The State of Women's Equality

Winter 2021

Men and women serving and leading as equals

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Watershed Moments? Reexamining the Barriers Facing Women in the Church A look at what makes moments significant in the journey toward gender equality.

by Katie Christine Gaddini

Men Need to Talk about the Difficulties Women Still Face The oppression and disparate treatment of women in society intersects with manhood.

by David Hart

Seven Egalitarian Leaders Reflect on the Movement’s Past, Present, and Future Framers and signatories of CBE’s flagship document, “Men, Women, and Biblical Equality,” describe the progress they’ve observed and their hopes for the future of the biblical egalitarian movement.

by Jonathan Tysick

A Reflection on the State of Women’s Equality in the Black Baptist Church Context We must look closely at the positions in which women serve to evaluate women’s equality.

by Deirdre “Jonese” Austin

Women Are Gifted: Seven Recent Egalitarian Books for Everyday Readers Staying up to date on recently published books will help us extend the biblical vision of equality throughout the church.

by J. W. Wartick

DEPA RTMENTS 3 From the Editor Holding the Tension: How to Measure Progress in Women's Equality

26 Ministry News 28 Praise and Prayer 30 President’s Message An Egalitarian Legacy: Good Activism Remembers History to Promote Progress

ED ITO R IAL STA FF Editor: Sarabeth Marcello Graphic Designer: Margaret Lawrence Publisher/President: Mimi Haddad Mutuality vol. 28 no. 4, Winter 2021 Cover design by Margaret Lawrence Mutuality (ISSN: 1533-2470) offers articles from diverse writers who share egalitarian theology and explore its intersection with everyday life.

Winter 2021

Men and women serving and leading as equals

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All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the 2011 revision of the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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From the Editor

by Sarabeth Marcello

Holding the Tension: How to Measure Progress in Women's Equality This year, I followed God’s call to leave the complementarian church organization where I had spent three years to come work at CBE International. Here I have found, for the first time, a workplace that does not make me feel less-than for being female. While my previous male boss was always open to my suggestions for improving gender equality in the office, it could only go so far. There were bylaws and doctrine firmly in place that prevented women from embodying certain roles. I would always wonder, “Am I, a woman, allowed to say/do this?”

At that job, I learned firsthand how it can be easier to affect change in individuals rather than systemically.

In small ways, we improved the gender equality in that office, yet those improvements did not affect the men and women at other connected offices throughout the US. It makes me wonder, should we focus on individual change or systemic change?

Systemic change can be one of the strongest markers of real, permanent progress. And yet systemic improvements don’t always trickle down to change individual hearts, minds, and actions. I’d like to think that individual change trickles up to change systems, but systems that are hundreds of years old just don’t seem to work that way. There is a balance we must find in our journey toward women’s biblical equality— holding both local and systemic change in balance.

The authors featured in this issue address both individual and systemic progress toward biblical gender equality. I’d like to share a quote from each article to give you a glimpse at the authors’ advice and hopes for the current church.

“When women’s continued subordination becomes hidden behind egalitarian affirmations and vows of inclusivity, subordination is rendered invisible, undiagnosable, unmarked.”

David Hart welcomes us into a men’s group discussion and presents a challenge for us—is the topic of women’s equality off-limits to men? Hart prompts his men’s group, and us, to tackle even the issues which seem off-limits to us, or which seem not to affect us. “… once something is said in one decade, doesn’t mean it is going to be said forever. It has to be repeated, repeated, and repeated.”

Jo Anne Lyon is one of the seven interviewees who reflect on the progress they’ve noticed since the 1989 signing of CBE’s founding document, “Men, Women, and Biblical Equality.” Lyon and the other interviewees stress that while there has been great progress since 1989, we cannot become complacent, or the progress we have made will be lost by the next generation.

“Black women in ministry are learning to love ourselves and make decisions reflecting that, whether it’s within the church as an institution or outside of it.”

Deirdre “Jonese” Austin invites us into her experience with egalitarianism in the Black Baptist church. She brings a particular optimism mixed with a healthy dose of realism to her hopes for her future as a Black woman pastor within the Black Baptist church.

“There is a wide swathe of literature that continues to show equality is the biblical position.”

J.W. Wartick shares seven recent books that are perfect for everyday egalitarians who are hoping to deepen their understanding of Scripture, history, and society. We should draw encouragement from how the body of literature in favor of egalitarianism continues to grow and rise in popularity.

Katie Gaddini gives us a broad understanding of how even as we celebrate watershed moments, we must be on the lookout for how destructive assumptions and systems continue to persist. In some ways, the progress we have made toward women’s biblical equality has veiled instances of inequality so that we must work even harder to discover and uproot them.

“Egalitarian activism, from the early evangelicals to today, elevates women’s leadership at every moment in history.”

“The difficulties women face in this country are so pervasive and long-standing that we should know them by heart and be able to recite them from memory the way we recite state capitals or edited portions of Dr. King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech.”

My hope is that as you read the articles in this issue, you will celebrate the recent progress we have all made toward women's equality. And then my prayer is that the challenges and priorities that these authors present will prompt you to stay engaged and active in your community for the advancement of women's equality in the home, church, and world.

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President Mimi Haddad delves into how remembering previous egalitarian scholarship in all arenas will equip us to continue to make it clear that women’s equality is biblically sound and societally beneficial.

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An entangled web of identities demonstrates that marginalization takes place on an intersectional grid, and just as discrimination is hardly uniform, the category of “woman” is not either.

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Watershed Moments?

Reexamining the Barriers Facing Women in the US and UK Church

By Katie Christine Gaddini A few years ago, I attended an event in New York City centered on supporting women to pursue church leadership. The church sponsoring the event espoused an egalitarian view of gender roles in and out of the church, and they even had a few women already in leadership positions. Still, there were many other women at the church who protested that the gender imbalance remained woeful—especially for a church that theologically supported women leaders.

I arrived early that morning and grabbed a pastry at the welcome table before finding my seat in the church sanctuary. Two women who had helped organize the event climbed on the stage to introduce themselves and welcome the hundred-odd women

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present. Soon after, they directed our attention to a pre-recorded welcome address from a male pastor of another church who couldn’t attend the in-person gathering. A large screen began to descend. The lights dimmed and a cheerful, fresh-faced man appeared on the screen. “Sadly, we don’t have any women leaders at our church currently,” he began, solemnly.

“But we are desperate for that to change.” His face brightened. “And I want you to know that I am all for women in church leadership. I say, ‘You go girls!’”

I stirred uncomfortably in my seat.

A bit later, during one of the coffee breaks, I met a woman who pastored a small congregation outside of New York. Like so many other female

clergy, she had faced many battles over her three decades in church ministry. But this event brought her hope. “Th is is a watershed moment today,” she declared, explaining that for such a large and influential church to hold an entire workshop devoted to encouraging women to pursue Christian leadership was truly remarkable.

Having grown up in the church and studied gender and Christianity for the past eight years, I’ve encountered many “watershed moments.” From the Church of England approving women’s ordination in 1992 to wellknown churches finally appointing female senior pastors to events such as the one in New York, the term “watershed moment” has marked several milestones along Christian

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the beholder)? And if so, does the were making it up—or worse, if you repetition of watersheds over the years were actually the one to blame. mean that our goals are too meager or that gender equality is progressing?

The Barriers Are Now Invisible

These invisible, subtle barriers are all the more

A reflection on watershed moments, and progress more generally, leads us to consider the barriers themselves— how they’ve morphed, developed, or flattened over time. In other words, the synergistic relationship between barriers and progress must be examined together. Here, I focus on the former to shed light on the latter.

I draw on my in-depth multi-year research study on single evangelical women and their struggles for equality in American and British churches.1 That research shows that the biggest impediments single women currently face are the ones that operate in disguise. To illustrate, let’s return to the same event for women in leadership that took place in New York. Before the day drew to a close, I met another female pastor.

A commanding woman with a serene presence, she had pastored various American churches for over thirty years and was introduced to me by a woman in my study.

impenetrable for single women, my research found, because of their single status.

And the difficulty increases for women who do not fit the dominant mold, including ambitious and outspoken women, women of color, and workingclass women. women’s long fight for equality. More recently, the phrase was assigned to Beth Moore’s much-discussed resignation from the Southern Baptist Convention and her detachment from a complementarian theology.

