting that savior, but then also trusting that savior as you put sin to death.

Looking to Christ, relying on the Holy Spirit as you put these sins to death. You put disordered empathy. You put being led astray by misplaced affections. You put sinful deception to death. And you do that through the ordinary means of grace that God has given us.

We always go back to this: find a healthy church and build your life around it, not a church that tells you what you want to hear, but a church where God's word is preached. Partake of the ordinary means of grace. Give yourself to the fellowship of the church. If you're married, joyfully submit to your husband and encourage him with your submission. If you're single, honor Christ in your singleness.

But again, these aren't programs. That's not. One new cool trick that we discovered—it's doing what Christians ought to do: looking to Christ, putting sin to death, and availing ourselves of the ordinary means of grace through the local church and in our families. David Mitzumacher with us today here on the Christian worldview, talking about the radicalization of of women, and you just talked there about the responsibility of women to push back against the desires of the flesh or sinful tendencies that can be manipulated. One thing that's very popular for women is women's Bible studies.

Let's talk about the cottage industry of that within the church, along with women's conferences and books. After this two minute break. I'm David Wheaton, and you are listening to the Christian worldview radio program. David Wheaton here. For a limited time, we are offering my boy Ben for a donation of any amount to the Christian Worldview.

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To order, go to thechristianworldview.org, or call 1-888-646-2233, or write to Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. The September-October issue of the Christian Worldview Journal features a column by Rod Martin explaining why Christianity commands capitalism. Missy Ropnak writes about Lindsay Clancy, who murdered her three young children, and the widespread sympathy she has received. And Pastor Matt Morell turns to beloved Psalm 23 and shows how God's names compel deeper love and trust in Him. The Christian Worldview Journal is a print and digital publication designed to sharpen your biblical worldview on current events and issues of the faith.

The journal is sent to Christian Worldview Partners as a thank you for their support of this radio ministry. To become a Christian Worldview partner or order an individual issue of the journal, go to thechristianworldview.org or call one eight eight eight six four six twenty two thirty three or write to Box four zero one Excelsior, Minnesota five five three three one Welcome back to the Christian Worldview. I'm David Wheaton. Be sure to visit thechristianworldview.org where you can sign up for our weekly email, the Christian Worldview Journal, monthly print publication, order resources for adults and children, and support the ministry. Our topic today is the radicalization of young women, and our guest is Pastor David Mitzenmacher, Chairman of Founders Ministries.

David, there's much directed at women within the evangelical church, and you write about this in the column. You say older women assume that their sole ministry to younger women must be leading a Bible study, while women's Bible studies can be fruitful in the proper context. Scripture assigns doctrinal instruction in the church primarily to the elders. Who labor in preaching and teaching? This would be male elders, and it places theological responsibility within the home under the husband's leadership.

So, David, talk about the popularity of women's Bible studies. Again, can't totally generalize here, but there's a cottage industry of women's Bible studies, women's conferences, books that are directed at women. What is your caution with all these things? I have a caution on the level of practice and a caution on the level of theology. On the level of practice, it's just I would say beyond dispute that there have been a great many churches that have had pastors who think they are protecting their church from false doctrine.

Who have seen things sneak in through the women's ministry, right? It's sort of this thing that's cordoned off. What can male elders possibly know about helping women? We need to have our own little thing that we oversee. And then you start bringing in materials that have just proven to be untrustworthy.

Much of the therapy culture of the church, much of the embracing of critical theories and various waves of feminism, have come in through women's ministries and women's studies.

So that's at the level of practicality. At the level of theology, you know, as I said in the article, we're not going to improve upon what God has given us, and God has told us what is good for us. He has told us that from a church. That gifted and qualified men should be set apart to serve as elders, to have primary responsibility for the teaching ministry of the church. And God has told us that husbands and fathers have a responsibility within the home.

First Corinthians fourteen thirty five. There is anything that they, meaning women, desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. Ephesians five twenty five through twenty six. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her. Have Cleansed her by the washing of the water of the word.

