Cheryl Schatz

Don,

I love your point form.  It very much appeals to the logical way I think.

I agree with you that Stinson’s article was a heartfelt (and revealing) expression of how CBMW and Stinson feel about egalitarians.

I also think that the issues that Stinson brought up (the authority of Scripture, the health of the home, the health of the church, our worship, Bible translations, and the advance of the gospel) are important issues.  But are hierarchists crippled by their view in these areas?  I don’t think that this is necessarily so.  As long as they don’t use their views to reject, belittle and condemn other believers, I personally think that a complementarian can love Jesus with all their heart and advance the gospel.  Where they may run into problems is when they are confronted with what unbelievers see as a prejudice against women.  If they are upfront by saying that the church must be prejudice against women bible teachers and women leaders because they believe the bible mandates this, they will see many unbelievers reject Jesus because of their stand.  This is not a good thing.  However I have seen that most comps will deny that women are held back in any way and unbelievers can see right through this inconsistency.  In this way their evangelism will be hurt if they focus on the gender “role” prohibitions because educated men and women today see this as prejudice in its truest form.

Are complementarians crippled by their view of marriage and male leadership?  Many marriages are just fine and complementarian husbands who really love and respect their wives, while they agree in principle with the comp position that the husband makes the final decision, personally they do not follow through with overriding their wife’s will and they work hard on coming to mutual decisions instead of holding the trump card over their wife.

Are complementarians crippled in their advance of the gospel?  I do not think this has to be the case at all.  Since gender issues are not part of the gospel, there should be no reason why a complementarian cannot evangelize and win the lost for Christ in an effective and winsome way.  However they will certainly run into problems with discipleship if they push the complementarian way as the only Christian way.

Are complementarians crippled in their view of the church?  I believe that many complementarians who are loving and kind to the body of Christ have found ways to acknowledge and use the gifts of women for the benefit of men.  Some have no problem in allowing women to teach as long as women do not go behind the physical pulpit.  Women have been allowed to teach by some who consider themselves complementarians if these women stand behind a music stand on the main floor.  Many women will humble themselves to use a music stand as long as they are allowed to use their God-given gifts for the benefit of the body of Christ.  Many complementarians have learned how to set aside man-made traditions (the pulpit is not found in scripture) and encourage both men and women to learn from each other.  These kinds of churches and these kinds of pastors who do not separate themselves from egalitarians are ones who CBMW is especially afraid of.

It is the hard-core complementarian (hierarchist) who puts down Jesus in the Trinity, adds the complementarian view to the gospel and questions the salvation of other believers because of secondary issues of faith that must be strongly resisted in these areas.  These are the complementarians who are the most vocal and who seek to divide the church by forcing egalitarians to either repent of the “sin” of the egalitarian view or be considered as an enemy of the church.

3. However, and this is important, people have a right to their own conclusions, this is soul liberty.  We can discuss, explain our reasons to each other, and part ways.  I am thankful for religious liberty in the West and hope the rest of the world will have it.  I would not want to try to force my egal conclusions on anyone, rather, I would invite them to accept them.

Don, I agree with you here.  We are to be gracious and kind and speak the truth with love but we are not to force others to come to our conclusions through threats, coercion or other un-Christlike ways.  We are also not to divide over this issue but are to treat our brothers and sisters in Christ with a deep respect and love as they too belong to Christ.  If we must separate because they will not allow us to use our gifts without our being forced to be prejudiced against men, then we go in peace and pray for their eyes to be opened.