Hello everyone.
If you are familiar with the band King and Country, you will know about the recent movie release of Priceless and their focus on human trafficking. What you may not know is the band did a devotional study they called Priceless: Respect and Honor for YouVersion. I am currently reading this devotional. I have been to two of their concerts and these guys treat women right and they want other men to treat them right. They can't stand disrespectful men. These guys treat everyone right! I believe they trully see women as their equal partners, which is refreshing for a change.
They took on this concept of Chivalry in their recent devotional. This peaked my interest so I wanted to do some research.
Chivalry actually evolved in the fuedal societies of the Middle Ages - a time of great scientific and spiritual darkness and harsh realities for the common people of Europe. In fuedal societies, common people had few rights. The nobility had rights and that was mostly because they had the money and the land. Women had no rights - zero, zilch, nada. The concept of Chivalry evolved from the nobility of the time as a response to their feudal duties (peasant/landowner relationship) and the general instability of this time in history. Chivalry is actually a military ethos (ethics) brought over from the Crusades.
It was romanticized and later put into the "Ten Commandments of Chivalry" by French writer Leon Gautier in 1881, long after knighthood and the chivalry of the Middle Ages were things of the past. Here are Gautier's Ten Commandments:
1. Thou shalt believe all that the Church teaches and thou shalt observe all its directions. 2. Thou shalt defend the Church. 3. Thou shalt respect all weaknesses, and shalt constitute thyself the defender of them. 4. Thou shalt love the country in which thou wast born. 5. Thou shalt not recoil before thine enemy. 6. Thou shalt make war against the infidel without cessation and without mercy. 7. Thou shalt perform scrupulously thy feudal duties, if they be not contrary to the laws of God. 8. Thou shalt never lie, and shalt remain faithful to thy pledged word. 9. Thou shalt be generous, and give largesse (generously) to everyone. 10. Thou shalt be everywhere and always the champion of the Right and the Good against Injustice and Evil.
So where does chivalry fit in the 21st Century? Does it fit?
I believe parts of chivalry fit into our 21st Century and parts of it do not. Allow me to explain.
We don't live in a feudal society so anything remotely related to a feudal society where chivlary is concerned would obviously be off the table. One would also have to be cautious about using chivlary to back "religions", "churches" or political ideations. I say this because the "church" and the "politicians" of the Middle Ages was corrupt and money hungry and frequently strayed from the intents and purposes of the Bible, let alone their duties, and expected chivalrous knights to uphold their "values". This never worked out well for women, let alone the common people.
I do believe that respecting people, honoring people and caring for the weaker members of our society should never go out of style. This goes for men, women and children alike. I do believe that standing up for right and good against injustice and evil works today. Most of us already love the country we were born in, even if it has some problems.
I believe generousity is a character trait of God Himself. I believe in being faithful and not lying. God is faithful and He can not lie.
Ladies, when men do something nice for you, that is not them thinking you are weak or fragile or incapable and can't do things for yourselves - that has nothing to do with chivalry - they really are just being kind. A man who thinks you are less than him, weak, incapable, fragile or helpless is not the man for you nor should you associate with him. He is in need of some different revelation in order to be your friend much less your lover. God does not see women in this way and he doesn't excuse a man who does either. God created all men and women equal and He loves all men and women equally.
I hope this has given you a good idea of where chivalry fits into our world now, and where it does not - at least from my perspective. I would like to thank King and Country for their work with human trafficking victims and for their genuine love of people. Keep up the great work guys!
Until next time,
Elizabeth
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