The CBE Scroll

Recently there was a blog post regarding preferential treatment given to men, even by those who espouse egalitarian beliefs. How can this happen ?

It is very evident that the cultural mindset over such a long time is deeper than many first imagined and so it is no wonder than it keeps resurfacing in the most unlikely places. It occurs to me that something that has taken hundreds of years to become entrenched will not go away just by careful exegesis and teaching. Attitudes will change in the same way they developed - very slowly and with repeated statements and demonstrated truth. We need to find ways of “speaking the truth in love” to those who have differing beliefs about gender issues and use opportunities as they occur to encourage a better way to speak and act in company with women and men.

For myself, I know that I often don’t take issue with things which are said for two reasons. Either it seems as though I am defending myself or I don’t want to spoil the great fellowship we have with friends by pointing out something they’ve said which perpetuates the sterotypes. Perhaps we need to move away from personal hurt and see it as a slight on the very character of God and then we may feel more freedom to confront people who unwittingly make distinction between women and men followers of Jesus. However we do it, it will probably be a long process which will bear fruit later. One example is a recent opportunity I have had to “Australianise” a series of parenting books which have been written from a complementarian perspective. While doing this I was able to change words such as “man’s nature” to “human nature” and sometimes include the word “parents” instead of the continual reference to “mum (read mom)” as though mothers are always the primary care-givers. I won’t be around to see what difference this will make to the thousands who read this material, but hopefully it will permeate their thinking and have a lasting result. Some of us will have to be content with “picking out the stones” to prepare the ground for the good seed of biblical truth to take root.

If you have surfed the CBE website, you may have come across information about the upcoming symposium in Bangalore. The symposium will address gender issues in the church, specifically how men and women are equally dependent on one other in the home, workplace, and church. This event is co-sponsored by CBE, Pilgrim Partners, South Asia Institute of Advanced Christian Studies, and the Union of Evangelical Students of India, and will be held at the Ecumenical Christian Centre from February 15-18, 2007. It will feature speakers from seven different countries including Richard Howell, the General Secretary of the Evangelical Fellowship of India, and David and Robyn Claydon, long-time missionaries and former leaders of Lausanne.

It’s easy to look at a conference like this and think, “Wow! What a great thing. It’s great to see biblical equality being promoted in India.” However, this symposium is not exclusively about or for the church in Southeast Asia; it’s about the global church crossing cultural, geographical, and denominational divides in order to come together to discuss and dialogue about important issues related to gender and equality. It is so important for western Christians to attend this conference as it is a unique opportunity to support and learn from egalitarian Christians around the world. I encourage you to prayerfully consider if this is an opportunity to which you personally are being called. Please direct your questions to me, or visit the India symposium website. Space is limited, so register today.

-Julia
Conference Coordinator

A sermon posted online caught my attention this week, drawing me in with its catchy title and maintaining my interest with its honest, critical questions. Mark Stenberg, a Minneapolis-based pastor, raises the question (to God, in an email format), “Why couldn’t Jesus have been a girl?” While his narrative tone is meant to be a bit sarcastic, his nuanced questions reflect what I’ve heard many men and women inside and outside the church express; when the Church does not follow the life and gospel of Christ, it is not fully living out the commission of Christ (John 14:12), and gifted people start leaving:

See, God, I’ll tell you how it is down here. Women are leaving the church. Good women. Smart women. Strong women. And we don’t know what to do about it. We’ve got these really perceptive and critical-thinking women who are raising this very serious question. “Can a male savior save women?” Some have decided that Christianity is inherently and hopelessly patriarchal. One of their slogans is: “When God is male, the male is God.”. . . Of course, this is not what Jesus taught.

