Mutuality | Autumn 2013

Autumn 2015

Men and women serving and leading as equals

Human Essence Does gender define our humanity?

CONTENTS 4 7 10 12 14 16 18 Variations on a Theme

Rejoicing in created differences without prescribed gender roles.

by Hilary Ritchie

Puzzling Reflections

An untidy picture of what it means to be male and female humans.

by Amy R. Buckley

Essential Relationships

What lies at the core of our humanity?

by Amy F. Davis Abdallah

Jesus Christ: God in Male-Human Flesh?

Can Jesus save women? Depends what it means to be human.

by J.W. Wartick

D E PA R T M E N T S 3 From the Editor Female, Male, and Humanity.

19 Reflect with Us What. Wait! Who Said “What”?

20 Ministry News / Giving Opportunities 22 President’s Message Sharing Humanity, Not Neutralizing Gender.

23 Praise and Prayer

ED I TO R I AL S TAF F Editor: Tim Krueger Graphic Designer: Mary Quint Publisher/President: Mimi Haddad Follow Mutuality on Twitter @MutualityMag

Book Review: Malestrom by Carolyn Custis James reviewed by Mark Kubo

Book Review: Borderline by Stan Goff reviewed by Rachel Elizabeth Asproth

Vulnerability Makes the Man: A Review of Man Enough by Nate Pyle reviewed by Tim Krueger

Mutuality vol. 22, no. 3, Autumn 2015 “Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding” (Rom. 14:19, NRSV).

Mutuality (ISSN: 1533-2470) seeks to provide inspiration, encouragement, and information about the equality of men and women within the Christian church around the world.

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On the Cover: Design by Mary Quint.

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F

rom the Editor

by Tim Krueger

Female, Male, and Humanity I would settle into a comfortable slouch at my desk in the corner classroom that hosted my contextual theology class, unwrap my giant blueberry muffin, and begin to dig in when the professor would bound into the room and ask “Did Jesus have to be a man?”

This happened at least a couple times a month. Each time, someone would begrudgingly offer up the same answer: “Well, because of the culture of the time, Jesus couldn’t have accomplished what he did without the freedoms he had as a male. So… I guess?”

Unimpressed, our professor would ask again, with greater urgency. Not bothering to wait for a response, he’d explain a theological concept that none of us grasped, and conclude with “and if that’s true, Jesus can’t save women!” We would stare blankly for a few moments before returning to our muffins and steaming beverages, and he’d move on to something else.

A couple years after I took that class, I was at a wedding doing what I often do at weddings—cringing at the sermon and wondering if the couple getting married believed everything the pastor was saying. He spoke at length about the beauty of the “gender roles” in marriage. “Women are made for submission and men for leadership. What a beautiful thing it is when we embrace the purpose for which God created us!”

As I sat in the pew, something hit me. If what the pastor was saying was true—if submission defines femaleness and leadership defines maleness—then all humanity does not share a common nature. Rather, female and male possess a fundamentally different essence from one another, and this shapes their entire identity, purpose, and destiny in the world.1 There is not one humanity, but two: male-human and female-human.

This is a view called “gender essentialism” and it’s quite popular in evangelical literature. Rarely is it so clearly articulated as in a recent book on gender and identity: At the core of who we are, we are gendered. Femininity or masculinity is so irrevocably and irreversibly embedded in our being that no one can accurately say “I am first a person and then male or female.” With the privileged excitement of destiny, we must rather say, “I am a male person, a man,” or “I am a female person, a woman.” Our soul’s center is alive with either masculinity or femininity.2

As I pondered the gender essentialism being espoused by the pastor, my old professor’s words returned to me: “If that’s true, then Jesus can’t save women.” If we believe God became fully human, we must also believe in a human essence that transcends the male-female divide. And it is this essence which

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God embodies in Jesus, a man, but a fully human man. (More on this on page 12.)

Gender essentialism is everywhere. It’s in our books, our counseling sessions, our sermons, and our music. Not long ago, it reared its head amid the flurry of protest when Target removed gender-specific labels from its toy department. Surely, people argued, this would discourage children from fully living out their humanity, which is defined by their sex and accompanying “gender roles.”

