tweeted<\/a> after the news of this week’s shooting: “Brothers. Pastors. Seminary heads. How you teach sexuality matters … How you teach gender roles, and how you talk about women, how you sexualize them as temptations or dangers, matters. It can be life or death.” <\/p>\n Jesus treated women as people — with inherent worth and dignity arising from their bearing the image of God. He called them daughters and disciples. He let them into his inner circle; he met with Mary and Martha alone, thus breaking the Billy Graham rule. And he condemned those who would cast stones at the woman caught in adultery, inviting her instead to a life of dignity and freedom.<\/p>\n
We don’t know enough about Long’s upbringing to know precisely what he learned about women or sexuality growing up. But we do know we’re in a time when we’re seeing in plain sight the bad fruit of twisted teachings about sexuality, manhood, and womanhood.<\/p>\n
Now more than ever, Christian communities must reexamine attitudes and actions that blame women for men’s sexual problems. They must help men take responsibility for their own temptations. They must protect rather than blame victims of crime, violence, and abuse.<\/p>\n
As Christians, we can become defensive, complaining that we are being blamed or persecuted by the media. Or, we can take this grievous moment as a chance to consider how our own teachings — in sermons, youth group talks and books — might perpetuate dehumanizing attitudes that lead to blaming and harming women for men’s sins.<\/p>\n
As Denhollander said, nothing less than life or death hangs in the balance.<\/p>\n
(The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily represent those of Religion News Service.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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