Biblical truth matters.
Women can work.
Women did work, frequently, in Scripture.
The idea that godly women must stay home and never earn income, run a business, or labor outside the household is not a biblical command. It is a man-made burden that God never placed on them.
Look at the text:
• The Proverbs 31 woman buys a field, plants a vineyard with her own hands, trades for profit, and brings food from afar (Proverbs 31:16–18, 24).
• Ruth gleaned in the fields to provide for herself and Naomi (Ruth 2).
• Lydia was a successful seller of purple goods and a householder who hosted the church (Acts 16:14–15).
• Priscilla worked alongside her husband as a tentmaker and taught Apollos (Acts 18:2–3, 26).
• Deborah judged Israel and led in battle (Judges 4–5).
• The daughters of Zelophehad inherited and managed land (Numbers 27).
Scripture praises diligence, provision, and wisdom in women just as it does in men. The call for wives to manage the home (Titus 2:5) never forbids productive work; it simply prioritizes the household. Many faithful women have always done both.
To tell women that any paid work or enterprise outside pure domesticity is disobedience is to heap a load God Himself never commanded. That is the opposite of the freedom and dignity Scripture actually gives them.
Women can work.
They always have.
And the Bible never said otherwise.
There is something deeply unsettling happening inside parts of American Christianity.
And if we are honest, it did not start with Donald Trump. But it has become impossible to ignore in the Trump era.
A recent piece in The Atlantic from Peter Wehner, a former speechwriter for the administrations of three Republican U.S. presidents, captures this tension well. It argues that for many believers, politics is no longer shaped by faith. Increasingly, it is replacing it.
Christianity was never meant to be about power. It was meant to be about transformation. Jesus did not call His followers to win culture wars. He called them to carry a cross. He did not say, “Defeat your enemies.” He said, “Love your enemies.” He did not say, “Protect your tribe at all costs.” He said, “Whoever wants to save their life will lose it.”
And yet, what we increasingly see in some corners of modern Christianity looks very different. We see anger reframed as righteousness. We see cruelty justified as strength. We see loyalty to political figures elevated to something dangerously close to devotion.
What we are witnessing is a substitution of faith with politics, transformation with power. When faith becomes shallow, something else fills the vacuum. And politics is very good at doing that. Politics offers identity. It offers purpose. It offers belonging. It offers a clear line between “us” and “them.” In many ways, it offers everything religion offers — except transformation.
And that is the danger.
Because when politics becomes a substitute for faith, it does not make people more Christ-like. It makes them more tribal. It teaches them to win, not to love. To dominate, not to serve. To justify, not to repent.
And over time, something subtle but profound happens: Jesus is no longer the center. He becomes a symbol — used to defend something else.
To be clear, this is not about left vs right. It is not about whether Christians should engage in politics. They should.
But engagement is not the same as surrender. Christians are called to influence the world. Not be conformed by it. And when the language, tone, and spirit of politics begin to override the teachings of Christ, something has gone wrong.
Deeply wrong.
But here is the hopeful part.
This is not the end of the story. Throughout history, Christianity has gone through seasons where it drifted toward power, toward institutions, toward political alignment. And each time, renewal came. Not through louder politics. But through deeper faith. Through people who returned to the core: humility, repentance, sacrifice, love.
That path is still open. And maybe that is the real question for all of us: Are we following Jesus… or are we using His name to follow something else? Because those two paths may look similar at first. But they lead to very different destinations.
major cheat code in life: be the one who reaches out. text first. call first. plan first. initialize first. most people wait to be chosen. be the chooser. connection requires initiative. friendship requires effort. love requires action. stop waiting to be picked. start picking. initiative is attractive.
Search the letters of Paul and find that his primary boasts in the Lord for those early churches centered on their faith and love. Over and over some form of these words: “I’ve heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints…”
If our attentiveness to Bible study, systematic theology and doctrine do not result in the strengthening of our faith and love, we’ve somehow managed to leave the Holy Spirit out of the Holy Spirit’s own words.
This is one reason why prayer is essential to Bible study. Frequently talking to God in our studies about our studies helps protect us from the rebuke Jesus gave in John 5. Those individuals diligently studied the scriptures but did not have the love of God in them.
If Bible study makes us meaner and much of our joy comes from how well we insulted our brothers and sisters who aren’t in our camp, there’s a disconnect somewhere. This isn’t throwing stones. It can happen to any of us.
One reason i’ve had to take some social media breaks along the way was that I didn’t like what it was doing to my heart. I didn’t like that it was increasing the number of people I didn’t like. That’s bad fruit, folks.
An honest appraisal of our own hearts is a crucial practice. We can be right about a thing with a wrong heart and God’s going to look straight through that right thing to that wrong heart.
@drantbradley Wording matters. 😅 I was referring to the US Protestants, etc., in your tweet which hold to the label of the “American Church”, often by way of insular presumptions.
@drantbradley Popularity doesn’t always equal power, and power is insular. What the American church lacks in numbers it makes up for in power (more money, more power). So while fascinating, is unsurprising.
What they do understand is how they feel or are made to feel, and although many pretend to vote by the facts, the reality is that most of us vote according to how we feel about our lives and our future.
Biden was right, but with lies/manipulations/opinions/personal gains held in higher regard by politicians and media than the truth (across all parties) leaves the people with a “Boy Who Cried Wolf” mentality towards anything said by elites/politicians/media.
Many people so mistrust authority, so mistrust elites, that they drop out, or embrace a "recklessness"
The results of this is something I have written about a lot (addiction, politics, health)
In general I try to keep a neutral perspective. In this case, I lost that perspective
I don’t pretend to know politics, but I know most people understand less than they wish they did or pretend the do. Politics/morality/economics and their effects on day to day life is just too complicated, too broad for the average person to understand.
As long as we live, we’re guilty; our hands stained with blood. Neither our remorse nor our charity can absolve our guilt. We must die for our sins. Which is what baptism is, a death and a resurrection. Through Jesus, we put to death the guilty self and are raised a new self.
Living a life shielded from vagaries of being human, where only physical risk from a job is carpal tunnel syndrome, is a luxury only afforded to blue checks & “knowledge workers”
So it isn’t surprising they are not best at understanding why everyone doesn’t always act like them
One way to tell if someone is a false teacher is the virtues they promote. For instance, many promote courage or bravery as supreme virtues. These are cultural values, not Christian virtues. Christian virtues relate to meekness, humility, dependence on God, love, grace, etc.
Also,
Greeks using God's to intervene == modern lit using personality flaws/inner torment/psychoanalysis
Like. In ancient Greece could you just laugh off mistakes as "Well Zeus made me do it?" Or, "oh, her, she is just controlled by Hera. Not your type. Watch out"