Cooling Twilight

Tag: complementarianism

  • Meting out help for helpmeet

    Meting out help for helpmeet

    helpmeet

    This badly misguided comment crossed my computer monitor yesterday: “GOD made women to be a helpmeet for Man, the Bible says. What is a Help Meet. It is a Proper assistant — A Second in command.” 

    Helpmeet isn’t a real word — or at least it shouldn’t be a real word. It’s essentially a mistake, an etymological misstep that distorts the original text from which it derives. The King James Version of Genesis 2.18 reads: “And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.” (more…)

  • Putting Words in Paul’s Mouth: “Women: Shut Up!”

    Putting Words in Paul’s Mouth: “Women: Shut Up!”

    shhh

    1 Corinthians 14.34−35 reads:

    Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.

    Here Paul writes in unambiguous terms a dictum applicable not just to a single church, but to “the churches,” repeating his injunction twice: women should remain silent, they aren’t allowed to speak, and then, in case you’re still looking for a way around this rule, he reminds us that “it is disgraceful” for women to speak in church.

    I can’t imagine how Paul could be any more clear. Reading the text at face value, there’s simply no room for interpreting away his command. But despite this clarity, few Christians actually follow Paul’s command. We try to explain it away as a cultural artifact, perhaps addressing a specific situation such as the problems caused by a group of unruly wives in Corinth. An across-the-board prohibition against women speaking in the church? Surely not! (more…)

  • I’m a feminist because

    I’m a feminist because

    Feminism

    I’m a feminist because

    • Women are created in the image of God and have inherent value. They deserve the same opportunities, respect, rights and freedoms that men enjoy.
    • Persistent and pernicious patriarchal oppression permeates virtually every facet of society.
    • Men have been running the show for the thousands of years and have screwed things up for long enough.
    • Our culture has marginalized and suppressed women for so long that, even given the chance, far too few women are truly empowered to take advantage of the opportunities afforded them.
    • The Internet, for all its promise of unfettered expression, is still only a reflection of our societal shortcomings regarding gender issues.
    • Whether in movies or television or music or advertising, women are objectified and sexualized and used to sell and market and promote.
    • Women are recognized more often for their outward appearance rather than their inner beauty.
    • Our culture, even when pretending to defy stereotypes, still reinforces them.
    • Stereotypes are bullshit: I know men that excel at cooking and knitting and are stay-at-home dads and love fashion and paint watercolors. And I know women who fish and hunt and drink beer and burp and work with power tools.

    (more…)

  • A New Recipe for Gender Roles

    A New Recipe for Gender Roles

    Trevin Wax recently wrote a blog post entitled The Crazy Culture of Complementarianism. He leads off with the pithy observation that “Right beliefs do not always lead to healthy cultures” and then goes on to discuss some of the “crazy” results of complementarianism that he’s noticed, such as the “unexpressed expectation that the godliest women have quiet and introverted personality types, and cannot be assertive and outgoing.”

    I applaud Wax for pointing out some of the problems that have become associated with complementarianism. But he concludes that “It’s the culture of complementarianism that needs to be renewed and restored. Because there’s nothing crazier than taking a beautiful picture of the gospel and making a new law out of it.”
    (more…)

  • “These enemy dogs who reject the things of God”

    “These enemy dogs who reject the things of God”

    Conquistadors praying before a battle

    Janie B. Cheaney, in her World Magazine post “How to lose an argument” seems to have just discovered that Mark Driscoll is a “lightning rod.” This is a surprise to her because in her mind Driscoll’s focus has always been on spreading the gospel.

    She links to my piece on Driscoll’s dismissal of careful exegesis of controversial texts, labeling it as “rather creative.” Is that doublespeak for “deliberately manipulative”? It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been accused of taking Driscoll’s words out of context, but I have yet to see someone explain exactly how I did so. The most substantive argument against my criticisms has been similar to the one Cheaney employs: that Driscoll is preaching the gospel so we should simply ignore his verbal faux pas.
    (more…)

  • Misogyny, Patriarchy and the Church

    Misogyny, Patriarchy and the Church

    Silent Junia

    Elizabeth Esther recently wrote a blog post about “the new misogyny,” highlighting the shift in the church away from blatant misogyny to a more subtle, yet equally toxic attitude towards women. Elizabeth’s post made me simultaneously angry and depressed and disappointed. 

    The anger prompted me to write this post, to vent, to speak out against the status quo. 

    The depression makes me feel like giving up. Because really, what can one person do when the monolithic patriarchy of the institutional church just keeps steamrolling along with megaphone blaring and blinders firmly affixed?
    (more…)

  • Mark Driscoll doesn’t want you to study the Bible

    Mark Driscoll doesn’t want you to study the Bible

    Mark Driscoll

    Mark Driscoll recently caused another brouhaha with his views about gender roles. The short version of this latest controversy is that he compared nagging wives to water torture. You can watch the offending segment here.

    But are we really surprised by this sort of thing from Driscoll? By now it should seem par for the course: we know where he stands on these issues, we know that he states his positions in less-than-eloquent ways, we know he characterizes the positions of his opponents in less-than-charitable terms and we know that none of this is likely to change. 

    But in the rush to point out yet another misogynistic statement from Driscoll, a perhaps even more troubling statement from him was overlooked. In the opening of his sermon on Ephesians 5.22−33 and the subject of wives submitting to their husbands, Driscoll says:
    (more…)

  • I Do Not Permit A Woman

    I Do Not Permit A Woman

    In 1 Timothy 2.12 Paul says “I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.” (NIV2011)

    What’s up with that? Is Paul really issuing a definitive command regarding women’s roles that’s binding upon all Christians today? Is this a clear directive that severely limits women’s ministry in the Church? That’s certainly how most complementarians understand this verse. But is that where the discussion ends? Paul said it, I believe it, that settles it? (more…)

  • Junia the Apostle

    Junia the Apostle

    Any discussion of women’s roles in the church must take into account the apostle Junia. Paul writes in Romans 16.7, “Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Jews who have been in prison with me. They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was” (NIV2011). Though generally accepted as a female apostle throughout church history, Junia has fallen on hard times since the Reformation: her gender has been changed (to the male Junias in the NASB, NIV1984, RSV, UBS4 and NA27) and more recently her apostleship has been questioned. (more…)

  • Review: A Year of Biblical Womanhood by Rachel Held Evans

    Review: A Year of Biblical Womanhood by Rachel Held Evans

    Following closely in the footsteps of A.J. Jacobs’ 2007 book The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible, blogger and writer Rachel Held Evans offers her own contribution to the genre of reality-show inspired memoirs in the unimaginatively titled A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband “Master.”

    Based upon Evans’ year-long exploration of what it means — and doesn’t mean — to be a “biblical” woman, A Year of Biblical Womanhood provides a powerful polemic against prevailing views of gender roles within the evangelical subculture. (more…)