Watershed Moments and Progress The use of the phrase raises a few questions, such as what, exactly, is a watershed moment? And how can we truly know when one has taken place? Is the designation only salient in relation to the goals aspired to (just as beauty lies in the eye of

“Give me a Roman Catholic any day over a so-called ‘inclusive’ mainline Christian,” she declared. I stared back in surprise at the bluntness with which she delivered her judgment.

She went on to explain that churches that espoused an egalitarian perspective were often the most dangerous: those were the ones who said all the right things, ticked all the boxes, and cheered women on while maintaining (and supporting) an all-male staff. Dangerous because alongside their pleas for inclusivity, these church leaders simultaneously erected invisible barriers for women, making it difficult to know why your efforts kept failing, and whether you

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Invisible barriers can take many forms: for Carys, one woman in my research, they entailed being left off work emails, subtly discouraged from pursuing ordination, and unnecessarily questioned over a church scandal that she had nothing to do with. Another woman, Jo, applied again and again for a leadership position at her church and was repeatedly denied. When she questioned the decision, she was told that someone else was more qualified and a better fit. He just happened to be a man, with an inside connection, and less experience.

These invisible, subtle barriers are all the more impenetrable for single women, my research found, because of their single status. And the difficulty increases for women who do not fit the dominant mold, including ambitious and outspoken women, women of color, and working-class women. “Women of a certain ilk,” as Jo put it. Such a confluence of factors means that women often question if they are being discredited and denied because they are a woman, because they are a single woman, or (as many conclude) because they are an ambitious/working-class/non-white single woman. Such an entangled web of identities demonstrates that marginalization takes place on an intersectional grid, and just as discrimination is hardly uniform, the category of “woman” is not either.

A quick review of the data on church congregations over the past twenty years demonstrates how little progress has actually been made for women.

A recent report found that only 3 percent of American evangelical WEBSITE :

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…women’s expectations, hopes, and aspirations have also swelled, moving the marker of what counts as a watershed moment farther along.

With more and more churches espousing an egalitarian perspective, and more complementarians renouncing their position, the current challenge is to identify and contest the subtle and damaging instances of gender discrimination that continue to take place. congregations are led by women, the same percentage as in 1998.2 In England, women make up 28 percent of paid clergy, despite the Church of England authorizing female ordination in 1994. And fewer than one in fi ft y of the largest churches in England are led by women.3 These disappointing figures sit alongside key watershed moments. They remind us that progress and stasis can and do occur simultaneously.

But disappointment can also be a call to action and a recognition that since obstacles remain stubbornly intact, we must adapt our tactics to overcome them.

False Hope from Real Progress In the case of Christian women called to church leadership, the hope of attaining such roles, buttressed by the promises of pastors who theologically support egalitarianism, keeps women tethered to the church. The late scholar

Lauren Berlant, although writing about a different context, calls these unfulfilled promises a relation of “cruel optimism.”4 The relationship between women and church leaders is not cruel in and of itself, but cruelty emerges when false hope is doled out and yet very little progress is ever made. When women’s continued subordination becomes hidden behind egalitarian affirmations and vows of inclusivity, subordination is rendered invisible, undiagnosable, unmarked. It’s cruel because such a dynamic is inimical to women’s flourishing. It leaves women groping around in the dark, trying to find the light switch, only to realize there isn’t even one in the room.

To be sure, Christian egalitarianism has made great strides over the past decades—even over the past few years. All of these watershed moments must be recognized for what they are and celebrated. Alongside these gains, women’s expectations, hopes,

and aspirations have also swelled, moving the marker of what counts as a watershed moment farther along. With more and more churches espousing an egalitarian perspective, and more complementarians renouncing their position, the current challenge is to identify and contest the subtle and damaging instances of gender discrimination that continue to take place. This challenge also comes with a warning: that the most formidable opponent is often the one who dresses up like a friend.

Katie Christine Gaddini is a sociologist at the Social Research Institute, University College London (UCL). She holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Cambridge, and in 2021–22 she is a Religion, Spirituality, and Democratic Renewal Fellow of the Social Science Research Council. Her first book, The Struggle to Stay: Why Single Evangelical Women Are Leaving the Church, is forthcoming (2022) with Columbia University Press.

1. See Katie Christine Gaddini, “Between Pain and Hope: Examining Women’s Marginality in the Evangelical Context,” European Journal of Women’s Studies 26, no. 4 (2018): 405–420, https://doi.org/10.1177/1350506819846167. A book based on this research will be published in early 2022: Katie Christine Gaddini, The Struggle to Stay: Why Single Evangelical Women Are Leaving the Church (New York: Columbia University Press, forthcoming).

2. Mark Chaves, “National Congregations Study, Cumulative Dataset (1998, 2006–2007, 2012, and 2018–2019),” Association of Religion Data Archive, January 2021.

3. Madeleine Davies, “Women in Leadership: Is 2017 the Year HTB Will Practise What it Preaches?” Christian Today, 23 December 2016, https:// www.christiantoday.com/article/women-in-leadership-is-2017-the-year-htb-will-practise-what-it-preaches/103265.htm. Madeleine Davies, “Why Women Clergy Lead so Few Large Churches,” Church Times, 13 April 2017, https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2017/13-april/news/uk/ why-women-clergy-lead-so-few-large-churches.

4.

Lauren Berlant, Cruel Optimism (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011).

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By David Hart

If it wasn’t quite so tragic a conversation, it could have been the plot of some quirky, off-beat, comedy-of-errors sitcom, or an early burlesque comedy sketch.

or women’s rights. In fact, in that seventy-five-minute discussion I don’t ever remember hearing the words woman, women, or patriarchy uttered at all.

Several years ago, I was in a men’s Bible study group at the church I attended. It was a small group of about twelve to fi fteen men, mostly middle aged, mostly white. We had a lengthy discussion regarding the biblical characteristics of manhood and how Christian men were to conduct themselves in a fallen world.

As the discussion wrapped up, the discussion leader asked if we had any lingering questions. I took that comment as an invitation to ask questions about the missing topics.

“Perhaps, next time maybe we can talk about preventing assault or the role of women in the church,” I mentioned.

Our discussion was thick, heavy, and sublime. We debated.

We examined. We discussed. We threw down well-worn adjectives used to describe Christian manhood like they were trump cards in a spades or euchre game: Provider.

Protector. Strong. Rugged. Virile. Confident. Control.

The study leader looked at me, puzzled, and responded, “But, this is men’s group.”

While it was a weighty and wide-ranging discussion, I noticed that we didn’t spend much time discussing how manhood intersects with issues like oppression, equality,

He looked up toward the ceiling as if he was waiting for it to cave in. “Uh, but this is men’s group.”

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“Yeah. Those issues are all men’s issues as they intersect with manhood and our responsibility as men,” I explained.

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The difficulties women face in this country are so pervasive and long-standing that we should know them by heart and be able to recite them from memory the way we recite state capitals or edited portions of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

We can readily see the embarrassing statistics and hear the stories of women through their collective voice.

However, like the Bible study leader I encountered, many men still find it difficult to see how the oppression and disparate treatment of women in this society has anything to do with them.

One difficulty is the lack of women in positions of power.

Women are either completely missing from or woefully underrepresented in corporations, on the bench, and in “But, this is men’s group.” elected positions around the country. We know that when women are not in leadership positions in this country, But, the condition and treatment of women in this society their rich, diverse, and valuable perspectives are left out of has everything to do with men. Women are not denying the decision-making calculus, and we all suffer as a result. each other opportunities for leadership, oppressing their own agency, and paying themselves less simply because Women also find it difficult to have safety and agency over they are women. Men and a male-centered culture do that. their own bodies. In the United States, one in three women What is more, the research now indicates that societies has experienced intimate partner violence,1 and one in six that oppress women and treat them badly are less stable has experienced sexual assault or attempted sexual assault.2 and less wealthy.5 Women cannot walk to their car after work or take the trash out at night without fearing for their safety.

Writer and philosopher James Baldwin notes that racial oppression says less about the oppressed and more about But nowhere are the disparities and difficulties women the oppressor—that the two have destinies that are face felt more acutely than in the church. In the Christian interconnected, and must therefore, work together to church, while women comprise between 54 and 58 percent achieve balance.6 of Protestant congregations,3 under 10 percent of all senior pastors are women.4 The same is incidentally true with gender inequality. As men, we must find ways to partner with, empower, and What is more, women in churches find it difficult to express encourage women, to end gender-based inequalities inside and exert agency over their own bodies and destinies. All and outside of the church. too often, we are still prooftexting the apostle Paul’s letters to perpetuate an oppressive theology to women that calls And even talk about these issues in Bible study. on them to “submit” to men and keep silent in church.

