The CBE Scroll

Mutuality publishes feature articles for evangelical lay readers on topics related to biblical equality and justice. The theme for our Spring 2007 issue is “Advocacy versus Apathy.”

In this issue we would like to remind Christians about why it’s important to take a stand on issues even when doing so may not serve our own best interest.

We would like to explore biblical responses to questions like the following:
* Why should men take a stand for gender equality?
* Why should white people take a stand for ethnic equality?
* Why should healthy and wealthy people take a stand for ending hunger and poverty?

Related issues include:
* Using discernment about when and how to take a stand on an issue
* Personal, biblical, or historical examples of taking a stand
* Why gender-based hierarchy is a justice issue
* How to speak and act with conviction; responding to critics
* What about leaders, churches, and schools that refuse to address “divisive” issues?
* Why and how some voices are silenced and what we can do about it

The deadline for this issue is coming up soon on Feb. 26. Please contact Chelsea DeArmond (cdearmond@cbeinternational.org) if you’re interested in writing for this issue so we can discuss the details further.

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E-Quality, CBE’s online journal, publishes encouraging and practical information on biblical equality. The theme for our Spring 2007 issue is “Working for Gender Justice.”

In this issue, we would like to show how vitally important gender issues need to be for Christians who are committed to justice.

We are looking for responses to any of the following topic ideas (other suggestions are also welcome):
* The connection between race and gender, especially the connection between the abolition of slavery and the egalitarian movement
* Specific issues related to global gender inequality and what we can do about it
* Historical examples of Christian men and women working for justice for women
* Personal testimonies about gender justice
* The biblical basis for working for justice and caring about the cause of women
* Practical tips for advancing biblical equality in your church, youth group, or in your neighborhood

The deadline for this issue is coming up soon on Feb. 15. Please contact Megan Greulich (mgreulich@cbeinternational.org) if you’re interested in writing for this issue so we can discuss the details further.

There is a very disturbing thing going on to encourage abstinence among Christian teenagers and children. It started with Purity Balls’ “a memorable ceremony for daughters to pledge commitments to purity and their fathers to pledge commitments to protect their girls.” I could not find the pledge the daughters make on their website, but here is the pledge the fathers make:

I, [daughter's name]‘s father, choose before God to cover my daughter as her authority and protection in the area of purity. I will be pure in my own life as a man, husband and father. I will be a man of integrity and accountability as I lead, guide and pray over my daughter and as the high priest in my home. This covering will be used by God to influence generations to come.

This year the same organization put on an Integrity Ball for mothers and sons. There was no mention of the mothers making a pledge to their sons, but here is the pledge the sons take:

I, _________________________, choose before God to remain pure in my lifestyle, as I grow toward the goal of manhood, and until such a time that I marry.

I will be a young man of integrity and accountability as I strive to be an example to those around me. I will be bold and courageous, no matter what.

Today, I choose to seek after the high calling of God in every area of my life.

During the Purity Balls girls and teenagers are told to keep themselves pure for their future husbands, and as seen in the pledge, fathers pledge to “cover” their daughters and protect their virginity. During the Integrity Balls boys are told that the every girl they will date is someone else’s daughter and potentially someone else’s future husband. Would these young men want another man messing around with their future wife? Boys pledge to take charge of their lives and body; fathers pledge that they will protect their daughter’s virginity. Exactly how does Generations of Light (the organization behind the balls) view women?

Generations of Light view women as objects to be managed by men: first by fathers then by husbands. Instead children and teenagers should be taught that they are created in the image of God, and for that reason alone they need to respect each other. Boys should have been told that every girl they date is made in the image of God, and he needs to respect her and treat her accordingly, and girls need to hear the same thing. Christian teenagers also need to realize that first and foremost they are brothers and sisters in Christ. They might date, and they might break up. They will eventually get married, but through all those transient relationships, they are still brothers and sisters in Christ.

Another thing that needs to be addressed is that girls and women have sexual drives and needs as well as boys and men. This assumption that men are aggressively sexual and women are to be passive resistors of temptation is a horrible patriarchal myth that needs to end. Both men and women have sex drives, and both men and women have access to the fruit of self-control that the Spirit gives us. We should be teaching our teenagers how to cultivate self-control and set boundaries that will help them keep these pledges they make. It goes without saying that girls should be making their own pledges to take control of their lives and bodies as do the boys.

When men and women view each other as made in the image of God, and as brothers and sisters in Christ, we can respect each other and cultivate the self-control that is necessary to resist sexual (and all other) temptations. When a woman is a person in her own right and a man respects that, then they can set biblical guidelines and boundaries to their relationships.

Kudos are in order for Inductive Bible Study leaders at Urbana 2006 last week. I was hard pressed to find any heirarchical authoritarians in the whole bunch. In a feedback time after the conference, the leadership found that there was very little complementarian argument over the selected study of Ephesians chapter 5. Praise God for that. As well, they used the TNIV as the text of study–another PTL!!