If we believe God became fully human, we must also believe in a human essence that transcends the male-female divide.

Most of the time, gender essentialism is simply assumed to be true, as though all Christians hold it to be self-evident. Also assumed is the idea that to deny gender essentialism is to deny any difference between men and women (more on this on page 22).

Upon these unchallenged assumptions rest countless arguments for gender-based hierarchy (and even some for mutuality).

In this issue, we dig into gender essentialism. We’ll evaluate assumptions and popular ideas about what it is to be male or female, how this impacts our humanity, and how it affects our beliefs about ourselves and God. And, we’ll review three recent and forthcoming books on a related and recently hot topic: masculinity. I believe that as we dive deeper into these questions, we’ll discover that God created us to share a single essence: humanity—a humanity with plenty of room for difference between male and female, but which requires that we say, “I am first and above all, human, and then male or female.”

In Christ, Tim Krueger 1. For a more in-depth explanation, see Mimi Haddad, “Male and Female: One Image, One Purpose,” Mutuality 21, no. 1 (Spring 2014), 22.

2. Larry Crabb, Fully Alive: A Biblical Vision of Gender That Frees Men and Women to Live Beyond Stereotypes (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2013), 21–22. Emphasis mine.

M U T U A L I T Y | “Human Essence” 3

Variations on a Theme: Expressions of Humanity Directed by Christ

by Hilary Ritchie

Prelude As a young violinist, I had to practice with recordings that helped me get the notes of the piece in my ear and fingers.

Honestly, these practice recordings were uninspiring to hear. They were useful and accurately represented the notes, but they weren’t beautiful. My Suzuki practice CDs sounded nothing like a virtuoso violinist playing the same music, because the virtuoso is not simply trying to play each note accurately. She is putting herself into that concerto. In turn, an audience connects with her honesty and self-revelation and is moved by the beauty of the piece.

For me, this serves as an analogy that can illuminate some aspects of the gender debate.

In the gender debate, you will typically find two sides in opposition. No, not male and female, but “constructivist” versus “essentialist.” A constructivist views gender as socially created according to cultural customs and mores. Essentialists, on the other hand, view gender as inseparable from one’s very being as human. So, when an essentialist says, “I am

a woman,” she is saying “my womanhood is my humanity.” When a constructivist says, “I am a woman,” she is saying “my womanhood is defined by my culture.”

I find both sides of the discussion troubling. I believe gender essentialism comes from an earnest desire to affirm what Genesis 1:27 says: “God created humans in his image, male and female he created them.” Unfortunately, gender essentialists have distilled the female image of God to certain roles, quite different and often inferior from what they perceive to be the male image of God. This has justified the subjugation of women and their exclusion from full participation in church and public affairs.

Constructivism, then, seems attractive because it allows women to recognize that their gender does not restrict the way they live their life. If gender is a social construct rather than a divine mandate, it is easier to discard cultural ideals and embrace one’s own freedom. The strength of constructivism is its recognition that culture has the power to shape what it means to be a man or woman. There are plenty of sociological studies that demonstrate that

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the gender roles as we understand them are not the only way it has to be (Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen has written about this in Priscilla Papers and elsewhere, and consider the central African Aka tribe, where women hunt and fathers care for children). But is this all there is to say? As a Christian, I cannot simply dismiss the reality of creation—that God did, in fact, create “male and female.”

Perhaps there is a way to harmonize both sides by rejoicing in God’s creation while at the same time not letting culturally prescribed roles define us. I find that the best counsel begins and ends in God and God’s redeeming action in the world—God’s musical composition and performance, if you will. So that’s where I am going to look.

Creation: the music I see gender essentialism as my Suzuki CD. Useful, in some ways, but limiting our capacity to f lourish as intended.

Constructivism, on the other hand, would be like a musician improvising

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in a different key and time signature than the original piece. Interesting, perhaps, but not congruent with the rest of the composition.