In the twenty-first century, it is not difficult for some men to acknowledge that women are treated differently inside and outside the church, simply because they are women.

David Hart is a practicing attorney and lead pastor of a growing church in Madison, Wisconsin. His mom says he’s special on the inside.

1. “Statistics,” NCADV, https://ncadv.org/STATISTICS. 2. “Victims of Sexual Violence: Statistics,” R AINN, https://www.rainn.org/statistics/victims-sexual-violence.

3. “Gender Distribution of Religious Groups in the United States in 2017, By Faith Tradition,” Statista Research Department, 15 January 2021, https://www.statista.com/statistics/245542/gender-distribution-of-us-religious-groups-by-faith-tradition/.

4. Scott Thuma, Twenty Years of Congregational Change: The 2020 Faith Communities Today Overview (Hartford: Hartford Institute for Religion Research, 2021), https://faithcommunitiestoday.org/fact-2020-survey/.

5. “Societies that Treat Women Badly Are Poorer and Less Stable,” The Economist, 11 September 2021, https://www.economist.com/ international/2021/09/11/societies-that-treat-women-badly-are-poorer-and-less-stable.

6. Carl A. Grant, James Baldwin and the American Schoolhouse (New York: Routledge, 2021), 26.

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Seven Egalitarian Leaders Ref lect on the Movement’s Past, Present, and Future CBE's flagship document, "Men, Women, and Biblical Equality," presents the biblical rationale for gender equality and its practical applications in the family and church community. Since its publication in 1989, the statement has been translated into more than thirty languages. I spoke with two of the original framers and five of the original signatories about

the

egalitarian

movement’s recent past, present, and future.

By Jonathan Tysick

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Meet the Interv iewees Original Framers of the 1989 Statement “Men, Women, and Biblical Equality” Stanley Gundry

is Senior Vice President and Editor in Chief at Zondervan. He has written seven books and numerous articles for a wide variety of publications. He served as the series editor for the Zondervan “Counterpoints” series.

Ron Sider is founder and president emeritus of Christians for Social Action and professor emeritus at Palmer Theological Seminary. He wrote Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger and blogs regularly at ronsiderblog.substack.com.

Howard Snyder

is a former historical theology professor at Asbury Seminary and Tyndale Seminary. He is currently the Visiting Director of the Manchester Wesley Research Centre in England. His published books include Salvation Means Creation Healed: The Ecology of Sin and Grace, The Problem with Wineskins, and Liberating the Church.

Ruth Tucker is a former missiology and church history professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Calvin Theological Seminary. She has written twenty-one books, the most recent of which are Extraordinary Women of Church History and Fired at 57: My Fight for Justice in Christian Academia.

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Jo Anne Lyon

is general superintendent emerita and ambassador of The Wesleyan Church. She is the founder and CEO of World Hope International, a faith-based relief and development organization.

She has written for many publications as well as authoring the book The Ultimate Blessing: Rediscovering the Power of God’s Presence.

Original Signatories of the 1989 Statement “Men, Women, and Biblical Equality” Klyne Snodgrass

is professor emeritus of New Testament at North Park Theological Seminary. His published books include Stories With Intent: A Comprehensive Guide To the Parables of Jesus, The Parable of the Wicked Tenants, Between Two Truths: Living with Biblical Tensions, Who God Says You Are, and the NIV Application Commentary volume on Ephesians.

Aida Besançon Spencer is a senior professor of New Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. She has written or co-written eighteen books, including most recently Commentary on James and Christian Egalitarian Leadership: Empowering the Whole Church According to the Scriptures.

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1. What factors led to drafting the "Men, Women, and Biblical Equality" (MWBE) document of 1989?

Jo Anne Lyon: Ron Sider brought together evangelical Stanley Gundry: leaders in 1973 when The Declaration of Evangelical Social Concern was written.1 Then the next year Sider brought together more people, saying, “We said all this, but what are we going to do about it?” Several organizations started out of that, the Evangelical Women’s Caucus being one promoting biblical equality.

Then a few years later the Danvers Statement was written.2 I'm telling you, almost the next day Catherine Kroeger called me and said, “I’m calling some people together, we’re going to get together in Gretchen’s [Gaebelein Hull] apartment in NYC and we’re going to write a statement and put it in Christianity Today. The Danvers Statement cannot be the statement for evangelicals.”

So early on, leading voices in CBE began discussing the need to draft a statement that would express the basis for our convictions about gender equality.

Catherine Kroeger, Gretchen Gaebelein Hull, and I began planning for that, and eventually we and the other drafters of what came to be known as “Men, Women, and Biblical Equality” met in the Hulls’ apartment in New York City.

Our hope was that such a statement would not only express the basic convictions of CBE, but that it would be a document that many churches and Christian leaders and organizations could rally around as expressing the biblical basis of their convictions. And even more important, that it would serve as a guide for individuals and churches who were searching for a better understanding of what the Bible has to say on these issues.

2. Have you seen your hopes for the egalitarian movement realized since 1989? What changes have you observed in your church context?

Lyon: I had hoped that things would change immediately like a stick of dynamite. It has been slow, but there has been change. I want to give Mimi Haddad all kinds of credit. She has stayed with it and kept the message. I’m seeing change, particularly with this generation of leadership coming up.

For example, in the Evangelical Theological Society, when CBE first asked for a table at the conference, they were put way in the back; the society didn’t even want them there. Now things have moved so far that a [recent] president of ETS, Craig Keener, is egalitarian. So to me, that’s the solid change you want. If we had given up and said, “We’re never going to make it; things are terrible,” it wouldn’t have happened.

I’m also learning that once something is said in one decade, doesn’t mean it is going to be said forever. It has to be repeated, repeated, and repeated. That’s what I’m seeing in some of the recent books from Kristen Du Mez, Beth Allison Barr, and others, as well as the continued strong voice of CBE. I’m very encouraged.

Gundry: When I entered publishing in 1980, I often felt that I was a lone voice on these issues. But now, it is not at all unusual for me to discover pastors, biblical scholars, and theologians who would be in basic agreement with MWBE. I also find another promising development in evangelical circles—what I refer to as “soft complementarians, 12 M U T U A L I T Y | Winter 2021

complementarians that give lip service to the name, but in terms of how they actually live their lives and minister they are in most respects indistinguishable from egalitarians.

I believe they have moved closer and closer to biblical egalitarians through the influence of CBE, MWBE, and the important support from recent biblical scholarship, especially on the biblical concept of headship.

Ron Sider: I think broadly in the church we’ve made a lot of progress in the last thirty-two years. In my local congregation, the Oxford Circle Mennonite Church, my senior pastor now, Lynn Parks, was the first woman in the Lancaster Mennonite Conference to be officially ordained.

The Lancaster Mennonite Conference also now has a black female bishop.

I also think there’s been amazing developments with the MeToo movement. There has been an atrocious amount of male sin and disobedience to God, both in the secular and the religious world. The fact that it is finally being talked about and reported on is enormous progress. We haven’t arrived, but we’ve made a lot of progress, and I think CBE has been a part of that movement.

Howard Snyder: In the Free Methodist Church and some other denominations (e.g., Church of the Nazarene), there has been significant progress. The FMC now has its first female bishop, Linda Adams. That could be mere tokenism, WEBSITE :

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except for the fact that we now also have an increasing number of women leading together with men at every level of the denomination (including college presidents).

to all the gifts of the Spirit than do more established churches, and that they are therefore more open to women in leadership.3

Generally, acceptance at the congregational level is increasing. Yet my daughter-in-law and my son are co-pastors in the Denver area, and a man recently phoned her and harshly accused her of being unbiblical and un-Christian for being a pastor. He read her a litany of biblical texts.

Ruth Tucker: I never was as hopeful as some people were

Still, progress is being made, especially among younger generations. There is historical evidence that renewal movements in the church tend generally to be more open

about changing centuries-old beliefs that men should be in control. But both positive and negative changes have occurred. There’s been a significant focus on domestic violence and sex abuse among professing Christians, while at the same time those who oppose equality seek to play it down and push back, as I discovered after [my book] Black and White Bible, Black and Blue Wife was released in 2016.

3. What advice do you have for the next generation of Christians who believe that “both men and women are divinely gifted and empowered to minister to the whole Body of Christ, under His authority”?

Gundry: Stay focused on the essential issues of biblical

equality and do not get sidetracked on other issues, whether related or unrelated, that are not at the core of this biblical teaching. Foster friendships with those who believe you are wrong—remember, they are your brothers and sisters in Christ.

