YeKengalé

There is such hullabaloo currently going around about gender and identity, maybe this perspective might offer some balance:

At the recent Sons of the Father conference, there was one particular moment that revealed the underlying tensions in the conversation that is defining our culture:

During audience participation time, a man took the mic to voice his considerable angst  at the perception that women are taking over the society – the family, the country, and he must be simply boiling at yesterday’s Sunday Gleaner headlines confirming that they are also taking over the church with the female triumvirate now in place for El Shaddai to speak to this nation, from Her feminine side. (Whose Breasts are Bountiful and Glorious). [See Women take the lead]

Poor fellow.  Both body and voice quivered and trembled as the whole world in unison seemed to be bowing to this insidious Satanic revolution to turn society on its head, and only he remained with clear perspective to sound the alarm against Jezebel; all but he alone swallowed beneath her skirt.

It did not help that ‘Jezebel’ was chairing the men’s conference and asked him to surrender the microphone after five minutes of his diatribe seemed to be falling on deaf ears. To yield to the instructions of a woman was the final insult. With indignation and disgust he belched out, “Lady! Jos’ give me a chance no man!” before finally being escorted outside to ‘cool down’.

It was the tone in which he said the word “Lady” that assaulted everyone’s sensibilities. It sounded like when a grown man calls another man “Bwoy.” Actually for perspective, when a grown white man calls an elderly black man ‘bwoy’. (Race adds such dimension to definitions.)

My mind harped back to the historical narrative that informs the patriarchy we see falling in our time. The ancient tribal, patriarchal, hunter-gatherer nomadic types met and merged (well truthfully, ‘violently clashed’ is more historically accurate) with the settled, riverine and matriarchal agricultural communities of the Euphrates, Nile, and Ganges  producing new communities and cosmologies, new religions and Holy Scriptures a clear break from the traditional past – Bible, Quran and the Gitas,  emerged triumphant from the fusion (or confusion)  with a distinctively patriarchal image of God….and of human society. In the clash of  gender agendas, these new teachings were responsible thereafter for keeping women in their newly assigned place.

Theology can indeed turn reality on its head. The brother chose to use a word that once invoked glory (‘Lady’) to communicate insult. Who is a ‘Lady’? If you asked the matriarchal Canaanites who were usurped (not displaced…regardless of the biblical narrative…) by the Israelites, their answer would be the next thing to a Goddess. A (female) person commanding great reverence.

The patriarchal Abrahamites invading Palestine actually picked up several aspects of Canaanite language and culture….apart from the much maligned Baal worship. The Hebrew word for Lord, Adonai, is it turns out,  not Hebrew at all. It is Canaanite. In the Canaanite language and culture Adonai and Adath (Lord and Lady) communicated great reverence. Alas, the patriarchal Hebrew nomads had little use for Adath, only the Lord became God….. and so, (as we with ‘Lady’ today)  denigrated the meaning and eventually, all but discarded the word altogether.

I have very little skin in the gender warfare game. I am a male man and have great respect for nobility – whichever gender it wears. I think those most threatened by the rise of women are falling or failing or fallen men. Get up and get on with it. Let God arise in women and men and children and let the enemies of our peace and our dignity be scattered.

The opinion of women (now unshackled from fearful muzzlement) could perhaps best serve to inform us who and where we are as men….from President Trump to my brother shaking and reeling at the turn of the social tides….and to me.

[My man of the moment, Jamaican hero Ian Boyne, commands my reverence precisely because of his code of honor, (I actually have much less regard for his opinions – both political and religious, which I view as being generally informed by sources requiring more intense evaluation…it may not be breadth of reading but depth of insight that defines sharpness of intellect).

But its not what you think, but who you think you are, and how that informs your personal relationships that matters most in the end. (or as Ian controversially would say – ‘Likeability is more important than intellect’. I agree in part. )

Here’s (click on link) what Ian’s closest relations thought of him. May every Jamaican man work to have his praises so sung by daughters, wives, employers and prime ministers (whether or not as in Ian’s case, the latter two happened to be women.) If marriage is a symbol of Christ and His church then shouldn’t the husband be worthy  of his wife’s worship?]

I certainly welcome and greatly value the voice of women at the seat of eldership whether of church, state or family. Let the women speak! in the church and everywhere else….(sorry Paulos, times have changed).

Men, fear no woman. After all, they are mere men (obvious pun) and not God, who alone is to be greatly reverenced. We have lost the language of honor…..and we must now search ourselves deeply to retrieve it.

©  YeKengalé 2017    All rights reserved