The first and most basic characteristic of humanity is that we were made in the image of our Creator, made male and female. How do we reflect God’s image as male or female? Should we pour ourselves into the music, hopefully making something beautiful? Or should we play note-bynote, accurate if uninspired?

God is like a good musician who composes a piece of music to be shared.

Bach, for example, wrote his music intending that it be improvised upon. At some concerts you can still hear musicians improvising as they play a Bach fugue.

Improvisation, when done in the spirit of the work, enhances the piece and gives it depth much better than a completely accurate, note-by-note performance.

In order to improvise well, a musician must so deeply internalize the melody and framework of the song that they can create their own interpretation of that melody without betraying the original composition. We begin with our created selves, male and female, as God’s created melody. Then, we bring the music of God’s creation to life in our context. My femininity will look different than my neighbor’s or Joan of Arc’s or Priscilla’s, and that is good. It allows me to represent God faithfully in my context.

To improvise well, we not only need to know the music well, but we need a good teacher. We need a relationship with our Creator, who is both the composer and our teacher.

able to improvise and play with my own unique voice. Without the guidance of my teachers, I would likely never have reached this point.

Jesus Christ is our teacher, and this changes everything. Jesus displayed God’s glory by becoming flesh and living among us (John 1:14). He shows us what it means to be fully human. And, Jesus’ redemptive work releases us to live the life God intended for us.

Gender is a part of the life that God intended for us, but God’s intent and society’s intent may look very different.

When we become members of the kingdom of God, we are both accepting the score God has written for our lives and accepting Jesus as our teacher to help us interpret that score. Jesus, the Good Teacher, does what all good teachers do: he listens to his students. He knows that while certain techniques are necessary for all students, each student has unique needs and motivations.

Listening and practicing are the main ways a musician grows. As students in Christ’s kingdom, we must be in constant dialogue with our teacher concerning how we are to faithfully steward the life God has given us. There is no one-sizefits-all approach to gender. But, by being in conversation with our teacher, we learn how to live as gendered beings within our context. We learn how to live in his kingdom.

Kingdom: the performance My least favorite part of being a musician is performing. I get terribly nervous and my hands start to shake. If you want to hear me play my best, you had better come to my practice session right before the recital. The reality is, however, that music is meant

Christ: composer and teacher I could not have learned the violin on my own. I am indebted to my teachers for patiently instructing me and challenging me, serving as guides as I learned where to put my fingers and how to hold my bow. I studied the way they played, and slowly, I began to increase in skill. I have since reached a point where I am

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M U T U A L I T Y | “Human Essence” 5

to be shared, so eventually, you just have to let go, forget about the audience, and play your best.

While the Christian life is not a “show” per se, it is more than play-acting until we go to heaven. We must live the lives we’ve been given. If we want to know what God’s kingdom looks like, we need only look to our teacher, Jesus.

Jesus welcomed poor fishermen, the lame, the blind, the bleeding. He did not seem to care that the world deemed these people ill-suited for the life that he saw in them. Jesus looked past the worldly categories imposed upon them and saw through to their worth in the image of God. We are called to do the same—to “regard no one from a human point of view” (2 Cor. 5:16). This extends even to the human perceptions of gender that we have for one another.

I am not suggesting that we ignore how we were created, as male and female. I am suggesting that part of recognizing that we were created also means recognizing that we live in a created world. Even our expectations of gender are created, and in this case they are created by us. As agents of Christ’s kingdom, we do not have to ignore what it means to be a man or woman in today’s society—to do so would be to divorce ourselves from our world, and therefore from our call to bring God’s kingdom to the earth.

Instead, we can affirm each person’s creation in the image of God, created by and for God’s love. What it means for one person to live as a man made in God’s image may be very different than what it means for another man to live out his creation in God’s image. This

does not mean that one man is right and the other is wrong. It does mean that the image of God in him, not his maleness, is what is fundamental to his humanity.

And it means that he is not defined by, nor should he be confined to, culturally prescribed roles based on gender.

By allowing each individual to live and flourish as one fully created in the image of God, the composer, we all more richly experience the beauty and diversity of God’s kingdom.

