Radiance

The greatest weakness of the CBMW apology demand is that no men were signatories. Perhaps I am prejudging, but I believe on that fact alone, prominent complementarian Evangelical leaders will dismiss the document as a mere “feminist rant.”

Which leads me to my next thought, which is a continuation of my previous post:

The complementarian camp’s idolatry of their Titus 2 interpretation leads to this implied assumption that because women are primarily called to be “keepers at home” they’ll have no other insight to offer the church except “homekeeping” advice – for other women of course.

Okay let’s say for a second then, all women are truly called to be full time “keepers at home” in the way the complementarians understand it.

What about the “keepers at home” who spend hours and hours of their day (at home) reflecting on Scripture, studying theology, reading about current events, and examining the state of the church? Why aren’t these women allowed to have a public voice on these matters? Why can’t a homemaking “wife and mother” be allowed to represent her denomination and the greater church in debate with a prominent atheist in a public forum? Why does there have to be an emergency meeting of the Sanhedrin to discuss whether a such a woman can lecture seminary students about the lives of early female martyrs?

I read a quote the other which said, “Dissatisfaction with the status quo is not a vision.” I believe that rather than attempting to engage in back and forth debate with the staunchest of the patriarchalists, dissatisfied believers must take action:

*If seminaries and theology schools discriminate against women, women must found and start their own.
*If patriarchal churches are on the rise, egalitarian men and women must plant their own, do the most evangelism and reach out to the lost by giving them a new sense of what “church” looks like in practice.
* If women are dissatisfied with their frilly, dumbed-down Bible studies, they must start their own.
* Parents must raise their children to value Biblical equality and warn them of the dangers that befall the church and society whenever equality is not cherished, fought for, and preserved.

All this must be done without the need or expectation of validation or affirmation from the leaders we disagree with–validation, affirmation, agreement, and RESPECT which may never come.