Frank

There is so much in this declaration by the Freedom for Christian Women that is so true and right on, I could not help but be moved by it. Though I do agree with Radiance that it would have been good if FCW had gotten other groups, with significant male membership, to join them, confirming this to be, not a “feminist ranting,” but a clear prophetic call to erring Christians to return to a truer and deeper knowledge of the Gospel Faith they profess to affirm and guard. And perhaps such a coming together of like-minded Christians, we can pray for, hope for and encourage?

And when I refer to a prophetic call to confront erring Christians who are blind to their departure from Christ and his Word, calling them back to a truer and deeper knowledge and practice of the Gospel Faith, I have in mind what Timothy Keller wrote in THE REASON FOR GOD regarding Martin Luther King Jr and the Civil rights movement:

David L. Chappell demonstrates that it was not a political but primarily religious and spiritual movment. White Northern liberals who were allies of the African-American civil rights leaders were not proponents of civil disobedience or of a direct attack on segregation. Because of their secular belief in the goodness of human nature, they thought that education and enlightenment would bring inevitable social and racial progress. Chappell argues that black leaders were much more rooted in the Biblical understanding of the sinfulness of the human heart and in the denunciation of injustice that they read in the Hebrew prophets. Chappell also shows how it was the vibrant faith of rank-and-file African-Americans that empowered them to insist on justice despite violent opposition to their demands. Thus Chappell says there is no way to understand what happened until you see the Civil Rghts movement as a religious revival. When Martin Luther King, Jr. confronted racism in the white church in the South, he did not call on Southern churches to become more secular. Read his sermons and “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and see how he argued. He invoked God’s moral law and Scripture. He called white Christians to be more true to their own beliefs and to realize what the Bible teaches. He did not say, “Truth is relative and everyone is free to determine what is right or wrong for them.” If truth is relative, there would have been no incentive for white people in the South to give up their power. Rather, Dr. King invoked the Prophet Amos, who said, “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream” (Amos 5:24). The greatest champion of justice in our era knew the antidote to racism was not less Christianity, but a deeper and truer Christianity (pp.64-65).

In our struggle to win our erring brothers and sisters back to what the New Testament really teaches about the true unity and equality of men and women in Christ; of our mutual support and partnership in Christian ministry, based on the gifting and calling of the Spirit; of our having equal Kingdom privileges and responsibilities to rule and reign with Christ because we are all citizens of heaven and God’s royal heirs, as Paul teaches in Galatians, Romans and Ephesians; we must do so in the power Spirit, using rigorous, tough-minded argumentation that exposes the false and shallow foundation on which their view rests, while at the same time showing them love and compassion and expressing a true desire for reconciliation. And here again, Dr. King and his followers give us a Biblical model to follow.