Hilary Ritchie graduated from Bethel University with a degree in history and biblical and theological studies. She is interested in the early church, historical theology, and worship.

She is currently pursuing her MDiv at Princeton Theological Seminary.

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September 16–17, 2016 Johannesburg, South Africa For more information, email conferences@cbeinternational.org

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Puzzling Reflections: What it means to be male and female humans

by Amy R. Buckley

“Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.” (1 Cor. 13:12 NLT) Eight boys and three girls played in the cul-de-sac where our family used to live in the Pacific Northwest. Add the numbers, weigh the ratios (8:3; 3:8), and imagine the drama. I’m not one to stereotype, but boys in baseball caps frequently ran around shooting homemade toy guns, and girls donning fairy wings often retaliated with glittery wands. Boys seemed prone to scuffles; girls tended to avoid them. Boys excluded girls from street hockey. Girls shut boys out of makeshift clubhouses.

“Boys are better than girls,” echoed off the pavement.

“No way! Girls are better than boys,” reverberated through the streets.

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When joining forces, boys and girls accomplished questionable feats such as painting a garage door yellow in the nanoseconds when no parent was looking.

Boys and girls blamed each other, and parents imagined the boys boosting the girls and their paint-tipped brushes.

Everybody reaped the consequences.

The neighborhood drama reopened questions that I’d pondered since studying psychology and theology: How different are men and women, really? To what degree are those differences hardwired?

Are there limits to what science can tell us? What is the significance of God making humans male and female?

Scientific Research Is Right and Wrong Before It Changes Despite appearances, I have learned that there’s more to differences between men and women than sex (biology). Nurture and environment also contribute, shaping gender. Research shifts between the latest conclusions and reevaluations as the scientific process repeats itself with new conclusions. Sometimes biases, faulty scientific practices, and misinterpretations influence the outcomes. For example, German neurologist Paul Julius Möbius once discovered that a man’s skull has an 8% larger capacity than a woman’s

M U T U A L I T Y | “Human Essence” 7

skull of equal age and height. “Women are “physiologically weak-minded,” he erroneously concluded in a book about sex differences in the human brain.

Science has since proven that female brains, although smaller, have more densely packed neurons (the brain’s primary functional units). Despite other structural differences, often overstated by the media, male and female brains show equal capacity for intelligence, and research has yet to demonstrate that differences cause male versus female behavior.1 It is a human brain.

differ—chromosomes determine our biological sex (XX or XY), relating to our body and physiology. Males tend to be larger with more muscle mass while females tend to be smaller with wider hips. Women give birth and men do not. Women lactate and men do not.

Differences become less distinct when turning to other characteristics.

Discussions of hormones are controversial. Scientists debate the significance of differing types and levels of hormones in male and female. We hear a spectrum of responses to questions: Are

It’s a big deal that God named us humans. It sets us apart from animals and the rest of creation. Male and female share the same substance (human) as one-of-a-kind persons.

In 1873, Harvard professor Dr. Edward Clarke wrote a popular book asserting that if young women studied too much, they would divert blood from the uterus to the brain, rendering themselves “irritable and infertile.” He concluded that women should not attend college. Incidentally, the study appeared one year after the Women’s Education Association of Boston sought for Harvard to enroll women (1872). And Harvard President Charles William Eliot and the Harvard Corporation were “deeply opposed” to allowing women to attend.

Science has since disproven the erroneous connection between a female’s brain and uterus. Harvard, and other educational institutions, eventually enrolled women.

Research continues “proving” and “disproving” certain female and male differences. Clearly men and women

females better equipped for caring for a home and children? Are males better equipped for professional work outside the home? Are females wired to be more compliant? Are males wired to be more aggressive? Questions about gender identity and purpose are countless, and science paints an untidy picture, with fewer extremes, than most of us know.

For example, Dr. Ruth Feldman of Bar-Ilan University demonstrates that men experience floods of oxytocin and prolactin when picking up a newborn baby, rewiring men’s brains, making them more empathetic. Likewise, men and women experience circulating levels of androgens, 2 including testosterone, when engaging in sports, fighting, and other non-stereotypical situations. Men and women demonstrate similar levels of aggression, though men more commonly

employ physical aggression, 3 possibly because they are larger and stronger.