In my experience, arguments and debates about the issues go nowhere—they end in a deadlock. For most people, it’s more than a question of theology and biblical interpretation. It’s an emotional issue that involves their self-image and their perceptions of their roles in marriage, the church, and the world. What I’ve found can work in penetrating their thinking and emotional barriers is simply to tell them a story, my story of how over time I moved from being a defensive patriarchist to a biblical egalitarian.

It’s hard to dismiss another person’s pilgrimage story.4

Lyon: I recently told a young person in ministry that one

of the things that hinders egalitarianism from being fully embraced is the concept of headship. People have had training in headship that is very hierarchical, and then [it is very difficult] to talk about egalitarianism. Understanding biblical headship—mutuality—from Scripture is the only way that egalitarianism will work. We have to go back to that.

Aida Besançon Spencer: Some men and women think the battle has been completed by us pioneers. But that is not at all true. On the one hand, we need to be bold but gracious as we keep educating the church about equality BOOKSTORE :

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between men and women and equal opportunity. On the other hand, we should not give up on promoting a reliable and authoritative Bible as our basis.

A new difficulty that I have discovered is female students who choose to take two-year masters programs on the Bible while not taking the master of divinity because they do not plan to pastor. But then they also want to serve in the church. In effect, what they do is not prepare themselves for any place that the Lord might lead them, since many denominations ordain people to ministries that may not be the traditional “pastor” but rather chaplaincies or Christian counseling for a church or teaching in a seminary setting. By not taking the MDiv, they do not take the practical courses or the biblical languages that will help them elucidate the Bible in a practical manner.

Or some say that although they believe in women’s leadership, since they do not plan to be ordained, they can attend and support a hierarchical church. But then indirectly they are supporting a church that will not recognize and affirm and encourage women leading in the ways God has gifted them.

I would encourage men and women to be consistent between theory and practice.

Stay focused on the essential issues of biblical equality.

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4. Many young Christians in the West take gender equality for granted and so are less concerned with basing their thinking on biblical interpretation. In contrast to this, the MWBE statement emphasizes what the Bible teaches. How important is it for our belief in gender equality to be biblical?

Gundry: You are right in noting the emphasis in the MWBE statement on what the Bible teaches. We were very intentional about that because evangelical (I use that term in its classic and global sense and not in its oftencorrupted version with the political connotations in the current American scene) Christians have historically been identified as those who aspire to view the Bible as the inspired Word of God and the fi nal authority in matters of Christian faith and practice. We have no right to claim to be evangelical Christians if we do not aspire to base all of faith and practice on the Bible, and that includes the matter of gender equality. Patriarchists in general and the Danvers Statement in particular accuse biblical egalitarians of bending to cultural pressures and feminist distortions, of engaging in hermeneutical oddities, of accommodating the spirit of the age, etc. It was important for us to demonstrate in MWBE that this simply was not true.

I consider it equally important today that young Christians understand that all Christian faith and practice (not just biblical equality) is to be based on the Bible and that “bending to cultural pressures” or “accommodating the spirit of the age” is never the correct norm for Christian faith and practice.

Klyne Snodgrass: People may say they take equality for

granted, but they usually do not practice it. If the church is not going to be biblically based, it will neither be true to the gospel nor endure very long. Attitudes are often shaped by the social engineering of the media, as is the case with acceptance of homosexual practice. If we are actually to be Christian, it will be because we develop the hermeneutical sensitivity to know how to implement the Christian faith in our lives. The church has failed often in its attempts to teach the biblical material. Much more and better attention needs to be given to teaching.

Spencer: It is absolutely crucial for our belief in gender equality to be based on the contextual study of the Bible.

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That is what makes CBE unique and God-honoring.

Without the Bible as our reliable basis, CBE will change in ways that do not honor God’s commands. And without God’s affirmations, where will we be? Religious, but not followers of Christ.

Sometimes young egalitarians do not want to be divisive.

Not speaking out is no way to stand for truth. To maintain that balance between being courageous to treat the Bible as reliable and authoritative and being courageous to treat women and African Americans, Latin Americans, Native Americans, and Asian Americans, etc. with respect and affirmation is not easy, but it is crucial.

Sider:

Every generation has to think through issues and apply the biblical material. There’s a big difference between deciding that the Bible is wrong on certain points and we’re going to throw it out, versus struggling with what the Bible means because we are committed to biblical authority. The church all through the centuries has been committed to the Bible. I’m not calling for some new sort of thing, but a commitment to millennia of commitment to the Bible as being God’s special revelation that is authoritative.

Snyder: It is crucial that our view of full equality be

Bible-based and hermeneutically sound. Otherwise, we risk being squeezed into the world’s mold—and the issue easily gets mixed up with gender-identity issues and debates about homosexuality. The Word of God is our supreme authority.

The Bible is coherent on this issue. Full equality of women biblically is based in creation, salvation, atonement, Pentecost, and in the fi nal New Creation. All the familiar Scriptures used to oppose women in ministry have been fully dealt with over the years by Christian writers on this subject—not least by B.T. Roberts in his 1891 classic, Ordaining Women.

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5. How should egalitarian Christians engage, dialogue, and fellowship with our complementarian brothers and sisters? How can we have gender equality conversations in a way that honors Jesus’s prayer that his church might be one (John 17:11)?

Gundry:

The “us-vs-them” polarization of North American culture is one aspect that we should avoid as Christians, and it is especially hurtful when it characterizes our relationship with other Christians with whom we have sincere disagreements. I do not want to diminish the importance of having a biblical view of gender equality, but at the same time we need to disagree agreeably. Since the mid-1970s when I became an egalitarian, I have maintained friendships with those who take radically different positions than mine on gender issues. Sometimes I wonder if my fellow egalitarians suspect me of being disloyal to the cause for maintaining these relationships. But I believe it is possible to do this without compromising my convictions.

Lyon: I think CBE and Mimi Haddad have been such an example in this, such as with ETS. Instead of being mad, bad-mouthing ETS, and leaving, they keep lovingly being present and speaking.

We want to get into our own personal debates, but we forget that the Holy Spirit moves in people’s hearts. For example, I preached at a church out west one Sunday, and at lunch the pastor said, “You need to know that I don’t believe in women preaching.” I almost choked. He said, “I know you’re thinking I’m crazy because I let you preach from my pulpit, but I just want you to know that I don’t believe it.” I looked at my steak and thought, “I don’t want to sit here and not taste this wonderful steak while I try to persuade him.” His mind was made up, and he had every argument ready. I just recommended [Catherine Kroeger’s book] I Suff er Not a Woman and I told him it would answer all his questions. I told him to call me if it didn’t. And I enjoyed my steak! Well guess what? It did answer his questions. He called me and said, “I’ve never seen Scripture like that.” From then on, he literally became my biggest supporter in becoming the general superintendent of the denomination.

Snodgrass:

While complementarians may not be comfortable in a church with a woman senior pastor, and while egalitarians may not be comfortable in a church that prohibits women in leadership, we are not

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enemies and can work together. “Women in ministry” is not the gospel, but attitudes toward women are a major implication of the gospel. If the church does not advocate for better treatment of and respect for women, it has failed its own gospel.

Spencer: Some “soft complementarians” are becoming

dissatisfied with the more polarized members of their movement and are reaching out to include biblical egalitarians in their writings and conferences. Dr. Mimi Haddad has certainly reached out to complementarian thinkers in an irenic fashion in the ETS gender study group. The conversation may be a slow one, but mutual empathy is worth developing. We need to listen carefully to people’s fears and help allay them.

My husband Bill and I have tried to further the dialogue by co-authoring the book Marriage and the Crossroads with soft complementarians the Tracy’s, with responses from couples from different ethnic backgrounds. In our latest book, Christian Egalitarian Leadership, we try to show what egalitarianism looks like in many different areas from the basis of the Bible as our authority.

Egalitarian leadership is not threatening; it is lifeenhancing and moves God’s reign forward.

The “us-vs-them” polarization of North American culture is one aspect that we should avoid as Christians, and it is especially hurtful when it characterizes our relationship with other Christians with whom we have sincere disagreements.

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In the past the excuse has been, “Where are the qualified women?”

But year by year there is less validity to that excuse.

6. While more congregations and denominations are endorsing women in pastoral and preaching roles, few women actually pastor and preach in evangelical churches. How can congregations and denominations encourage Spirit-gifted women to lead in all areas of ministry?

