The CBE Scroll

According to a well-known Christian author, the feminization of schools is to blame for the decreasing grades and academic skill levels of boys over the past few decades. The implication is that a feminizing of schools has redesigned them to teach girls more effectively than boys. Jim Trelease, who advocates for improving children’s literacy, has reached a different conclusion in his book The Read-Aloud Handbook.^[1]

“I propose there’s been one significant change in the value system of the male culture. What entered the system between 1970 and 2000? Try ESPN and round-the-clock sports.” (pg. xxii)

“The boy who only sees his father focusing on athletics, who lives in a home or culture where it’s all sports all the time, will allot far less value and time to school than to athletics. The end result has been higher sports scores, lower school scores.” (pg. xxiii)

Taking Trelease’s proposal another step further, I believe that it is the polarizing of what is considered masculine behavior versus feminine behavior that may have branded reading as a feminine activity. Boys seem to be receiving the message that “reading is for girls.” And if boys have been taught not to “run like a girl,” “throw like a girl,” or “cry like a girl,” why would they want to read like a girl? Using the phrase “like a girl” as an insult teaches boys to make negative associations with anything relating to females. The flinging of these types of phrases may well be boomeranging back to hurt males in unintended ways.

Any activity that becomes viewed as girlish, or unmanly, stigmatizes it for many boys. So instead of a feminizing of our schools hurting boys academically, I submit that creating negative associations for boys with anything perceived as being feminine may be a large part of the problem. In recent decades, a shift has occurred in American schools. For a long time, prescribed gender roles hurt many girls academically. Now societal gender confinements may be limiting the academic success of boys who try to fit inside these boundaries.

While this is a complex issue with many factors contributing to these trends, I believe that eliminating gender stereotypes and expectations can help to even out the academic achievement of both sexes. When girls were told that boys naturally did better in math than girls, this often became a self-fulfilling prophecy. Why try hard when it isn’t in your genes? Parents and teachers who reinforced these messages often helped to increase this cause and effect relationship. Several times I have heard the message that boys’ brains are wired better for math while girls’ brains are wired better for reading taught at church as well as in Christian books. According to a 2008 study, the gender gap has closed for math scores on standardized tests in the United States.^[2] Apparently there never was an innate difference in math aptitude between the sexes. So perhaps another detrimental effect of gender stereotyping may be that boys are receiving the message that girls are intrinsically better in verbal skills than boys. If boys are hearing these messages from parents, teachers, and pastors, they might be acting upon these beliefs.

As Christians we should be promoting the intrinsic worth and value of all people. We have all been created in God’s image.

“So God created human beings in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27 TNIV)

“Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.”  (Romans 12:10 TNIV)

Both genders can reap rewards if we will teach and practice equal levels of honor and respect for males and females and by eliminating negative stereotyping.

1. Trelease, Jim. The Read-Aloud Handbook. New York: Penguin Books, 2001. [↩]
2. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/education/25math.html?_r=2 [↩]

When most of us egalitarians have a friend with questions about women in ministry, we offer them one of a few classic books.  We give them Gilbert Bilizekian’s Beyond Sex Roles or one of the multi-views books published by InterVarsity Press or Zondervan or perhaps (if we’re really creative!) refer them to an article on the CBE website.  We now, however, have at least one entirely different option: Scot McKnight’s new book The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible.

The remarkable thing about Scot’s book is that it’s not really about women in ministry or anything else relating to gender–it is, as the title, suggests, about how to read the Bible.  The first section of the book is about reading the Bible as a larger narrative (similar to how N. T. Wright suggests we read it in books of his like The Last Word), the middle sections are about ways to interpret the Bible, and the final section applies these principles to the issue of women in ministry.  The genius of the book is twofold:

(1) Those that have no interest in gender issues may end up thinking about them because they wanted to read this book about interpreting Scripture.