Contrary to popular thinking, research has not proven that testosterone causes aggression (it’s complex).4 Levels, patterns, and impacts of hormones vary more from individual to individual than according to sex. And other factors, such as genetic predispositions, expectations, and beliefs, can—to yet unknown degrees—engender the brain. We do not have time to dig into this vast and complex body of research.

Overall, science continues uncovering an iceberg. Research supports sex differences and diversity of individual—male and female— personalities and behaviors. Continuing questions and studies lead to new conversations about what it means to be male and female humans.

God Made Men and Women Human Contrary to popular discussions of sex and gender explaining that men are from Mars and women are from Venus, God refers to male and female with one name, Adam, emphasizing their commonality as humans: When God created human beings he made them to be like himself. He created them male and female, and he blessed them and called them “human.” 5 (Gen. 5:1b–2 NLT)

Names in the Old Testament carry important clues about identity and purpose. God leaves no question about their mutual human purposes: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the

1. See Melissa Hines, Brain Gender (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) and Daniel J. Siegel, The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are, 2nd Edition (New York: The Guilford Press, 2012).

2. Hines, Brain Gender, Chapter 7, “Androgen and Aggression.”

3. Craig A. Anderson and L. Rowell Huesmann, “Human Aggression: A Social-Cognitive View” in The SAGE Handbook of Social Psychology, 1st Edition, eds. Michael Hogg and Joel M. Cooper (London: SAGE Publications, 2003).

4. Hines, Brain Gender, Chapter 7, “Androgen and Aggression.”

5. “Adam” is a collective noun, derived from adamah, meaning “ground;” denoting that the first person came from the earth. “Adam” refers to people.

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earth.” (Gen. 1:28 NRSV) It’s a big deal that God named us humans. It sets us apart from animals and the rest of creation.

Male and female share the same substance (human) as one-of-a-kind persons.

In Genesis 2:18, God designates the woman a helper corresponding to the man.

This means she is like him in substance (physiology, intellect, emotion) yet unique.

Her position is before him, face to face, not behind or under him. Together, the man and woman reflect the multipersonality of God as Creator, Word, Spirit.

While men and women differ physiologically, we are made for the purpose of completing each other in a unity (Gen. 2:24). Stamped with the image of God, you and I have equal dignity with equal rights and responsibilities.

God equips us to thrive while caring for each other and the earth (Gen. 1:26–28).

biological destiny. Processes of gender socialization start when parents prepare to have a child—will the baby be a boy or a girl? Those who study gender development measure how parental thinking and behaviors toward children differ depending on sex. For example, studies show that parents tend to play more aggressively with baby boys than girls (reinforcing aggression in boys).

Scientists measure origins of gendered behavior and thinking and changes over time. When do children form negative attitudes about the other sex? How do cultural gender norms shape children’s thinking and behavior? How are individuals, relationships, and social institutions affected? The scope of this article cannot address these questions.

More than biology plays into human development reflecting a spectrum of male and female individuals.

We Are More Than Products Jesus, the Human, Redeems of Biology Men and Women “Men have broad and large chests, and small narrow hips, and more understanding than women, who have but small and narrow breasts, and broad hips, to the end they should remain at home, sit still, keep house, and bear and bring up children.”

—Martin Luther, Table Talk

Throughout history, even welleducated, well-meaning people have fallen into defining men and women strictly according to their sex (biological determinism). Consequent human perceptions and expectations have limited opportunities of many in society, especially women. Biological determinism limits women and men to roles determined by their sex, often hinging on marriage and procreation, although God created male and female to multiply and subdue the earth and have dominion (including children). This is a painful reality for many women and men whose personalities, vocations, choices, and circumstances do not fit common prescriptions for gender.

Research since the late 1960s has uncovered more complex facets to humanness—male and female—than

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God didn’t name the first woman Eve. The first man named her Eve, meaning “mother of all living.” Prior to that, God had invited the man to name the animals, an act of jurisdiction. God never instructed the man to name his wife, much less to have jurisdiction over her. The act defied God’s intention for male and female to share one name: Adam, meaning Mr. and Mrs. Humankind. It signified humanity breaking apart.

