Unless you live under a particularly soundproof rock, you’ve probably heard the phrase ‘believe all women’ in regards to rape, sexual assault, and other horrible forms of abuse. I’m here to remind you that God says not to do that.
Let me just lay out all the ands, ors, and yeah-buts at the outset so that I’m not misunderstood. I’m not saying ‘disbelieve all women’. I’m not saying that accusations of abuse should be ignored or taken lightly. On the contrary, they should be taken with due seriousness, investigated thoroughly, and any guilty parties should be punished. I’m not ‘trivializing the experiences of women’ or whatever euphemism for ‘shut up’ feminists want to employ. My goal here is to take God’s very clear standard and show how it applies in these situations. If God’s standard hurts your feelings, your feelings need to change.
Very well then, what is God’s standard? He lays it out in Deuteronomy 19:15-21:
A single witness shall not rise up against a person regarding any wrongdoing or any sin that he commits; on the testimony of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed. If a malicious witness rises up against a person to testify against him of wrongdoing, then both people who have the dispute shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days. And the judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness and he has testified against his brother falsely, then you shall do to him just as he had planned to do to his brother. So you shall eliminate the evil from among you. And the rest of the people will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such an evil thing among you. So you shall not show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.
‘But’ you may say ‘ that’s in the Mosaic law. That was meant for ancient Israel, not us today.’ Such an objection is partially right, insofar as the exact particulars of how the standard is enforced, but the standard itself does not change, because God does not change. The standard is that no one is to be convicted on the word of only one witness, a standard that Jesus applies to discipline in His church, not just in civil matters, see Matthew 18:16. God even gives us the reason for this standard in Proverbs 18:17:
The first to plead his case seems right,
Until another comes and examines him.
We are not omniscient; our knowledge is limited, even when nobody is trying to deceive us, which is a real possibility. Thus, we need witnesses and evidence to reach a just resolution to any accusation of a crime. The ‘believe all women’ slogan directly contradicts this, as I will demonstrate.
The crucial thing to keep in mind is the demand that we believe all women. To believe is to accept what is said as true. Thus, what they are demanding is that if a woman accuses a man of a sex crime, we must say that he is guilty, based solely on her statement that he did so. God explicitly forbids this.
‘But’ they may object ‘we just want women’s accusations to be taken seriously.’ If that’s the case, then say that, instead of demanding that we believe all accusations. In most cases, however, this objection would be dishonest. How do I know? Because actions speak louder than words.
If you cast your mind back to the 2020 election cycle, you probably remember the accusations against now-president Joe Biden by Tara Reade. Where was the believe all women outrage? If you don’t recall any, that’s because it wasn’t there. Compare that to the absolute barrage of unsubstantiated allegations against Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing, and the accompanying hysteria. The difference couldn’t be more stark. Why? It’s more than just politicians being dishonest.
The whole MeToo movement is an outgrowth of feminism, which is about nothing more than accumulating power for feminists. That’s why political allies of the movement will get a pass from feminist enforcers when they’re accused of egregious behavior, but they try to make even the most baseless allegations against their political enemies stick, and go to great lengths to do so. The power they seek extends beyond simple politics to the lives of regular people. What believe all women does is give any woman the tools to destroy any man she cares to, so long as she’s aligned with the feminist establishment. All it takes is for her to make an accusation to destroy a man’s life, even before the case makes it to court. In any news reporting, she will be referred to as the victim, although the case has not yet been adjudicated. Even conservative media isn’t immune to this, although the mainstream media is much worse. This aligns perfectly with the goals of feminism, which is for women to dominate men, just as God predicted in Genesis 3:16.
So, what can Christians do about it?
Quite simply, we need to withhold judgement when we hear an accusation. This doesn’t mean we’re not taking it seriously, just the opposite. When such grave accusations are being thrown about, the worst thing to do is jump to conclusions; not only because we might get it wrong, but also because jumping to conclusions is in and of itself wrong, according to Proverbs 18:13.
One who gives an answer before he hears,
It is foolishness and shame to him.
Notice that it does not say ‘one who gives an answer before he hears and happens to be wrong’, it says ‘one who gives an answer before he hears’. Jumping to a conclusion without hearing all the facts is foolish and shameful whether or not you reach the right conclusion. You could hear an accusation, conclude that it’s true without hearing any other evidence, and be correct in your conclusion, and it would still be shameful and foolish to have done it; because you gave an answer before you heard. God doesn’t only care about results, He also cares how you get those results.
This means watching our language when we discuss accusations in the news; we shouldn’t refer to the person bringing the accusation as a ‘victim’ until we’ve seen and considered the evidence from both sides. This means no hot takes on social media, whether we like the person accused or not. It also means that we need to acknowledge that, no matter how heinous the crime someone is accused of, they are innocent until proven guilty. As good as it may feel to get angry at a lawyer for defending an alleged predator, we must not do that, because it is foolishness and shame for us to do so. Insisting that someone get a fair trial, and not be tried in the court of public opinion does not make someone a rape apologist, it means they are sticking up for God’s justice, which is the only true justice. This is not going to be a popular position, and it is certainly not easy, but it is the only position that Christians can take, biblically. We must wait for all of the facts to come out, then consider them in the light of scripture in order to reach a conclusion in any matter. To do otherwise brings shame upon ourselves and does not bring glory to God.
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