Gundry: In the past the excuse has been, “Where are the qualified women?” But year by year there is less validity to that excuse. I am not sure I have the answer to the problem for those women who are frozen out of preaching and senior pastoral roles, especially in churches that have a congregational church government that can decide on such matters even if they identify as egalitarian. Such congregations need to experience the unique perspective that a woman pastor can bring to preaching and pastoral ministry and leadership.

I am reminded of two things I have heard [my wife] Patricia say, “So what if I am the token woman on the platform? The token still gets me on the bus, and that is a start.” The other thing I have heard Pat say is that women think they have to get approval from the powers that be, usually men. Just go around them and start churches in unchurched areas, starting with a woman pastor and a core of believers committed to having a local church where women and men who have the gifts and calling to lead and teach are well-represented from the very beginning in the ministries of the church, on the pastoral staff, and on the boards—whether they be called elders, deacons, trustees, or just staff.

Snodgrass: The easy answer is to say, “Get out of the way.” Women need to be trained, encouraged, and given opportunity in accordance with their gifts, just as men should be. We need to make sure that for both genders the issue is not about ego enhancement. Women are ministering in many ways, often one-on-one or in small groups. They need to be given opportunity. There is more going on with leaders and their relations to congregations and individuals than most people will admit.

Tucker: I think there is a major problem with so-called

egalitarians. Among leaders and lay people in churches and schools of higher learning, white male privilege goes unrecognized. As is true of racism, sexism is routinely denied. Egalitarians must look inward and see the plank in their own eye. I discovered this the hard way as the first full-time female faculty member in the 125-year history of Calvin Theological Seminary. Systemic sexism, like racism, is deeply embedded in all of our institutions— Christian and secular.

Spencer:

We should follow general suggestions for change: work with the undecided middle (rather than the extreme opposite); women need to work with men to speak up at key times—e.g., suggest female preachers for Lyon: Something that doesn’t get talked about much: church vacation times and for leadership positions; and many women in churches do not want a female pastor. arrange the work schedule so it affirms the family.

Why is that? Part of it is that women have gained a certain degree of power in the church, and they feel that Also, women need to support female leaders (preachers if a woman pastor comes into the church, it will take away and teachers). Attend their sermons and classes. Speak to their power. Women have been socialized that they need others with positive acclamations of local female leaders. to compete with each other for the attention of men.

Don’t be jealous.

And then we get caught in the men and women together issue. A man might say, “She’s the senior pastor, so how is she going to meet me for lunch?” I say, “That’s alright!” We have to get beyond the suspicion that we are sexualizing each other.

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Many women (and sometimes men) do not want to stand out, or they want to walk the middle way, but I think that you are either fully supportive of women and men being equal or you are not. If you are partially supportive, you may end up doing nothing to move transformation

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forward, and, in the end, the default position will leave women out of leadership.

and preaching and in practice. I would use examples of women in the Bible and in church history as much as possible (as well as men). Th is would include the teaching Sider: I don’t have any magic answer to that. I think Jo of Christian missions through history, where there are Anne Lyon is a model that we should look at carefully. thousands of inspiring examples of women in leadership.

She’s a fabulous person. It’s also true that several evangelical colleges have had highly successful women Th ird, I would develop team leadership rather than a solepresidents, such as at Messiah College and Houghton pastor model, and would include women on the team to College. That represents real progress. It is disappointing the degree that would be acceptable in the congregation. that there are so few female pastors, but I suspect that we’ve made a lot of progress since 1989. So one laments Fourth, I would teach on gifts of the Spirit, showing that how little progress has been made while also giving nowhere does the Bible teach or even hint that any of the thanks that we’re moving in the right direction. gifts are intended for men only. Teaching on spiritual gifts would include a process to help women identify and Snyder: I think the answer here is multi-pronged. There begin to practice their gifts. are deep cultural and political forces at work, especially in the US, but the underlying issue is theological, Fift h, as women develop leadership gifts, I would provide missiological, ecclesiological. That is to say, spiritual. them with opportunities for further learning. I would try to get emerging women leaders involved with networks If I were pastoring again, I would address the issue in (soundly biblical ones) which help them continue to these ways: develop and learn from peers and exemplars.

First, I would familiarize myself with Scripture and available writing and research on this issue (perhaps beginning with William Webb’s Slaves, Women, and Homosexuality). I would study the Bible inductively on this issue, if I hadn’t already.

Second, I would weave the affirmation of the full equality of women into all my pastoral work, including teaching

Jonathan Tysick works at a Salvation Army shelter and is a theology student at Wycliffe College in Toronto, where he lives with his wife, Rebekah, toddler, Leo, and their feisty cat, Florence. Jonathan gets excited by libraries, hockey games, bike lanes, pizzerias, and jazz music.

We need to make sure that for both genders the issue is not about ego enhancement.

Women are ministering in many ways, often one-on-one or in small groups. They need to be given opportunity. There is more going on with leaders and their relations to congregations and individuals than most people will admit.

1. The Chicago Declaration of Evangelical Concern, signed by forty leaders, confessed how evangelical Christianity had historically failed to confront injustice, racism, and female discrimination—and pledged to do better. “CSA History,” Christians for Social Action, accessed 26 October 2021, https://christiansforsocialaction.org/about-us/history/.

2. “The Danvers Statement summarizes the need for the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW) and serves as an overview of our core beliefs. This statement was prepared by several evangelical leaders at a CBMW meeting in Danvers, Massachusetts, in December of 1987.

It was first published in final form by the CBMW in Wheaton, Illinois in November of 1988.” From “The Danvers Statement,” The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, accessed 26 October 2021, https://cbmw.org/about/danvers-statement.

3. Howard Snyder, Signs of the Spirit: How God Reshapes the Church (Zondervan, 1989).

4. For Stanley Gundry's story, see "From Bobbed Hair, Bossy Wives, and Women Preachers to Woman Be Free: My Story," Priscilla Papers 19, no. 2 (2005): 19–24, https://www.cbeinternational.org/resource/article/priscilla-papers-academic-journal/bobbed-hair-bossy-wives-and-women-preachers.

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By Deirdre “Jonese” Austin

If the Bible is not to be used to justify slavery, then it also is not to be used to justify sexism in the church.

18 M U T U A L I T Y | Winter 2021

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A Reflection on the State of Women’s Equality in the Black Baptist Church Context In looking at the state of women’s equality in the church, we need to recognize the diversity of what we call the church with its various beliefs, cultures, and practices.

While we can speak of a universal church, when it comes to women’s equality—as evidenced by licensing and ordination, senior pastor and senior leadership positions, the roles women are allowed to serve in, and other factors—we must recognize the ways in which these factors as well as the source of inequality varies by individual church.

I begin with this discussion because some of the most prominent images of the church in the mainstream media tend to be nondenominational, evangelical Southern Baptist, and Catholic churches. This is not my context.

Thus, as I reflect on the state of women’s equality in the church, I must also reflect on my ministry in a Black Baptist church context, a church context whose very existence, in some ways, is a response to oppressive, racist religious institutions.

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Black Women Are Still Experiencing Firsts

In my lifetime and experience, I have never heard a sermon that actively speaks against women preaching. As a Black woman, I have learned to read the Bible with a liberationist hermeneutic. If the Bible is not to be used to justify slavery, then it also is not to be used to justify sexism in the church. I have grown up seeing Black women Baptist ministers be licensed and ordained. I have seen these women preach from the pulpit, and I have also had the opportunity to preach from a pulpit a few times. While I recognize that not all Black Baptist churches are affirming of women in ministry, I share this because on its face, the Black Baptist church is a church in which everyone has equal chance and equal opportunity to serve and lead.

Nevertheless, we see a different story when we look closely at the positions in which women serve.

Many women pastors in Black Baptist church contexts serve with

women, youth, and children. While it is important to uplift the Black women who are called to this work, we must recognize the ways in which women have at times been restricted to these roles. There are very few Black women who are serving as senior pastors and in senior leadership positions within the Black Baptist church context, and I believe this is a better measure for equality in the church. Black women are still making history in this regard. They are still becoming the first women senior pastors of churches that have been around for over one hundred years.

On August 7, 2021, for example, Rev. Dr. Danielle L. Brown was elected as the first woman senior pastor (the tenth senior pastor) of Shiloh Baptist Church in Plainfield, New Jersey.1 On August 12, 2021, Rev. Dr. Gina Stewart became the fi rst woman chosen to serve in the highest role of a Black Baptist denomination when she was elected as the president of the Lott Carey Baptist Foreign Mission Society.2 Both of these examples demonstrate

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While Black women often make up the majority of church membership in Black churches, we have historically been excluded from the decision-making tables. the ways in which progress has been made, but they also offer us an opportunity to further reflect on the ways in which Black women in ministry do not always have an equal chance and equal opportunity to serve and lead.