The Old Testament traces what happens as a result of humans abandoning God’s purposes. Attitudes of superiority play into devaluing others through stereotyping, minimizing, competitiveness, withholding resources, dominating, etc. Scripture and history testify to the devastating affects it has on human relationships and the world (Rom. 3:23). Sin leads to sexism, racism, classism, and other forms of systemic inequality.

Biological determinism contributes to the thoughts and beliefs of some who disrespect and oppress others. As a result, many experience less-than-human treatment, especially women and children.

The New Testament writers carefully refer to Jesus as a human (anthropos); he is God wrapped in human flesh. In him, men and women have hope for salvation from sin and age-old human conflicts (Eph. 2:4–9).

In him we are restored to rightful status as humans created in the image of God. In him, we rise above attitudes of superiority that result in stereotyping, minimizing, competitiveness, withholding resources, dominating, etc. His Spirit enlivens us to lift others up—male and female—to God’s glory. True and lasting freedom comes as we incarnate Jesus together—loving our neighbors as much as ourselves.

Today our family has relocated from the Pacific Northwest to Florida. My daughters play with boys and girls in our new neighborhood, and little has changed. Boys tend to run around with homemade guns, stirring up scuffles.

Girls tend to retaliate while avoiding altercations. One of my daughters has since become quite good at hockey. My husband and I continue encouraging both our daughters toward healthy ways of working out differences with boys (an ever-evolving process). The neighborhood kids haven’t painted any garage doors although they have gotten into other mischief. Knowing that the spirit of Jesus is involved in the development of our children, and the process of working out the most human versions of ourselves— male and female—I think less about sex and gender differences and more about being one in Christ.

I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.

(John 17:22–23) Amy R. Buckley is a writer, speaker, and activist. She is a contributor to Strengthening Families and Ending Abuse: Churches and Their Leaders Look to the Future (Wipf and Stock, 2013), and serves on the board of Life Together International. Read more at amyrbuckley.com and find her on Twitter @AmyR_Buckley.

M U T U A L I T Y | “Human Essence” 9

ESSENTIAL

relationships

by Amy F. Davis Abdallah

I enter the delivery room, not knowing the sex of the one I have carried in my womb for nine months of hope and fear, joy and pain, preparation and trepidation.

Upon the last push, “It’s a boy!” rings out in the room, but as he lies on my chest, his sex doesn’t matter; it matters that he is a healthy baby.

We bring him home in greens and yellows, and when I gaze at his sleeping face, I know he is a boy, but his sex doesn’t matter. I would take care of him in the

same way; he plays with the same toys, eats the same food, wears the same diapers. At eight months, a green or yellow outfit still elicits strangers’ comments about “her,” and when a friend recently called him beautiful, she said that when he gets older she will change it to “handsome.”

He’s in the stroller, my husband I show him the trees and sky, and I ask him, “Do you know that you’re a boy like papa and not a girl like mama?” His happy squeals give me no answer.

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Is there a masculine essence already in him but currently invisible? Will it come out of the inside as he grows, or will he become like papa because we teach him to? It seems that there is no scientifically proven answer.

I’ve been fascinated with rites of passage for years now, and research shows sex-specific rites in many cultures. Boys become men and girls become women with rites that give them the skills and status to fulfill a cultural role.

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The current cultural confusion regarding what it means to be a man or a woman and when or how one passes into adulthood invites the church to create rites of passage that disciple our youth.

My dissertation research into Christian rites of passage for women has enabled me to do just that, based on undergirding principles of Christian maturity that are the same for both female and male.

Essential Relationships In studying rites for both sexes, I found that all the rites defined maturity in terms of relationship, primarily relationship with God and with others. Genesis 1 reveals relationship at the core of being human, since we bear the image and likeness of

are unified beings who cannot separate body and soul/spirit; humans are also complex beings; we are physical, social, sexual, intellectual, emotional, spiritual, and more. These aspects of our being also flow into one another like water flows beneath the buoys on the rope.

