Biblical Womanhood

When Men argue the Men Should be in Charge

A note in advance of today’s consideration;
As of this writing Canada has won 9 metals thus far at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. All 9 have been won by women. Noteworthy, at least.

I was given, perhaps not unfairly, the label of shit disturber from my first days working in the church. My first church job was to work with youth and college aged students and I was hired for this job by an evangelical, conservative church that had clear views on how men could be leaders in the church, but women could not. There were no women on the board and women were not allowed to preach. In some cases, women were not allowed to speak in church or at the “Breaking of Bread” service. Progress then meant that a woman was allowed to stand and suggest a hymn to be sung, but that was it for quite awhile.

I did not share this view and in my job working with young people, I saw that some of the people who had strengths and gifts and talents in areas of leadership, teaching and preaching happened to be female. I told the board that I would not direct anyone away from certain tasks and roles simply because of gender.

On one occasion, I presented to the board that a woman, who they clearly saw as gifted, should be invited to be a guest speaker (preacher). This caused a stir. The members of the board seemed to want to appear to be open and, as they knew the person, they did not want to be seen to be limiting her opportunities. There were meetings, discussions, “concerns” expressed, and talk about “what the Bible says”. In the end, the woman was invited to preach, but only at an evening service.

Years later, after I had left that church and then been invited back to be the Senior Pastor, the board (now different men, but still all men) asked if I had any concerns stepping into the job. I told them that I did not agree that only men should be on the board, but that I would start making noise about this when clearly less qualified men were being considered over more qualified women. When that happened, I brought the matter up and, to their credit, the board members did a great deal of work, theological and otherwise, in considering the issue. They came to the conclusion that it was not biblical for women to be excluded from leadership. They determined to add women to the board. As far as I could tell, only two people left the church over this decision. I loved that couple. They were gracious and kind and had a real and honest faith. They could not come to grips with the idea that the Bible taught anything other than female submission to male leadership. I remember praying that I would run into John (the man who left) outside of church so that we could have an impromptu conversation that would not be as loaded as conversation at the church might be. The day after that prayer I ran into John when he was hiking on a forest trail and I was out for a bike ride (I have never seen him on that trail before or since). We talked about our shared faith. We talked about how we had a high regard for one another. I told him that he did not have to leave the church just because he disagreed on this issue. After all, I had remained at the church for years even though I did not agree with the previous stance. It was a great conversation, but John still left the church. He wound up attending a church that soon after moved to inclusive leadership.

This week’s New Yorker Magazine has a great article that discusses a book by Beth Allison Barr (a professor at Baylor University) called, “The Making of Biblical Womanhood”. Barr is, herself, an evangelical Christian, but argues that much of the hierarchical view of male and female roles in the evangelical church comes not from the Bible, but from culture and politics. The book is popular in many evangelical churches. The article starts out with Barr visiting the Chip and Joanna Gaines “mall” that has become wildly popular with evangelicals.

Here is a quote from the article;

“‘This narrative that men carry the authority of God is frightening, and it is not Christian,’ Barr told me. As other historians have pointed out, the idea that women should be subordinate to men has deep roots in the Christian tradition. But Barr’s book argues that the modern version of complementarianism was invented in the twentieth century, in response to an increasingly effective feminism movement to reinforce cultural gender divisions. ‘Women think all of this in in the Bible because they learn it in their churches.’”

As a Christian, a pastor, and someone who has an interest in interpretation and theology, I have always found it curious when people interpret sacred texts in ways that promote themselves as the proper holders of power and authority. This should be a red flag. John Piper and Wayne Grudem in the late 1980’s started an organization called “The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood” that existed to argue that men are rightful leaders, women have other roles, thus men and women “complement” each other. I suppose that some people listened to Piper and Grudem as authorities. I took the view (and still do) that when people interpret the Bible in a way that adds to their power and cultural role the first thing we should feel about such interpretation is suspicion.

Think about that for a moment. Men start organizations and interpret the Bible to argue that men should be in charge. I see two key problems with this approach.

1. It demonstrates weakness, not strength. If you trust in your own ability to lead then do you really need to teach and holler and demand that others accept this as well?

2. It turns out that arguing for your own power is unlike Jesus more than it is like Jesus.

An interpretive key for me that I think might be of help to others;
When I saw someone teaching the Bible in such a way that said to listeners, “The Bible lays out clear rules for who is to be in charge, and it turns out that God says that I am to be in charge.” I would think to myself, I think that this person is likely full of shit. I might not know how yet, but what they did there is a giveaway.

The idea of headship as men being in charge and women submitting to male leadership seemed to be unbiblical to me.

Years ago, when the board at the church I worked at was reticent to “allow” women to preach or lead, I asked them about what “headship” meant to Jesus. He is the head of the church, but he gave himself for the church, he did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, (that’s a Bible quote), he humbled himself.

Christian faith ought to demonstrate a better way in the world than arguing for our own power over others.