[Note: "Debatable" is a new feature in which we briefly summarize debates within the evangelical community.]
The Issue:
Is complementarianism another word for patriarchy? Egalitarians and
many complementarians agree: It is indeed. But a recent debate attempts
to determine whether this should be acknowledged as a timeless biblical
norm or rejected as an outdated cultural standard.
Position #1: Russell Moore, dean of the School of
Theology and senior vice president for academic administration at
Southern Baptist Seminary, recently said at the Together for the Gospel
conference that complementarians should practice what they preach:
What I fear is that we have many people in evangelicalism who can check off "complementarian" on a box but who really aren't living out complementarian lives. Sometimes I fear we have marriages that are functionally egalitarian, because they are within the structure of the larger society. If all we are doing is saying "male headship" and "wives submit to your husbands," but we're not really defining what that looks like . . . in this kind of culture, when those things are being challenged, then it's simply going to go away.
Position #2: Rachel Held Evans, an author and blogger, agrees but says complementarianism is losing because it is "nothing more, nothing less" than patriarchy:
1. They are losing ground because more and more
evangelical theologians, scholars, professors, and pastors are
thoughtfully debunking a complementarian interpretation of Scripture and
doing it at the popular level through books like The Blue Parakeet (by Scot McKnight), Discovering Biblical Equality (by Ronald Pierce, Rebecca Merrill Groothuis, Gordon Fee), How I Changed My Mind About Women in Church Leadership
(by a who's who of evangelical leaders), through evangelical colleges
and seminaries that celebrate women's giftedness to lead and are
producing record numbers of female graduates, and through organizations
like Christians for Biblical Equality. Continue at Joe Carter
