I grew up in a small church in my quaint town — the largest the youth group ever was would be 30, with guests. The church hardly had 200 people on any given Sunday morning, with one-third of that on Sunday night or Wednesday.  I grew up being taught about the gentleness of women, the loyalty to their men and their humble devotion to God. I was shown the beauty of the women of the Bible, as the perfect aspects of God they demonstrate to believers. This is my privilege and blessing. 

But my brother was never told about the wisdom in women like Abigail or Rahab or Martha or Naomi. Most of the boys in my youth group were never taught about women in the Bible in any context besides marriage. 

So hear me out; a Bible course that is geared to teaching men and women about Biblical women. 

I hope that this idea is not too radical, mostly because it is my simple opinion and I don’t understand the red tape around making an idea become a class. But let me tell you why I think Harding would benefit from a Bible class that is all about women in the good book. 

My thought is quite plain: men and women deserve to know the stories and history of Abigail, the Sinful Woman or Mary Magdalene, and every woman in the Bible, just as much as we need to know about David, Solomon, the 12 disciples , Joseph and every man in the Bible. A class that is purely dedicated to learning more about these women would look like every other topic based course. 

I have a lot of respect for the Bible department — there is a lot of pressure on the professors to create an interesting course that will help students develop their relationship with God. This is a pressure I don’t understand. However, one thing I do understand is being raised to be a strong Christian woman. I understand having only three or four examples of women in the Bible shown to me until the age of 13. I understand being told to be gentle and kind as the Proverbs 31 woman, while my brother is being taught to be strong and mighty like David. I know that not everyone will relate to the wisdom, redemption and courage that Rahab shows, or the patience, trust and love that Esther embodies like I do. But what if someone finds the biblical person that they relate to the most in Naomi, Mary or the Sinful Woman because of this class? 

I am a big advocate for women supporting women, and a feminist to my core. I firmly believe that everyone can relate to women and men in the Bible equally and should be given the chance to learn about both. I also believe that a class about women in the Bible should be led by a woman, but we all know that is another opinion piece in and of itself. 

There is more to the stories of the women in the Bible than who their families are, these women have amazing messages that the Harding community could only benefit from.