Woman Though churches may nurture one’s relationship with God and with others, it is often in a generic human sense rather than in a gender-related sense. Christian women relate to God, self, others, and creation in ways that are often similar to other women and different at times from the way men do.

Woman, a year-long rite of passage at Nyack College, where I teach, creates space where participants are not simply taught to be a Christian, but to be a Christian woman.

defines as feminine; God also displays traits that culture defines as masculine.

Both Woman and my book are targeted at women, since sin has affected them in particular ways and they thus commonly share several tendencies.

Culture (the broader culture, the church subculture, and more) has also shaped and defined them in ways specific to their sex. Furthermore, a woman’s relationship with others is nuanced because she can bear children, giving life in a distinctive manner. All of this is addressed in order to redeem and call forth healthy relationships with God, self, others, and creation.

Man Nyack has no corollary program for men, though many have expressed interest.

Because of the distinctions alluded to

Genesis 1 reveals relationship at the core of being human, since we bear the image and likeness of the Trinitarian, eternally relational God. the Trinitarian, eternally relational God. Genesis 2 reveals relationship with God as well as relationship with others, whose essential similarity runs deep into the bone.

Genesis 1 also references another essential relationship—with creation. Male and female are created in God’s image, and then God gives them all of creation to steward. Caring for other living things and thus also caring for fellow humans is stamped into humanity at its core.

The final relationship that defines humanity is relationship with oneself.

Though not in Genesis, knowing and caring for oneself becomes clear in the biblical injunction to love one’s neighbor as oneself. This injunction shows interdependence between the relationship with oneself and that with others. In fact, all four relationships are not completely separate categories or compartments. The dividing lines are more like buoys on a rope in a swimming pool than like thick walls; each is mixed with the others. Humans

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“Woman finds her identity in relationship with God, self, others, and creation,” states the trademark of the rite of passage. The role of the rite of passage into womanhood is to create opportunities for girls to gain knowledge, skills, and a disposition that seeks maturity and development in these relationships.

Woman has just “crossed over” its fifth class of Nyack College seniors. Many alumnae have stated that Woman helped them become truly themselves. They received a relational framework for womanhood, reached into their core, and were freed to fully express their true identity, through actions and in a confident voice, even if culture deemed it more “masculine.”

Woman participants work through my soon-to-be published Book of Womanhood, which begins where the Bible does: with the shared image of God, who is neither masculine nor feminine, but as Creator, contains and encompasses both. God displays traits that culture

above, sex-specific books and rites are appropriate as women call girls into womanhood and men call boys into manhood. If a rite of passage for men is invented in the future, I hope that it would be based on the shared essential relationships with God, self, others, and creation.

And as my boy grows and develops, I hope we all give him room for his individual expression of these relationships. Maybe he’ll be more like me, or maybe more like his dad. Perhaps his sex won’t matter too much, because he will always simply be my child.

Amy F. Davis Abdallah, PhD, is associate professor of theology and Bible at Nyack College. She is passionate about teaching, writing, mentoring, preaching, and ministry both in the US and abroad. The Book of Womanhood will be her first full-length work, coming early 2016. Read more at amyfdavisabdallah.com or follow Amy on Twitter @amyfdavisa.

M U T U A L I T Y | “Human Essence” 11

by J.W. Wartick

Christians around the world agree that Jesus is fully God and fully human. Jesus’ humanity makes it possible for him to liberate us from the bonds of sin. At first glance, this central tenet of our faith might seem quite unrelated to many other important concerns, such as the role of gender in the Christian community.

But is this the case?

How might someone’s view of gender impact the doctrine of salvation through Christ? I believe it does, and in significant ways. I will argue that if women are subordinate simply because they are women, then Jesus’ redemptive work can—in some fashion—not fully apply to women.