Black Women Belong in Every Area of Ministry

While Black women often make up the majority of church membership in Black churches,3 we have historically been excluded from the decision-making tables.

It is the men who have served in leadership roles and have chosen other men to be their successors and to serve alongside them. It has also historically been the men who have set the parameters around who can serve in certain roles and positions, often doing so in a way that excludes women from those who are qualified, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

Church culture needs to learn to affirm women as not only capable of leading certain groups but as capable of leading and governing entire church institutions. We need

to create practices that support women, and we must eradicate the barriers to women leading. Women have to be given a chance to lead— regardless of marital status, age, and other social identities. Just as I would offer that White people play a significant role in addressing racism in the church, I would also propose that men play a significant role in addressing sexism in the church. It is the men who must help advocate for women in ministry, whether that means calling out practices that may exclude women or uplifting the names of women who can serve alongside them in seats of power. Additionally, women in ministry can work to ensure that we aren’t the only ones in the room and that we create opportunities for those who will come after us.

Black Women Will Find—Or Create—Welcoming Spaces

As a Black woman minister in the Baptist church who understands her calling as one within the Black Baptist church, I have reflected on all of this throughout my time at Candler School of Theology and especially now as I prepare to

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graduate in May of 2022. As I think about my own ministry prospects, I wonder, “Is there a place for me to utilize my gifts within the Black Baptist church?” While I understand my gifts as they relate to women in ministry, there is also a part of me that would like the opportunity to serve as a senior pastor someday; however, I rarely entertain that idea because I know that the odds are not in my favor. I also recognize that as a Black woman in ministry, I will likely have to be bi-vocational and may also need additional certifications to help affirm that I am indeed called and qualified by God to do this work.

Still, while there are times when my options seem limited, there are also times when the opportunities for me as a Black woman in ministry are limitless and expansive. I fi nd inspiration in the women who have created spaces for themselves.

There are women like Dr. Melva Sampson, who started Pink Robe Chronicles, which she describes as “a digital hush harbor.”4 There are Black women in ministry like Rev. Kamilah Hall Sharp, Rev. Dr. Irie Lynne Session, and Rev. Yvette

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Blair-Lavallais, who set out to create a space for womanist preaching, a space that would become The Gathering, A Womanist Church in Dallas, Texas.5 It is in the stories of these and other women that I know that even if I can’t envision a space for myself within a church, I can reimagine what church is, what church looks like, and what church can be.

So as we look at the state of women’s equality in the Black church, there is room for growth, but no one can

stop those whom God has called.

If the church as an institution does not provide space for Black women in ministry to serve, then we will create our own spaces. If one church cannot give us the respect and fi nancial support that we know we are worthy of, we will take our gifts and talents to places where we are affirmed as our whole selves. Black women in ministry are learning to love ourselves and make decisions that reflect that, whether it’s within the church as an institution or outside of it.

Deirdre “Jonese” Austin is currently studying for her MDiv at Candler School of Theology.

Her research interests include the Black church and the intersections of faith, race, justice, and healing, and she is committed to employing a radical love ethic in working toward healing and wholeness through good theology, research, direct action, and policy. You can learn more about her at DeirdreJoneseAustin.com.

So as we look at the state of women’s equality in the Black church, there is room for growth, but no one can stop those whom God has called. If the church as an institution does not provide space for Black women in ministry to serve, then we will create our own spaces.

1. “The Reverend Dr. Danielle L. Brown,” Shiloh Baptist Church, accessed 14 October 2021, https://www.shilohplainfield.org/ RevDrDanielleLBrown%20.html.

2. Adelle Banks, “Gina Stewart Elected to Lead Lott Carey Society,” Baptist Standard, last modified 17 August 2021, https://www.baptiststandard. com/news/baptists/rev-gina-stewart-elected-to-lead-lott-carey-society/.

3. Lyman Stone, “Sex Ratios in the Pews: Is There Really a Deficit of Men in American Churches?” Institute for Family Studies, 12 August 2019, https://ifstudies.org/blog/sex-ratios-in-the-pews-is-there-really-a-deficit-of-men-in-american-churches.

4. Melva Sampson, “Pink Robe Chronicles,” Dr. Melva Sampsom, accessed 26 October 2021, https://www.drmelvasampson.com/pink-robechronicles.

5. To learn more, see Irie Lynne Session, Kamilah Hall Sharp, and Jann Aldredge-Clanton, The Gathering, A Womanist Church: Origins, Stories, Sermons, and Litanies (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2020).

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Seven Recent Egalitarian Books for Everyday Readers

By J.W. Wartick

A sure sign of a vital movement is found in the type of works published in support of it. A flurry of recent egalitarian books have pushed the conversation about women in the church and home forward in new ways.

These books tackle arguments about the place of

women in the church and home through biblical, historical, and sociological lenses. Together, these seven recent books provide a vision of a church that raises women up for their giftedness rather than limiting them based on their gender.

Defiant: What the Women of Exodus Teach Us About Freedom

by Kelley Nikondeha This book unifies a close study of the book of Exodus with a call to action in today’s world. Kelley Nikondeha’s prose is incredibly powerful, but her grasp of the cultural world of Exodus is even more of a highlight in this book. Time and again, readers will be introduced to women in Exodus who are generally skimmed over or ignored. Nikonheda raises them up instead, using both ancient examples and modern questions to bring women’s voices, justice, and equality into focus.

Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: How the Church Needs to Rediscover Her Purpose

by Aimee Byrd I would be surprised if you hadn’t at least heard of this one since it sparked a lot of discussion around its release—in part due to its coming from Byrd, who was an insider in a complementarian church. The book’s cover shows yellow wallpaper peeling away to reveal an image of a woman in a biblical scene. The wallpaper itself is a direct link to the short story The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The story is about a woman essentially locked in a room for her own alleged mental health. Over time, she peels away the yellow wallpaper, convinced that she must release the woman she believes is trapped behind it. It ends in ambiguity regarding the fate of the characters. It’s a story that Byrd uses to frame the discussion of men and women in the church.

Byrd addresses numerous biblical passages and shows how they have frequently been misread by those attempting to limit women. The strength of this book is found in Byrd’s powerful prose and storytelling while expositing Scripture, dealing with counter-arguments, and calling for the church as a whole to do better by women.

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Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation

by Kristin Kobes Du Mez

American Christianity in many ways has become its own brand, particularly in its intermingling of Christianity and culture. Du Mez’s work explores the way that American Christianity has embraced a unique form of belief that, while largely unacknowledged in doing so, unifies Christianity and white nationalism. She also shows the movement toward a hyper-masculine idea of Christianity. One way she demonstrates this is in showing a shift toward perceived masculinity in major men’s Christian organizations. For example, while the Promise Keepers organization pursued a “soft patriarchy” (152), others started to advocate a “militaristic” view of masculinity that explicitly glorified violence and bloodshed, including warfare, as key traits of masculine identity (173, 177–178, 181). Such a movement intermingled Christian belief and expression with nationalism in often overt ways. Du Mez’s work has challenged many to rethink masculinity.

Icons of Christ: A Biblical and Systematic Theology for Women's Ordination

by William G. Witt

Witt shows us that egalitarianism rests on a firm biblical foundation. He presents a careful, grounded case for women’s ordination that not only considers several Protestant arguments but also several Catholic ones. Witt doesn’t only present a positive case, but also counters many of the most prominent arguments against women’s ordination, such as the argument that women cannot be priests because all of the disciples were male. One important line of argument Witt pursues is showing that several of the arguments used by complementarians are mutually contradictory.

For example, the Catholic argument that women may not be priests because they are not like the (male) Christ contradicts the Protestant argument that women are like Christ in that they, too, must be eternally subordinate (75–76). Witt explores arguments about pastors based on the disciples, questions of specific verses, and ends with a case for women’s leadership based on the New Testament. The book is an excellent resource for those wanting a robust egalitarian theology.

The Headship of Men and the Abuse of Women: Are They Related in Any Way?

by Kevin Giles

If you’d like to explore the connection between the hierarchy taught by complementarians and the abuse of women, Giles is ready to help. Giles introduces several studies and broad looks at statistics regarding domestic abuse, including the sobering fact that statistics related to abuse of women are much the same in churches as they are among those not involved in church (7–8).

