For new readers, I'm an egalitarian when it comes to gender roles in the church. And for most of the years I've been writing when I have defended egalitarianism, the content has generally been theological and hermeneutical.
As a quick summary, I don't argue for egalitarianism as most progressives do. I have strong points of disagreement with both progressives and evangelicals. For example, unlike most progressives, I don't think patriarchal gender relations in the church is "a justice issue." I think the issue is Christological, and concerns our twisted view of power, having a particular group of people "in charge." To be sure, that view of power creates oppression and injustice, but that's a symptom of the deeper disease. As I shared with my church over and over as we worked toward an egalitarian position for our community, "If you get Jesus right, you get gender right." Justice flows out of Christology, not the other way around.
But beyond this Christological argument regarding the cruciform nature of power, another point I've made about patriarchal gender relations in churches has been more pragmatic. Simply, patriarchy isn't safe.
To be clear, when I say patriarchy isn't safe I'm not making a comment about men or gender. What's unsafe are asymmetrical power relations, of any sort. I'm a psychologist, so the Milgram Obedience Study and Stanford Prison Experiment loom large in my consciousness. Whenever I see a power imbalance my mind quickly goes, "Uh oh."
Why are power imbalances so toxic? Human sin. It's that simple. Human sin and power just don't mix well. Wicked outcomes are inevitable. I-N-E-V-I-T-A-B-L-E.
And that brings me to my observation about the hypocrisy of the Southern Baptist Convention. Southern Baptists have a pretty robust view of human sinfulness. The SBC knows the assessment of Jeremiah: the hearts of men are "deceitful above all things and desperately wicked." So why did the SBC believe women would be safe under the power men? Given what the SBC believes about human sin, they didn't anticipate things going horribly and tragically wrong?
Just read the report about sexual abuse in the SBC. Everything in that report was 100% predictable. And will always and forever be predictable. Because of sin, humans with power over other humans will always produce tragic outcomes. Patriarchy isn't safe.
Over many years on this blog I've engaged with Christians who have defended patriarchy in the face of this criticism. And the defense is always the same: In the hands of godly and virtuous men, "God's plan" for patriarchal gender relations in marriage and church leadership is perfectly safe. To which I respond: That's the fatal flaw in your argument.
Seriously, that's your argument? That patriarchy is safe when being run by godly, virtuous men? Well, here's a news flash: Humans are sinners. We're ungodly. Any decent Baptist knows this. So the success of your system can't depend upon the assumption of widespread virtue, because that foundation of virtue doesn't exist and has never existed. Want some evidence? Here's some: The SBC report on sexual abuse.
To put the point clearly, you can't make the claim that patriarchy is safe when your argument relies upon a vision of human virtue that both Scripture and human experience flatly contradict.
Now, of course, there's a theological objection to be raised here. We don't make decisions in the life of faith based wholly upon pragmatic concerns. As will be said, we must obey Scripture, even if, as seems the case, our reading of the Bible produces reliably wicked outcomes. Damn the hermeneutical torpedoes, full speed ahead! To which I'd respond, perhaps fundamentalism isn't your only move here. Spending some time in the Wesleyan Quadrilateral would do you some good.
And that isn't a call to ignore Scripture. As any thoughtful person knows, the egalitarian position has rich and deep biblical and theological foundations. See my comments above.
And, finally, lest there be any misunderstanding here, questioning readings of Scripture that champion reliable engines of wickedness isn't a capitulation to "liberalism." It's called discernment, testing the spirits to see if they come from God. By their fruits, Jesus said, you shall know them. Well, we know the fruit of how the Southern Baptists read the Bible.
Dear Southern Baptists, the Holy Spirit is knocking on your hermeneutic.
Maybe you should open the door.
