Which Manifesto Represents Your Womanhood?

In all probability, if you are an evangelical christian woman in certain circles, you've heard of the True Woman conferences, Revive Our Hearts ministries, and the True Woman Manifesto. I attended a True Woman conference once, and found it- well, not stuff I should charitably say in public. Not that there is no good in it, but the bad hogties the good in such a way that I could not recommend it as generally helpful. =)
The True Woman Manifesto is a statement of what the leadership of the True Woman conferences believe to be an outline of christian womanhood. Some of it is good- like the importance of having a relationship with Jesus. But the following statements bug me to no end, as I consider them blatantly contrary to the intent of scripture and to the heart of God for His daughters. (read the full manifesto here)

We are called as women to affirm and encour­age men as they seek to express godly mas­culin­ity, and to honor and sup­port God-​​ordained male lead­er­ship in the home and in the church.

When we respond humbly to male lead­er­ship in our homes and churches, we demon­strate a noble sub­mis­sion to author­ity that reflects Christ’s sub­mis­sion to God His Father.

Self­ish insis­tence on per­sonal rights is con­trary to the spirit of Christ who hum­bled Him­self, took on the form of a ser­vant, and laid down His life for us.

God’s plan for gen­der is wider than mar­riage; all women, whether mar­ried or sin­gle, are to model fem­i­nin­ity in their var­i­ous rela­tion­ships, by exhibit­ing a dis­tinc­tive mod­esty, respon­sive­ness, and gen­tle­ness of spirit.

Mature Chris­t­ian women have a respon­si­bil­ity to leave a legacy of faith, by dis­ci­pling younger women in the Word and ways of God and mod­el­ing for the next gen­er­a­tion lives of fruit­ful femininity.

For one thing, I do not think that predominately or exclusively male leadership in the home, the church, or the world is God's design. I do not believe in a hierarchal Trinity, nor do I believe that any woman should submit to a man as she submits to God. Personal rights and boundaries are not automatically selfish- they are healthy. Should women be feminine? You betcha. =) But that doesn't mean being submissive, modest, "responsive", etc. and a "meek and quiet spirit" is equally advisable for BOTH genders. The writers of this manifesto do not believe in birth control, hence the "fruitful femininity" bit- I won't even dignify that one with a response. =) Rummaging around on the interwebs, however, I stumbled on an excellent replacement for the more offensive passages in the True Woman Manifesto. It's called- and I love this so much- the "Unladylike Manifesto." Here it is: (http://www.pamhogeweide.com/2012/05/26/unladylike-manifesto/)

Unla­dy­like Manifesto

• We believe that male and female are cre­ated to col­lab­o­rate, co-​​lead and co-​​exist in a mutu­al­ity of sub­mis­sion to one another. (Gen 2:18 – 23,Galatians 3:28)

• We believe that gift­ing is appointed accord­ing to the will of the Holy Spirit and that call­ing is deter­mined by gift­ing, not gen­der. (1 Corinthi­ans 12, John 20:1 – 20)

• We believe that the power of the Gospel restores men and women in right rela­tion­ship to one another to live, serve and lead side by side rather than in patri­ar­chal hier­ar­chy. (Gala­tians 3:28, John 4:7 – 39)

• We believe that the voice, influ­ence and author­ity of women is meant to be fully unleashed in accor­dance to the full per­son­hood that women pos­sess. Male head­ship is a myth. (Joel 2:28 – 29, 1 Peter 2:9 – 10)

• We believe in the mutual sub­mis­sion and part­ner­ship of mar­riage where nei­ther has author­ity over another by virtue of gen­der. We reject the headship/​submission model as a bib­li­cal truth and instead embrace the lib­erty and wis­dom of def­er­ence to the other. (Eph­esian 1:22, Eph­esians 5: 15 – 33, 1 Peter 5:5)

• We believe that the lead­er­ship of women is needed in full part­ner­ship with the lead­er­ship of men in all are­nas of cul­ture and church. Women were not cre­ated to fol­low any­more than men were cre­ated to lead. (Num­bers 12:15, Judges 4 & 5, 2 Kings 22:13 – 14, Acts 2, Romans 16:3 – 4, 7)

• We believe that Jesus mod­eled a rad­i­cal agenda of respect­ing women’s full per­son­hood in how he treated them as noted in the Gospels. Jesus went against cul­tural and reli­gious norms in his treat­ment of women. (Luke 13:10 – 17, John 4, Luke 8:1 – 3, etc.….)

• We believe that men and women of faith ought to resist the injus­tice of inequal­ity wher­ever it is found, includ­ing the halls of the church. Jus­tice is a king­dom of God value and is the lan­guage of love. (Hosea 2:19, Amos 5:15, 24, Micah 6:8)

So this is my man­i­festo, my unla­dy­like dec­la­ra­tion that true wom­an­hood is lib­er­ated per­son­hood. The king­dom of God does not per­pet­u­ate the injus­tice of inequal­ity among women. The king­dom of God frees women from sex­ism, even within the house of faith. Because being human is true womanhood

I know which one represents my womanhood best- that would be the second one, folks. =) 

How about you?