Giles argues from statistical evidence, personal experience, and individual circumstances that belief in the superiority of men contributes directly to the abuse of women.

24 M U T U A L I T Y | Winter 2021

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The Great Sex Rescue: The Lies You’ve Been Taught and How to Recover What God Intended

by Sheila Wray Gregoire, Rebecca Gregoire Lindenbach, and Joanna Sawatsky These authors performed a study of more than 20,000 women and present their discoveries about the sex lives of people involved in churches. The findings are at times startling, such as the gap between men and women when it comes to enjoyment of sex. The authors ultimately argue that the way sexuality is taught by many in the church is actually far more harmful than it is helpful. But they don’t leave it there. While the numbers the authors present about Christian sexuality are dire, through this book they provide a way to start correcting the problem, with men and women paying attention to each other’s needs while also rooting out harmful and often mistaken teachings they may have absorbed from other sources. They even include discussion questions and practical applications—encouraging men and women to ask difficult questions about how they view sexuality while also committing to live more for each other.

The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth

by Beth Allison Barr

Many assume that complementarianism has always been the default position of the historical church, but Barr’s insightful historical study challenges that narrative. In particular, Barr notes the way people have selectively read women’s voices out of the medieval period and how the Reformation, unfortunately, led to a renewed battle to have women’s voices heard. Time and again, Barr brings up fascinating historical people whom most readers have likely not encountered before. Her book is grounded upon historical research and has many endnotes to provide more avenues of study, but it remains entirely readable in both tone and style.

This brief survey of recent egalitarian literature shows how robust the egalitarian position continues to be. There is a wide swathe of literature that continues to show biblical equality is the biblical position. I wish I had enough room to include works like the updated version of Discovering Biblical Equality (which is a magnum opus of egalitarian thought), A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church

by Wilda C. Gafney, Heart of Maleness: An Exploration

by Raphaël Liogier, Something's Not Right: Decoding the Hidden Tactics of Abuse—and Freeing Yourself from Its Power by Wade Mullen, Men and Women in Christ: Fresh Light from the Biblical Texts by Andrew Bartlett, and so many more. Still, I do hope my seven recommendations help you dive more deeply into understanding the richness of current egalitarian thought.

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Finally, we must not just talk about these books amongst ourselves. We can do more: in a time driven by engagement, we can signal boost egalitarian writers, buy their books, form study groups, recommend these books to our complementarian friends and family, and— perhaps most importantly—continue to read. All of these practices will help us grow in Christ and extend the biblical vision of equality throughout the church.

J.W. Wartick holds an MA in Christian apologetics from Biola University. His interests include Dietrich Bonhoeffer and sci-fi and fantasy novels. He writes at jwwartick.com. He and his wife Beth are blessed with two kids.

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Ministry News

Annual Report April 2020 through March 2021 As cities around the world were in lockdown during 2020, and people were isolated in their homes, domestic violence increased. But thanks to the support of CBE’s donors, we continued to counter abuse by educating and advocating for the biblical basis of women’s equality.

Giving was up 13 percent for CBE’s fiscal year that ended March 31, 2021.

Due to COVID restrictions, we cancelled our 2020 conference in London, pivoting to create CBE’s first-ever online conference in September 2021. Virtually, we educated and engaged with more people in many countries who were unable to travel. This experience strengthened CBE’s technical knowledge and capacity for online connection.

We finished the second year of a strategic plan exploring the intersection of women, race, and dismantling theological patriarchy. The process is helping us grow awareness, empathy, learning, trust, collaboration, and impact at the

intersection of gender and race. Board and staff are energized to dismantle unconscious bias uncovered during the year’s consultancy and engage with a diversity consultant for another year.

This new vision on intersectionality informed the launch of our podcast, Mutuality Matters, with four weekly themes: Intersectionality, Men & Women Leading Together, Global Impact, and New Voices. We’re also creating e-learning courses from CBE’s vast resource library.

Lastly, Brandon Dickerson—a noted film producer—is completing a film script on the life of Katharine Bushnell, MD.

Resource Distribution Annually, CBE reaches nearly one million web users worldwide. Our basic primer on biblical equality is available in twenty languages, and our journals, blog, and other resources are free online.

We’ve added Priscilla Papers to JSTOR’s Open Community Collections, where millions of researchers worldwide can access them free of charge. We also partnered with Fuller Theological Seminary to provide content for an online formation series that gives significant visibility to CBE’s resources and mission.

Preparing Women to Lead CBE awarded $6,000 AMMS scholarships to three finalists. The annual scholarships help women pursue master’s degrees in ministry fields related to preaching, communications, writing, youth ministry, pastoral, or nonprofit work. Meet the winners at cbe.today/ammsapply

Translation Project An international team of scholars is translating 300+ Bible verses (60+ different passages) to provide exegetically-sound, gender-accurate, and accessible English translations. They are on step two of a rigorous six-step process. When finished, CBE will publish these translations in a book to serve as a supplement to readers’ Bible translations of choice. Our final goal is a full gender-accurate Bible translation.

Church Resource CBE completed Created to Thrive: Cultivating Abuse-Free Faith Communities, which addresses abuse among Christians. It is designed to bring awareness and transformation to churches, organizations, and individuals and promote greater flourishing.

CBE also produced a workbook, Nurturing Women’s Equality: A Church Evaluation Tool, to help churches and organizations evaluate their community and identify practices which may inhibit them from nurturing men’s and women’s gifts, service, and shared leadership in advancing the gospel.

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WEBSITE :

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Ministry News National and International Partners CBE has chapters across the US and in Australia that promote the mission of CBE through mutual education and by engaging their local communities. While the pandemic made it difficult for chapters to meet in person, they were invited to attend our virtual conference free of charge.

CBE works beside partners in SubSaharan Africa on projects that we would otherwise not be able to perform in advancing the biblical basis for women’s equality and shared leadership.

Deborah Asio is an organizational development professional in Uganda who oversees CBE’s Africa partner projects and fosters connections with like-minded local organizations.

She Learns works in Uganda to educate, equip, and empower young women and girls with the message of God’s heart for their equality, reporting: “The poverty levels in villages have left many women and girls vulnerable to abuse. We were able to reach out to a number of families. They were thankful and the girls and women were filled with hope.”

IFAGE (Institute for Faith and Gender Empowerment) promotes women’s equality and works with Christian communities to achieve gender justice in Kenya and other parts of SubSaharan Africa.

On March 27, 2021, Rev. Canon Dr. Emily Onyango was consecrated as the first female bishop in the Anglican Church of Kenya. Rev. Domnic Misolo, Director of IFAGE, led the consecration planning committee. Emily is a long-time friend, CBE conference speaker, writer, and recipient of CBE’s Lifetime Achievement Award. CBE provided 800 books to guests at the consecration.

CoMaFo (Courtship and Marriage Foundation) confronts genderbased violence in Zimbabwe.

The Commissioner General authorized a partnership between CoMaFo and the police. So far, they have held two functions attended by pastors and chaplains from the police. CoMaFo reports: “We explored and assessed the realities of gender-based violence in the churches and police force, so we could craft relevant intervention measures.”

Award-Winning Publications CBE’s magazine + blog, Mutuality, was recognized with four awards from the Evangelical Press Association: • 3rd place as “best in class” for the Summer 2020 issue • 3rd place for David Hart’s “How Patriarchy Hurts Men” November 11, 2020, blog post • 4th place for the Autumn 2020 cover • 5th place for R. R. Wyatt’s poem “A Rose” from the Winter 2020 issue Find links to all CBE’s award-winning articles at cbe.today/awards.

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M U T U A L I T Y | “ The State of Women's Equality"

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$169,949

$140,404

$120,379 $160,001

$1,158,285

$837,294

Expenses $1,137,699

Revenue $1,448,613 Contributions and Grants

Program Services

In-Kind Contributions

Management and General

Other Income

Fundraising Change in Net Assets ($310,914)

Praise and Prayer

Praise

Prayer

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We thank God for generous, visionary, and faithful donors and foundations that provide new capacity to CBE staff, outreach, and needed resources worldwide, including radio spots, e-learning courses, podcasts, a film script on Katharine Bushnell, scholarships for women preparing for ministry, African partnerships, web technology, and much more!

We thank God for the success of CBE’s first virtual conference as over 225 participated and contributed to the success of this event. Participants came from eight countries and all enjoyed more than a month’s access of recorded sessions.

