“I’m forced to think a lot of the pearl-clutching is due to the fact that MacArthur’s brand of complementarianism is simply out of step with culture. Maybe MacArthur’s right here: maybe we’ve swallowed so much feminism that an uncontroversial stance of 10 years ago is shocking today. That’s the leftward march of progressivism, moving the window of what’s acceptable in polite discourse forward at warp speed.”
This quote from Kyle Mann’s opinion piece https://www.disrn.com/…/opinion-the-go-home-heard-round-t…/…
Maybe the “pearl-clutching” (a veiled and not-funny-at-all slap at women who take exception to McArthur’s comment and the laughter that ensued from this gathering of male pastors) is due to the fact that complementarianism itself is simply out of step altogether with biblical truth. Raised in the feminist furor of the late 50’s-70’s in a SBC tradition, I did not embrace feminism lock, stock, and barrel. I tried on some of its frills for a while but as my identity in Christ matured, along with my Methodist-wed roles as a wife, mother, and grandmother to boys and girls, I saw the wonderful ways in which Christ empowered and invited women into ministry. I’m still not a feminist. In fact, I am less so now than ever. I enjoy the unique aspects of male and female creation ….. (and the dynamic range of what is defined as “masculinity” and “femininity” that is observed within each gender is broad and fluid.) Although I do not support transgenderism, I do believe that masculine and feminine traits and roles have been too narrowly and rigidly proscribed by culture so that women and men were disadvantaged for centuries. The last 80+ years have helped break the back of the lie that women are inferior to men. Complementarianism, as defined by most men, is going the way of the dodo bird. It is a view that is not consistent with the letter or the spirit of the Word of God.
What finally buried complementarianism for me was a Baptist layman teaching a Christian worldview class to women in a recovery program (most of whom had been abused by people with power over them…..by parents as children, by men as adults). When he said, “Men were created to exercise control over the earth. The problem is that women want that control,” I walked out No matter how it is taught, that is how the majority of people interpret it. Squash it. Kick it to the curb. And the cave dwellers who still promote it.