While I’ve never personally heard the slogan mentioned, it does highlight not only a linguistic, but an ontological problem with the way we depict God and thus, shape the structures of the Church. Some good dialogue has already occurred on this blog around the issue of God being male, and I point to Mimi Haddad’s article What Language Shall We Use? for a biblical and historical overview of language and images for God. But at the point when the argument of Jesus’ maleness gets bogged down in indiscernible, inapplicable ways, Stenberg reminds us:

[T]he point is that Jesus is God is with us. The point is to see this particularity, not as a curse, but as a blessing. . . I expect a blessing of our particularity, our diversity. But a judgment upon all the ways we de-humanize each other through our hierarchy of social roles. What’s more, I expect a blessing of our particularity, our diversity, a mending and a fulfillment of the creativity that God showed in starting this whole thing up.

This quarter’s issue of Mutuality addresses multiple issues raised here. First, Brynn Camery-Hoggatt, who recently won an Evangelical Press Association award for her critique (along with Nealson Munn) of John Eldredge’s wildly popular book, Wild at Heart, explains why Jesus came as a male. She examines the cultural significance of Jesus’ other traits—his Jewish heritage, humble beginnings, family profession—and agrees with Stenberg that Jesus’ already revolutionary incarnation provided an “in” to the culture that still allowed him to up-end such tables as the treatment of women, the sick, and the Gentiles.

Second, reviews of two recently released books about the life of Jesus—Christ the Lord by Anne Rice and Jesus by Walt Wangerin, Jr.—highlight the authors’ depictions of Jesus interacting with, and reinforcing the full value of, people of both genders and all classes and ethnicities. Jesus particularly features a powerful characterization of Mary, the mother of Jesus, as a “Deborah” within Jesus’ life. I highly recommend reading the full-color Spring 2006 issue of Mutuality.

The thrust of these observations is that the Church needs to recognize how it is unduly ostracizing those who want to follow Christ and see the necessity of including biblical gender equality in faithful discipleship. Let’s dedicate ourselves to really looking at the Jesus of Scripture, observing his actions and all the nuances of the Gospel accounts with great awe and wonder and worship, praying that we may gain new insight into the Good News he came to share and make real among all of us. How many more sisters and brothers will go “post-Christian” before we match step with Jesus on the issues that he thought were important?

In all, I am thankful for Stenberg’s reminder (via his email correspondent “Stubby”) that in whatever place along this gender debate continuum we stand, we should not “let your battle with your enemies remove yourself from the good news of God’s wreckless [sic] love, a love that sweeps away all of our idols.”

My wife and I spent a year of missionary service in the gorgeous southeast asian city of Singapore in 1990. While there, we ate dinner one night with a senior missions couple who have been widely used and are vocal egalitarians. They peppered me repeatedly with Bible questions and vitually ignored the presence of my wife at the table. The amusing thing in all of this is that she has an M.Div. from Gordon-Conwell, has contributed to more than one study Bible published by major publishing houses, and has taught the whole content of Scripture for thirty years. After another conversation with an outspoken egalitarian president of a leading seminary where the same phenomenon occurred, both of us looked to each other and asked ourselves why does this happen? The only answer we can come up with is that subconsciously, cultural prejudice leaves long lingering attitudes and behaviors, even among people who would declare themselves convinced egalitarians.

I’m wondering if many of you are uncomfortable in Bible book stores. It seems like an awful lot of them are highly gendered. Books aimed at women and girls (guess which ones); books aimed at men and boys (”Bible stories of strength and courage!”). Non-book items, more than half the inventory, like pseudo-Victorian home knick-knacks (decorative pastel figurines like Precious Moments), dried flower wreaths and teddy bears give a sweet, non-cognitive feeling to the place.

Julie Ingersoll makes similar observations in a chapter of Evangelical Christian Women; War Stories in the Gender Battles called, “The Power of Subtle Arrangements and Little Things,” where she says, “But what is most interesting is that the distinct demarcation between genders is carried through from the toys to the items intended for adults. While there is an element of genderedness to gifts and books in the large culture, it is not nearly so prominent as it is in the Christian bookstores.” Christian writers wanting to break through the stereotypes, as we’ve seen in a recent post, have their work cut out for them. A look in most any Bible book store will be most sobering.