We thank God for ministry partners in churches, the academy, and NGO world as they extend CBE’s reach to those who have never heard the teachings of scripture from an egalitarian view.

Please pray for our podcast, Mutuality Matters, that launched in October.

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Please join us in praying for Fuller Theological Seminary, Wheaton College, Multnomah University, Saint Thomas University, the World Evangelical Alliance, the Evangelical Theological Society, and CBE’s other academic partners.

Please join us in praying for God’s power leading CBE’s African partners: IFAGE, SheLearns, CoMAFo, and our liaison Deborah, as they continue to navigate the extreme impact of COVID while leading egalitarian projects in their communities.

We ask God for profound wisdom in completing plans for our 2022 conference in Atlanta, August 4–6. Please pray for God’s leading as we identify speakers and partners, and that all logistics, marketing, and content would have a significant impact for Christ.

WEBSITE :

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President’s Message

by Mimi Haddad

An Egalitarian Legacy: Good Activism Remembers History to Promote Progress George Orwell in his 1949 novel wrote, “[The one] who controls the present, controls the past. [The one] who controls the past, controls the future.”1 Patriarchy’s plague persists, in part, because those who have the most power in the present continue to obscure women’s leadership in history to diminish vison for the future.

Misrepresenting women in history furthers the marginalization and abuse of girls and women by suggesting females are inferior, granting permission to treat them as lesser. The path forward for us as egalitarians must include a continual attention to the women and men who have promoted women’s biblical equality for centuries!

Biblical & Theological Scholarship The historical reclamation in egalitarian activism includes vigorously recovering the original meaning of biblical words, like ezer as “strong rescue” (Gen. 2:18), kephale as “source” (1 Cor. 11:3, Eph. 5:23, Col. 1:18), and authentein as “to domineer” (1 Tim. 2:12).

Additionally, egalitarians have also examined how biblical themes like leadership as service and the Trinity reflect the mutuality between men and women. In contrast, complementarians have interpreted biblical words and themes to reinforce male authority.

For example, Bruce Ware advances male authority based on God the Father’s presumed authority over God the Son.2 As we continue to engage the scholarship of our egalitarian predecessors, we remain in rigorous, loving conversation with complementarians, that we might flourish through God’s exhortation to “come now, let us reason together.”3

NGO projects. Our latest book, Created to Thrive, continues to explore the connection between deeply held views about women’s worth and their devaluation.

Power Dynamics Like pro-slavery Christians who believed the abuses of slavery were justified by their faith, complementarians wish to support maleheadship while side-stepping the consequences of abuse. In contrast, egalitarians opposed slavery and Christian patriarchy from the beginning because it offends Scripture’s emphasis of love, empathy, and service. As Richard Hays wrote, Scripture calls those with power and privilege to surrender it for the sake of the weak… it is husbands (not wives) who are called to emulate Christ’s example of giving themselves up in obedience for the sake of the other (Eph. 5:25)…[interpreting this] as though it somehow warranted a husband’s domination or physical abuse of his wives can only be regarded as a bizarre—indeed, blasphemous—misreading... the followers of Jesus—men and women alike—must read the New Testament as a call to renounce violence and coercion.7

Sociological Engagement

Complementarians critique post-1970s egalitarian concern for women’s “rights” and “equality” as a departure from early egalitarians whose aim was service to others. Indeed, post-1970s egalitarians addressed political and legal rights as a means of serving others, particularly women who were abused physically and economically. In this way, they were aligned with the first-wave feminists who advanced abolition, suffrage, and laws against rape and trafficking.

Social scientists research the impact of culture on masculinity and femininity.4 Without apology, egalitarians relentlessly attend to the link between male-dominance and abuse.5 Prior to 1994, data on domestic violence was scant at best. Thanks to second-wave feminists and post-1970s egalitarian activism, violence against women dropped 48.2 percent from 1993–2010.6 Since 1994, CBE has consistently addressed abuse and gender-based violence at events, in research, and in publications beside its partners and

Egalitarian activism, from the early evangelicals to today, recovers women’s leadership at every moment in history. We also challenge the abuse of Scripture as has been used to demean women, devalue and marginalize their dignity and gifts, and provide license for abuse. In honoring our egalitarian legacy, we remember our leaders and celebrate “the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith,” (Heb. 13:7). Their faithful biblical and social activism inspires and informs our activism in powerful ways each day.

1. George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four (London: Secker & Warburg, 1949), 309.

2. Bruce Ware, Father, Son and Holy Spirit: Relationships, Roles and, Relevance (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2005).

3. Isaiah 1:18.

4. Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen, Gender and Grace: Love, Work and Parenting in a Changing World (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1990) andElaine Storkey, Origins of Difference: The Gender Debate Revisited (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2001).

5. Catherine Clark Kroeger and James R. Beck, Women, Abuse, and the Bible: How Scripture Can Be Used to Hurt Or to Heal (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1996).

6. Shannan Catalano, “Special Report: Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2010,” US Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, last modified September 29, 2015. Available online at https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ipv9310.pdf, accessed Feb 1, 2019.

7. Richard Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament (San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1996), 197.

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WEBSITE :

cbeinternational.org

CBE INTERNATIONAL (Christians for Biblical Equality) MISSION STATEMENT CBE exists to promote the biblical message that God calls women and men of all cultures, races, and classes to share authority equally in service and leadership in the home, church, and world. CBE’s mission is to eliminate the power imbalance between men and women resulting from theological patriarchy.

STATEMENT OF FAITH

CORE VALUES

• We believe in one God, creator and sustainer of the universe, eternally existing as three persons equal in power and glory.

• We believe in the full deity and the full humanity of Jesus Christ.

• We believe that eternal salvation and restored relationships are only possible through faith in Jesus Christ who died for us, rose from the dead, and is coming again. This salvation is offered to all people.

• We believe the Holy Spirit equips us for service and sanctifies us from sin.

• We believe the Bible is the inspired word of God, is reliable, and is the final authority for faith and practice.

• We believe that women and men are equally created in God’s image and given equal authority and stewardship of God’s creation.

• We believe that men and women are equally responsible for and distorted by sin, resulting in shattered relationships with God, self, and others.

• Scripture is our authoritative guide for faith, life, and practice.

• Patriarchy (male dominance) is not a biblical ideal but a result of sin.

• Patriarchy is an abuse of power, taking from females what God has given them: their dignity, and freedom, their leadership, and often their very lives.

• While the Bible reflects patriarchal culture, the Bible does not teach patriarchy in human relationships.

• Christ’s redemptive work frees all people from patriarchy, calling women and men to share authority equally in service and leadership.

• God’s design for relationships includes faithful marriage between a man and a woman, celibate singleness, and mutual submission in Christian community.

• The unrestricted use of women’s gifts is integral to the work of the Holy Spirit and essential for the advancement of the gospel in the world.

• Followers of Christ are to oppose injustice and patriarchal teachings and practices that marginalize and abuse females and males.

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Standardized Pathway for Developing Men into Allies to Women

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Cristina Richie

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Poured Out on All Flesh: An Evangelical Egalitarian East-West Dialogue on Gender and Race

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The Gospel According to Eve: A History of Women’s Interpretation, by Amanda W. Benckhuysen

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Pre-Order Created to Thrive! Created to Thrive brings together the voices of experts and faith leaders for a much-needed conversation about abuse.

Written for pastors, Christian leaders, and faith communities, Created to Thrive explores the connection between deeply held views about women’s worth and the consequences of their devaluation. This groundbreaking book addresses how theology can perpetuate abuse and offers best practices for creating safe spaces where all can thrive.

Created to Thrive will help you: • • •

Understand and address domestic and church abuse Respond wisely to reports of violence Help break the cycle of abuse

When you pre-order Created to Thrive by January 1, 2022 you’ll get a bundle of perks, including the Nurturing Women’s Equality: A Church Evaluation Tool workbook and access to an invite-only online book club with the authors.

Praise for Created to Thrive “This is a resource long overdue that addresses a critical need in the evangelical church. It is at the same time a healing ointment for past wounds and preventive medicine for the future.”

—Dr. Ron Pierce, professor at the Talbot School of Theology, Biola University “This book boldly names abuse, affirms God's heart for the survivor, and equips the church to know how best to recognize and respond to those who are impacted by domestic violence. Created to Thrive gives the Body of Christ the tools she needs to bear witness to the imago Dei in how we listen to, believe, advocate for, and protect those who have been harmed by abuse.”

—Pastor Sarah Ago, board president of SEARCH (Southeast Asia Rescue Coalition & Haven)

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