August 11, 2007

• Men need women; women need men

  Friday, August 10, 2007

  Tonight's plenary session at the Christians for Biblical Equality conference in Denver, Colorado, was led by Roger Olson.  Dr. Olson is a professor of theology at a seminary in Waco, Texas. 

  I've polished my choppy notes from tonight - filling in the blanks and adding, with relish, some of  my own commentary!  Here it is below.
  
  "Beyond Equality to Interdependence:  Women and Men in Community" by Roger Olson, Ph.D.

  There are two major camps over gender roles & equality:
  Complementarians who say that men and women are equal but
  are to have different roles.  However,
  this wording feels like a semantics subterfuge, because, according to them, women are to
  be subordinate.
  Egalitarians who believe that men & women are equal in
  home, church and society.  They believe
  in Biblical equality.

  The Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (proponents
  of complementarian thought) also claim equality – and yet, they still call for
  submission.  This is their weakness.  In their quest for
  equality, egalitarians often end up minimizing role distinction.  This is their weakness.

  We need to move beyond the debate of equality and roles, and
  instead, focus on interdependence.  We
  need to understand our need for each other – so that we can respect and honor
  each other and each other’s rights.   Equality is a matter of justice.  Interdependence is a matter of virtue.  As Christians, we want to seek virtue.

  Sibling solidarity is one way of seeking interdependence.  Thinking of each other as brothers and
  sisters rather than mothers, fathers… helps to have a society that is more
  equal, not patriarchal or hierarchal.  This
  would be a culture where the strong uses their strength to empower the weak,
  rather than just for themselves. 

  If you focus on interdependence, then equality won’t be far
  behind.  Recognizing your relationship to
  each other as brothers and sisters will lead to equality.  We need each other.  No superiority with that understanding.

  Adam was not good alone.  In the creation account, we can see God’s
  design for interdependence. This interdependence calls for mutual
  submission.  Neither man nor woman is
  fully the image of God without each other. 
  Being in God’s image requires relating (engaging and working) with the
  opposite sex.

  If the women have the truth, men should bow and submit to
  that.  Just as if men have the truth,
  women should bow and submit to that.  Truth
  is authority, not office or role.  Women
  have ways of knowing truth that will add to male ways of knowing truth and vice
  versa. 

  It’s not about women being superior to men.  It’s not about men being superior to women.

  If men have all the power and authority (as the
  complementarians suggest), how could that mean equality?  What if we said that blacks and whites are
  equal but only whites should have authority, blacks should not, and blacks
  should submit to the white authority?  How
  quickly we would all stand up in protest and exclaim, “No!  That’s not equality!”  Sadly, this incongruity is not as clear when
  it comes to men’s and women’s roles.  In
  complementarian thinking, men have the authority, and women must submit.  The truth is, even the best intentioned husband
  will never treat his wife with the same kind of respect or see her as having
  the same kind of dignity as long as she is supposed to submit to him but he
  does not need to submit to her. 

  Such protest gets the label of “liberal” feminism.  However, feminism suggests that masculinity
  is corrupted and women are superior – but this is not biblical equality.  This is not what we are talking about.  We are talking about full equality for men
  and women because both are made in the image of God.  The two don’t have to be in competition to each
  other.  Men need women, women need
  men.  Does that make me liberal?  It shouldn’t.

  If men can only hold leadership roles, there is a lack of
  interdependence. 

  There’s a need to recognize the unique
  giftedness of women and men… not one over the other.  Deep down, men fear feeling obsolete and being redundant.  In a church full of women who lead, there
  also needs to be encouragement of the men in their unique giftedness. 

  Men and women are
  different and that somehow needs to be incorporated in egalitarian thinking
  about equality. 

  If all the leadership is too similar to one another, it is
  the result of hidden bias rather than the Holy Spirit’s leading, i.e. if the
  deacon board is full of educated, wealthy, older white males, then we need to
  pray to seek the Lord for His heart.  

  • 3:08 am
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