So I think theologically, we aren't at liberty to say, "Well, that's all well and good, God, but we have a better plan, and it's going to be done through these affinity ministries." That's not to say that there's not a wonderful place for ministry of older women in the local church. Titus too gives a very beautiful, distinct. Realm for older women to serve their younger sisters, and that's modeling and imparting the lived experience of Christian womanhood. Think about Titus two three through five. Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine.

They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women. What are they training them? To love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands. We talk about this quite a bit in our church, which is one of the greatest ministries that our older female saints can have. Is Showing up to a young mother's home and helping her learn practical ways to love her husband and children, show her how to meal plan, how to be joyful in her labor, how to find opportunities in her motherhood to point her children to Christ—all of those things.

That's a wonderful ministry for women in the church. That looks very different than we are going to set up a parallel teaching ministry.

Now, David, in your column, you talk about what should be done now, and you've talked about just some of those things just there. But you also had a call for a pastor. What does this look like in the home? I'll just read that short paragraph. God charges men to wash their wives with the water of the Word, Ephesians five, and to raise their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Again, parenting is not just a mother thing; it's it's a father thing as well too. God expects men not merely to lead, provide, and protect, but to teach. A man is responsible for the spiritual formation of those under his care, including and especially his wife and daughters. And so, I'm just going to couple that paragraph with one more, and then ask you one final question. Many young women have accepted a secular anthropology that elevates feelings to the level of authority.

So, what I feel must be true. Intuition and emotions become substitutes for revelation. In other words, again, a female intuition about this, or my emotions, my gut's telling me something. This is as important, if not more important, than what God's revealed in His Word. You go on to say, but obedience to God's Word is the only place true freedom can be found.

The Word of God does not suppress feminine gifts; it orders them. Toward righteousness, a heart submitted to Christ learns to distrust fleeting emotions and cling instead to what God declares good, true, and beautiful. Last couple sentences: A young woman taking responsibility for her discipleship means choosing teachers who tell the truth rather than voices who flatter. It means turning away from the algorithm of social media, and turning toward the ordinary means of grace, as you described. It means choosing the shepherding of pastors, the leadership of fathers and husbands, and the wisdom of Titus to women.

A young woman anchored in this way will not be swept away by the currents of her age. Thought that was very well said. My final question would be for you, David. What would be your final exhortation to not just younger women and older women listening today, but to also men listening today as well? As you said, and as I said in the article, my exhortation to men is take the responsibility seriously for those that the Lord has put in your charge.

And so, whether that is as a husband, whether that is as a father, whether that is for those of us who have been called to serve as elders, to take seriously, to actually to love the women in your life by not just telling them what you think will keep the peace. But by washing them with the word, by bringing the word to bear, what I wouldn't say, I feel like oftentimes we demoralize men with you know we pound the table and say "man up." I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to encourage you to see what God's word says about your role. Look to God's word about what it says your responsibilities are for those that He has put under your charge in His divine wisdom, and ask His help to help you succeed in those vocations for women. Again, I'd say the final charge is really that final paragraph that you read, which is take responsibility for your discipleship, and the way that you take responsibility for your discipleship as a woman is again, I think about in First Peter the pattern of a courageous woman, and First Peter is the woman who trusts in God by trusting in the authority that God has placed over her, and I think there's much wisdom and safety in that for a woman.

I understand that not every woman listening to this is married to a Christian husband or has a Christian father. That is a great tragedy. That is grievous. My heart breaks for you. For those who do have a Christian husband or a Christian father, really look to him, encourage him to fill the role that the Lord has given him.

For those who don't, well, the Lord has given you the local church. The Lord has given you overseers who will give an account for how they watched over your soul. And so, give yourself to the means that God has given you. He's good. We can trust him.

We can trust his character. We can trust his wisdom, and you will find, I believe, I believe this in everything in me. You will find flourishing, true flourishing as a woman when you follow God's way, and so I'd encourage you to do that. Amen. Thank you for concluding with those wise words, David, and thank you for coming on the Christian Worldview Radio program today.

