Thursday 6 March 2008

Maybe Bilezikian

Despite the weak argumentation and convenient overlooking of Scripture, GB does make (at some length, pp.171-74) a good point about a double standard operating in some complementarian circles. Telling a powerful story of a Sunday visit to a church which denied all public ministries to women (men were greeters, men were ushers, men spoke from the front, men preached, men served communion – women sat quietly), grieving him so much that he could not share the Lord’s Supper, GB revealed a great irony… At this service the church was commissioning a missionary to be involved in church-planting and leadership development in Africa, and said missionary ws a women. GB seemed to be the only person who noticed the disjunction, a disjunction with racist overtones – women are not good enough for leadership here in the wealthy White West, but they are suitable for such roles among foreigners, especially Black foreigners in more primitive cultures.

Mary Stewart Van Leeuwan makes a similar point in Gender and Grace (IVP, 1990). There’s something to think about seriously.