The Complementarians hold that men and women are equally made in God's image and have equal value, but that men and women were made to complement (not compliment) each other, so they have distinct and differing roles. The Egalitarians argue that there is no male or female in the Body of Christ. They hold that men and women are equally made in God's image and have equal value and that there are no gender-based limitations on functions or roles in the home, the church or society. To be clear, both sides point to Scripture.
The complementarian position has been the traditional position in the church for ... well, always has been until fairly recently. The first organization to call for Christian egalitarianism was established in the U.K. in 1984 and in the U.S. in 1987. Before that almost all groups held complementarian positions until the 19th century or so when some started moving toward female pastors (the Quakers). In 1853 a woman was ordained in the Congregationalist Church but was rejected. In 1863 a woman was ordained in the Universalist denomination. They eventually joined the Unitarian Universalist Association (1961) and became the first large denomination with more female ministers than male ministers. Essentially, then, prior to the 19th century, the Church was nearly exclusively complementarian.
Biblically, it's difficult to maintain an egalitarian position. It comes biblically from a few vague references to people like Deborah, the prophetess and judge (Judges 4:4), Phoebe (Rom 16:1-2), Junia (Rom 16:7), etc., and a thorough stand on Gal 3:28.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.It is required after that to disregard abundantly clear passages like Gen 2:18, 1 Cor 11:3, 1 Tim 2:12-14, Eph 5:22-33, 1 Tim 3:2, 1 Pet 3:1-7, etc. Clearly, then, I stand with the complementarian side. It is textually, contextually, and historically the only possible position.
That being said, it would be foolish, even dangerous to ignore the complementarian problem. In recent times there have been no small numbers of issues for men springing from the #MeToo movement even in the church. There are men on the complementarian side, so it stands to reason that some of them, too are caught up in these issues. The problem is that complementarianism lends itself to abuse of women. A misguided, sinful understanding of complementarianism puts men at the helm of a slave ship, so to speak. While the commands for believing husbands are to love (Eph 5:25), to sacrifice self for (Eph 5:25), and to be understanding and to show honor toward (1 Peter 3:7) wives, some men see the position as permission to offer abuse. Abuse of all kinds -- sexual, verbal, physical, emotional, or spiritual. Abuse to all women, wives or not. Now, given the commands, this makes no sense, but taken "in the air" without biblical moorings, this is exactly what you would expect to happen.
That is the complementarian problem -- the abuse of the complementarian position. The position includes "made in God's image" and "have equal value". The position is not a matter of superiority of one gender or another. The position requires accountability to God (1 Cor 11:3). So when so-called Complementarians abuse the complementarian position and abuse those they are supposed to love and honor, it is not complementarianism. But because they bear the name, complementarianism and complementarians get the blame.
As it turns out, the complementarian problem is the same as the biblical Christianity problem. It is completely possible (has happened over and over again) that someone will use complementarian principles as a guise to violate complementarian principles and abuse people. It is completely possible (has happened over and over again) that someone will use biblical principles as a guise to violate biblical principles and abuse people. The point here is that the principles are not the problem; the abuse of them is. The fix is not to discard the principles; the fix is to observe and report and correct the abuse.
1 comment:
This is the same with every ideology ever. There are always people wanting to do what they want while maintaining that they're doing it in accordance with whatever. The fault isn't the idea, but sinful people.
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