Young Christian Thinker Jefferson Bethke on the Root Cause of Objectifying Women
Inspirational Christian speaker Jefferson Bethke recently spoke on the objectification of women in modern culture and what Christians can do to combat the degradation.
In his most recent YouTube video, Bethke, the author of It's Not What You Think, explains that he chose to focus his weekly video message on the objectification of women because he believes it's a "huge cultural problem" that also carries a lot of nuance, adding that the root of the problem can be found in Scripture.
The young evangelical speaker begins his talk by pointing to several cultural disadvantages that plague women and turn them into sex objects, including overly-sexualized advertisements, pornography, and technology.
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Although there are several examples of objectification in today's culture, Bethke says that Christians fail to see what Scripture describes as the "problem behind the problem" in regards to this disturbing issue.
The origin of the problem can be found in Genesis 3, Bethke explains, when Eve and Adam ate the apple in the Garden of Eden, causing "sin [to] first [fracture] the world."
"We saw [in this passage] that we actually went from image-bearers to now, the inclination in all of humans' hearts, is to make another human a commodity or an object," Bethke explains, adding that when "sin entered the world, we no longer see people as fellow brothers and sisters, but now as competition, as objects, as enemies."
He adds that sin and objectification not only applies to women but also to forms of abuse, including sweatshops, pornography, and reality television.
"The problem behind the problem is not sexual objectification of women in particular, it's commodification of image bearers in general," Bethke explains.
Ultimately, male and female Christians must work to combat this abuse together, the young Christian thinker says, suggesting that it is a woman's responsibility to present herself in a certain way, just as it is a man's responsibility to view the opposite sex with respect.
"We should all ask: are we making ourselves more a product, or are we making ourselves more and more about being an image-bearer?" Bethke suggests.
The 27-year-old Christian leader has spoken on the topic of objectification before, explaining at a Q Talk last spring that there is a connection between pornography, technology, and the objectification of women.
The advent of internet porn is, to some degree, "remaking humans, and not in a good way," Bethke said during an April 2015 Q Talk.
When porn and technology interact with each other, he said, there is an "utter death of intimacy" between women and men because porn, by its nature, cannot provide the type of intimacy required for a loving relationship.
Bethke adds that due to the distraction of modern technology and all of its temptations, including pornography, Christians are no longer able to understand "what it means to be 'known'" by someone else.
"In fact, I think we're terrified of being known, not realizing that joy is hiding right on the other side of that," Bethke said.
