Kristen

Barbara, I appreciate your words very much! I do think it’s important to read the Scriptures is just like you have described– it is a Great Story of oneness, divided and then brought back together (creation-fall-redemption), which repeats itself in various ways through substories throughout the whole Great Story.
By understanding this overarching theme, we can more easily weed out what is incorrect teaching– because it results in a continuation of division rather than contributing to restoration of oneness.
“Complementarianism” continues the division because it continues the results of the Fall– that the man would rule over the woman, thus destroying oneness. The New Creation that Jesus brought is one in which “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is not male or female, for you are all ONE in Christ.”