In a recent video featuring Live Action founder and president Lila Rose, conservative commentator Allie Beth Stuckey, and Christian author and speaker Lisa Bevere, the three discussed various ideas about “The Lies Women Face.”
At one point in the roundtable discussion, Rose asked Stuckey and Bevere, “What do you guys think about the role of women? I know it’s even controversial to talk about ‘the role’. What is different about us as women versus men, and how we show up in society?”
Stuckey stated that she had been questioning recently why so many women support “progressive” policies while men seem to be becoming more conservative, noting that “at the same time, the marriage rates are going down, the procreation rates are going down. I think all of those things go hand in hand.”
She then noted that, despite what society is attempting to promote, men and women do have innate differences, and yet, they need each other.
“Misplaced mothering”
“I have little girls and I just see how different they are than my nephews. For my little girls, everything turns into a family. They could have three blades of grass and they’re like, ‘this is mommy, daddy, baby grass.’ They’ll just do that, whereas with my nephews, everything becomes a gun,” Stuckey said. “They’re so different at such a young age, and I’m like, every woman that you see out there who is proudly marching for abortion, proudly saying ‘I’m a girl boss, I don’t need kids, I don’t want a family, I don’t need no man,’ — all of those were at one point the little girl who was making little families out of the random objects. I’m speaking generally. I know that there are some exceptions. But all women were born with this instinct to nurture and to nourish and to beautify and to raise. That’s why we’ve got our dolls, our Barbies, that’s why we want to play house and family —and that doesn’t just go away because the culture changes…”
Stuckey then noted that despite women’s best efforts to leave behind the idea of being wives or mothers, we see that if women do not have these specific roles, they will still often “mother” in other ways.
“I’ve started to think about the fact that, really, every woman has a baby. It just might not be a human baby,” she said. “Every woman is channeling that nurturing towards something — maybe it’s her career, maybe it’s her dog, maybe it’s her plants, maybe it’s herself, maybe it’s money. It could be all different kinds of things. And maybe it’s a healthy thing for women who haven’t been blessed with children yet. Maybe they’re mentoring, helping take care of children who don’t have parents. And so it can be healthy or unhealthy.”
She continued, “But this misplaced mothering — this gap between what women are made to do, which is mother in some way, biologically or not — and trying to fulfill that instinct with lesser things, I think that’s causing a lot of angst, a lot of anger, a lot of confusion — gender confusion, gender role confusion. And doubling down on this anti-natalist, pro-abortion position, I think a lot of it has to do with the seared consciences that come from trying to replace our natural instincts with something a lot less.”
“Power union,” not a “power struggle”
Bevere discussed a t-shirt she once wore, which stated, “The future is male and female.” When she wore the shirt in her local area, she had received largely positive comments from both men and women, but online, the reactions were hostile, “even from Christians.”
She said, ” So I take a picture with it and I just put underneath it “the future is male and female, because without male and female, there is no future… ” And she received backlash from some who said, “You are co-signing with patriarchy; Jesus would never be okay with the oppression of women…” with other comments calling her a “demon of hate, transphobe, bigot.”
“I mean, it went wild,” Bevere said. “And so I thought, what is behind this?… It’s an anti-family, anti-male spirit.”
She then shared that she asked her teenage grandson what his thoughts were on the quote, “The future is female.” He replied, “That I’m unnecessary.”
Bevere was struck that even at 14, her young grandson was getting that message, “Yet woman was created as the answer to the man not being alone, and we’re supposed to come alongside them and be a power union, and not this power struggle that we’re seeing right now.”
“Fruitful together”
Rose then gave her thoughts on how many in society have seen abuses, and that is why they have adopted the idea that men and women don’t need each other.
“There’s some people that I respect where they’re coming from, and they say, well, historically, women have always been subjugated and there have been a lot of abuses of women, and so the patriarchy is bad because when you have the man in control, you know, it’s bad,” Rose said.
“And I think what is missed here always in these conversations is, it’s not like a one or the other where it’s like men are fully in control and women are subjugated, or women should be fully in control and then men are subjugated and they’re unnecessary,” she added. “God created Adam and then he created Eve, and He gave them both the mandate, ‘Go and have dominion over the Earth,’ and to be fruitful together. They couldn’t be fruitful on their own; they had to do it together….”
“Narratives that are lies”
The discussion continued, touching on marriage issues, mentoring, and pornography. Eventually, the discussion came to a close on the best way to discuss the hot-button issue of abortion with others.
“Being combative is not an answer,” Bevere said. “We need to hear people and then we need to speak the truth. But I do feel like so many people have been inundated with narratives that are lies,” like the idea that an abortion can “un-rape” a rape survivor, or that children will ruin someone’s life, she noted. “My children have done nothing but enhance my life. They have grown me, they have given my husband and I legacy and purpose. They have awakened love in me in ways that I could never even imagine…. They’re not just mine, they’re God’s inheritance…. I have one regret… I wish I could have had more.”
She and Stuckey both agreed that using Live Action’s resources, as well as others, to show the truth about abortion is key.
