Evangelicals seem to be more divided than ever about the issue of gender roles in the home and in the church. On the one side, you have the egalitarians. They believe that Christ came to abolish gender norms. For them, true equality means that both men and women can serve in whatever roles they feel called to within the body of Christ. If a woman wants to be pastor, great. If she wants to preach the Bible to men, no problem. As long as the person is gifted for the work, then it doesn’t matter what the gender of the preacher is. At least that’s how the egalitarians have it.…
-
-
The Doctrine of the Trinity and Complementarianism in Recent Discussions
Reformed Theological Seminary held a conference last weekend on the Trinity. The speakers include my colleague from Southern Seminary Michael Haykin as well as Scott Swain, Ligon Duncan, and D. Blair Smith. The audio from the sessions is now online. I look forward to listening to all of them, but I can already recommend to you Ligon Duncan’s message, which I just finished this morning. It is really wide-ranging and addresses head-on recent controversies. It is titled “The Doctrine of the Trinity and Complementarianism in Recent Discussions.” Here are links to the other messages: Michael Haykin, “Biblical Exegesis in Fourth Century Trinitarian Debates” D. Blair Smith, “Trinitarian Relations in the…
-
Complementarianism: A quick observation about where we’ve been and where we’re going
I was just reading Joe Carter’s explainer on the Justice Department’s recent warning to North Carolina concerning their “bathroom law.” (By the way, Carter’s explainers are always excellent and helpful. Don’t miss them.) He shows that the Justice Department’s redefinition of “sex” is unprecedented and actually will do harm to real women. In his conclusion, Carter makes an observation worth noting: This is why complementarianism is not merely about “submission” within the family. It’s also about protecting women from a culture that worships male power and disdains femininity, and has no qualms about using the LGBTQIA movement to codify advantages for men into the law. I think Joe is right…
-
Thin Complementarianism?
David Talcott weighs-in late on a Complemenatrian controversey pitting Aimee Byrd and Carl Trueman against John Piper. Talcott explains: Several weeks back there was a bit of a dust-up in conservative Reformed Protestant circles over the following simple question: Does being a man or a woman have any ethical significance for the way we live together in civil society? Despite the success of feminism in radically reworking gender roles over the past half century, conservative Evangelicalism has maintained a modest conviction that our sexuality has ethical import. Certain New Testament passages compel conservative Evangelicals to maintain that women should not be pastors and that the husband is in some way…
-
Complementarian changes at Cedarville University
Christianity Today has a report on changes taking place at Cedarville University. The new president, Thomas White, has shifted the school into a decidedly Complementarian direction. According to the report, In his March 10 chapel talk, Thomas White discussed the concept of headship based on 1 Corinthians 11:2-16. “We operate with the presupposition of inerrancy. So what I tell you today is not something that I wrote, I made up, or I started,” he said. “I’m just going to preach to you what the text says.” Cedarville, which recently weathered a turbulent year of disagreements and resignations, has also restricted classes in the women’s ministry program—functionally, every Bible class in…
-
The Accidental Complementarian
I really appreciate this testimonial from Jen Pollock Michel, who calls herself “The Accidental Complementarian.” Writing for Christianity Today’s Her.meneutics blog, she writes: Misunderstandings about complementarians abound. At a recent women’s conference, I heard a speaker describe her egalitarian upbringing, saying it wasn’t until college that she recognized the breadth of theological difference on this issue. “I was shocked. And to be honest, I was heartbroken. It had never occurred to me that in this day and age, so many people just like me were being sidelined,” she said. Her implication? Complementarianism was theology that should have gone the way of the dinosaurs. Like me, the closet complementarians in the…
-
Do complementarian gender roles result from sin?
Egalitarians often claim that gender roles are a result of the Fall of man into sin. They might agree that the husband appears to be the “head” of the wife in some biblical texts but that those texts are reflecting an imperfect situation. Male leadership in marriage is not rooted in the order of God’s good creation but in sinful human pride. For example, Rachel Held Evans has written, In the biblical narrative, hierarchy enters human relationships as part of the curse, and begins with man’s oppression of women—’your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you’ (Genesis 3:16). But with Christ, hierarchical relationships are exposed…
-
Complementarian conviction under the microscope
Candace Cameron Bure is perhaps best known for her role as a child star on the 80’s sitcom “Full House.” Like her brother Kirk Cameron, she has grown up to be an outspoken Christian. She has been in the news lately promoting her new book Balancing It All: My Story of Juggling Priorities and Purpose. In the book, she promotes what looks to be a complementarian view of gender roles in her marriage. I have not read the book, but I have read the passage that is raising eyebrows in her media appearances. She writes,
-
Non-Christian Complementarianism?
A recent segment on NBC’s “Rock Center” features former volleyball star Gabrielle Reece and her new book on marriage. In the book, she tells the story of how her own marriage nearly ended after only four years. She and her husband were able to come back from the brink, and they are still married today now with three kids. The provocative part of the interview is when she explains that the key to their success is that she “submits” to her husband. The interesting thing, however, it that this is not a Christian couple who have embraced a biblical view of gender roles. They appear to be a typical, secular…
-
Q&A with D. A. Carson on Complementarianism
From The Geneva Push: “Don Carson answers questions arising from his thorough argument for the equality of men and women but their different purposes under God.” You can download the audio here or listen below. [audio:https://thegenevapush.com/images/audio/complemenatrianism-questions.mp3] (HT: Derek Brown)