(2) Those that are interested in gender issues can read this book and focus a lot less on the back-and-forth between egalitarians and complementarians (which has its place) to, instead, consider this much broader and–in many ways–more important issue of how to read the Bible.  Once their way of reading the Bible is different, it’s unlikely they can return to their same old views of gender nearly as easily.

Admittedly, there were aspects of the book I wasn’t completely enthused by, and you may wish to read a more complete review of the book on Amazon or Christianity Today before giving it to a friend.  However, solely considering its merit as a resource with the potential to improve the status of women in Western evangelical churches, I am quite impressed.

What I most admire about the book is its ability to see the big picture.  While many of us are so passionate about gender issues that we could spend all day discussing the related Bible passages, Scot realizes the interpretation of these passages is not his top priority.  Seeing the many academics that debate women’s roles, I think we often forget the place most lay people are in: it’s not just that they don’t know the Greek and Hebrew to solve this gender mystery themselves.  Rather, if we are to ever move forward on this, or many other issues in the church, we’re going to have to study–and dialog about–how to read the Bible to begin with.   After all, few of our churches really teach us to handle this seemingly basic task.

Scot’s book may not please everyone in the sophistication of his argument for women’s equality, nor the depth of its coverage of this larger question about Scripture, but I think we could learn a lot from his humble willingness to let the specific issues of women in ministry take a backseat while we work tirelessly to improve general interpretive skills.  Each emphasis has its place in our writing and teaching, of course, but The Blue Parakeet fills a gap few seem to have noticed.  While it’s crucial to continue our study of the specific issue of women in ministry, let’s not forget the foundational questions we must help people answer in order for them to mature in their faith.  We may be surprised just how well more specific issues like gender equality can be connected to these larger questions and how much more open people are to new ideas when approached from that broader and potentially less threatening angle.

Kudos to the people at The Jesus Film Project for their latest release, Magdalena: Released from Shame. I have not yet seen the film, but according to a Christianity Today reviewer, Magdalena “combines footage from the original Jesus film with new material emphasizing Christ’s compassion for women.” Apparently the purpose of the new film is to deliver the essential message of the original film specifically to women, as well as to non-Western cultures in which “honor and shame are more powerful paradigms than guilt and innocence.”

The Jesus Film Project website describes the film this way:

One woman caught in the scandalous act of adultery; another, rejected and ignored because of her promiscuous lifestyle; another, shunned for 12 years because of a shameful condition; a widow, cast out from society, mourning the loss of her only son. An ugly thread of shame, sorrow and hopelessness painfully weaves its way through the lives of each of these women.

After following Jesus for three years, Mary Magdalene observed all these things and more. She also witnessed changed lives, miracles, and the results of restored hope. Watching with amazement, Mary learned from Jesus a new way to look at people. He also radically transformed her life by healing her from demon possession—releasing her from shame.

The film’s action is narrated by the Mary Magdalene character, played by Rebecca Ritz (of Minority Report), presenting Jesus’ life through the eyes of one of his female disciples. According to Christianity Today, “After a recent showing in Israel, one viewer emotionally expressed her appreciation for the way Jesus ‘dealt with women in respect’ and ‘released them from fear.’ In every culture, in every language, that’s a story women need to hear.” Amen!

Sneak previews are available on the film’s gorgeous interactive website, www.magdalenamovie.com, and DVDs can be purchased at The Jesus Film Store.

Barb from Langley, BC, who has been conducting research among Christians who have recovered from experiences of emotional and spiritual distress under authoritarian and controlling church leaders has made one last call for those who still might like to participate in her survey.

The original post, with contact information, may be found here.

The results of her survey will provide her with a critical piece of research and will help her on her way to the completion of her dissertation, and so if you can help in any way, please do!

CBE was recently contacted by Paula Fether, who has working to assemble a wiki-type document, here, attempting to provide a concise summary of egalitarianism.

She is looking for people to help contribute to and edit/critique the summary. If you would be interested in helping with this, please get in contact with her by using the contact form on her blog, www.fether.net.