We really appreciate this insightful column that you wrote. We have it linked at our website, thechristianworldview dot org. All of God's best to you, your family, Grace Baptist Church, and Founders Ministries. Thank you. If you missed any of the program today, you can hear a replay at our website, thechristianworldview.org, or contact your local radio station to see if they air the program at other times.

You can also open the podcast app on your phone and search for the Christian Worldview with my name, David Wheaton, to subscribe to the program for free. Again, you can read David Mitzenmacher's article on the radicalization of young women at thechristianworldview.org, where we have a link to Founders Ministries, where David is the chairman of the board in Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Florida, where he is one of the pastors. As mentioned earlier, his column will be featured in the next issue of the Christian Worldview Journal as well. You can get on the mailing list for the journal by becoming a Christian Worldview partner. Sign up at thechristian.

Worldview.org, or call or write us. All our contact information will be given immediately following today's program. If you've never seen the journal, we are offering the current issue, the September-October issue, complimentary for all who request it. Just get in touch with us. The move of women, and particularly young women, away from a biblical worldview is not random.

It's a targeted attack. By the enemy, Satan, to corrupt and destroy God's good design for women, along with marriage and the family. Titus chapter two says, older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children. To be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored. There's the standard for women.

Now, are there exceptions for women who don't marry, who don't have children, and may work outside the home? Yes, but those are the exceptions, not the rule. The problem we're seeing is the majority of women today are being persuaded and deceived to reject God's standard. Do you remember how the serpent Satan approached Eve, not Adam, in the Garden of Eden, tempting her to eat from the one forbidden tree? He was trying to destroy God's design for her, to get her to reject God.

It says in Genesis chapter three, when the woman saw that the forbidden tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate, and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. This was the first sin by a human being. She succumbed. Satan succeeded, at least in the short term, in exploiting her. It was the woman who was deceived and sinned, not Adam.

And yet it was Adam, it says in Romans chapter five, who was with her by the way when she sinned, who was held accountable for her sin. Romans five twelve. Just as through one man, Adam, sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

So Eve was deceived, but Adam wilfully sinned. He knew better. He didn't protect and lead Eve as he should have. The nature of women and men haven't changed from that day. Generally, women are more easily deceived by the sinful influences of our day, especially if they are unregenerate spiritually.

Generally, men will abdicate the call to lead and protect wives and daughters.

So, discussing this issue has nothing to do with men are better than women. They are of equal value in God's eyes. But each sex has its own inherent strengths and weaknesses, and Satan uses the world and our flesh to exploit our liabilities. But the good news is there's hope. Christian women walking by the Holy Spirit and under the protection of sound churches, husbands and fathers will overcome.

Christian men walking by the Holy Spirit, and under the authority of sound churches and the Word of God, will fulfill their calling. And as David Mitzmacher mentioned, God gives us the grace to overcome our weaknesses through ordinary means. Being a part of a good church with sound preaching, fellowship with other believers, remembering the Lord's death in communion, abiding with Christ in prayer, studying and meditating on His Word, these ordinary means of God's grace are available to all believers, and it all starts with being born again when you repent and believe in Christ and His atoning work for you on the cross. If you haven't been spiritually born again as Jesus commanded in John chapter three, call us or go to our website thechristianworldview.org and click on the page "What Must I Do to Be Saved." Just one more paragraph from David's column. This urgent problem is not simply about political divides; it is about the integrity of Christian witness and the future of orthodoxy.

A generation of young women is being radicalized before our eyes. The church must recover its courage, teaching young women to embrace God's good design for men and women, to govern their compassion by Scripture rather than emotions, and remain loyal to Christ rather than the spirit of this age. The fruit of such faithfulness will be generations of women who do good. Fear nothing frightful, and display the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. Thank you for joining us today on the Christian Worldview, and for your support of this nonprofit radio ministry.

Until next time, think biblically, live accordingly, and stand firm. The mission of the Christian Worldview is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. We hope today's broadcast encouraged you toward that end. To hear a replay of today's program, order a transcript, or find out what must I do to be saved, go to thechristianworldview.org or call toll free one eight hundred eight six four six twenty two thirty three. The Christian Worldview is a listener-supported nonprofit radio ministry furnished by the Overcomer Foundation.

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