Humanity defined Before proceeding, we need to ask what it means to be human. Specifically, what characteristics are required for someone to be considered human? One thing that may come to mind offhand would be some physical trait. Humans have two legs and walk upright. Initially, this standard may seem perfectly acceptable, but then we must consider that some human beings are born without legs, others lose them in the course of their lives, and others may not walk uprightly for various reasons. We would rightly condemn any call to leave these people outside the definition of “human.”

If no single physical feature can be “necessary” for one to be human, we must go deeper. Going beneath the skin, we find that all human beings have DNA that is identifiable as human. Though there is variation of DNA

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among humans, we are able to discern whether the DNA we observe is from a human or a bat, for instance. As embodied persons, this seems like one feature that humans would necessarily have.

Humans also have a will, which may or not be expressed at all times. At every stage of development—as many parents, including myself, can attest—human beings have wills which they exercise. Certain conditions— sleep, comas, and the like—may prevent the exercise of this will, but that does not mean a person does not possess it.

Moving from concrete to abstract, we might say all humans share the image of God, a feature that is imparted to human beings by God’s creation (Gen. 1:27), though there is much debate over the exact features of that “image.”

Such features as these would be abstract, yet still necessary for one to be a human being.

It seems that being a human is a composite of various necessary components. Human DNA, a will, and the image of God are all necessary for one to be human, and we can use this combination of traits to identify a human being. We might call these traits the necessary features of humanity.

These necessary features of humanity may also identify an entity as nonhuman.

None of these features can be lost without also losing one’s humanity, so if any feature is missing, one is not human. For example, although angels have wills, they do not have human DNA, nor are we told whether they are made in the image of God. Angels lack at least one necessary feature of humanity, so we can safely say they are nonhuman.

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A COMPLEMENTARIAN VIEW OF GENDER AND HUMANITY Having established that some features are necessary for human beings, while others are not, we can now move on to considering gender. According to a complementarian view, men and women are differentiated by roles. These roles exist and apply to a person by virtue of

As human beings, then, we are necessarily distinct—male and female— not just in matters of sex organs, hormone expression, and the like, but in the very essence of what it means to be male or female. There is no uniting the two genders, which must forever act as leader and subordinate according to their gender-based “roles.” Again, in this view, gender is a necessary feature of humanity.

of one’s humanity, so that no single being can adequately represent both—then one cannot maintain that Jesus Christ fully embodied human nature for both men and women. Instead, Jesus came as malehuman, and we cannot claim that he fully represents women.

The implications of this conclusion are disastrous. Most disturbing, it means the atonement of women is not as complete as that of men. Jesus could not,

“It is furthermore necessary for eternal salvation truly to believe that our Lord Jesus Christ also took on human flesh.”

–the Athanasian Creed their being male or female. The “role” of the man is to be the leader, while the “role” of the woman is to be subordinate.

These roles or functions are tied explicitly to one’s gender. Thus, to be a woman is to be subordinate to men.

According to a complementarian view, the roles of men and women are essential—they are necessary features of human identity. Gender roles are not like the example of legs used earlier, but are closer to the category of DNA, a will, and God’s image. It is not that some women are not subordinate and others are, like some humans have legs, and others do not. Rather, all women are to be subordinate to all men, full stop. A person who does not express herself as subordinate to men is, in some way, a faulty woman.

Therefore, the “roles” of men and women are necessary features of these persons. Men are to function in one way; women are to function in another.

However, unlike the necessary features of human beings noted above, if one fails to function in this manner, one does not necessarily cease to be a man or woman, but has violated God’s order and design for humanity. If a man fails to lead, he is a man in rebellion. A woman who does not act in subordination to men is a woman who is not functionally a woman.

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There will always be at least one aspect of one’s expression of humanity that is necessary—the gender “role”— which someone of the opposite gender cannot express. Thus, one cannot simply be human by having human traits, but must express gender “roles.” According to the complementarian view, one cannot simply be human; one must be malehuman or female-human.

Jesus, gender, and salvation What does this all have to do with Jesus? Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human. He was a human who was a man. If the complementarian view is correct, Jesus’ gendered existence means that his “role” would have been different from the “role” of women. Had Jesus functionally taken on the “role” of woman, he would have been acting wrongly. Jesus was male, not a composite of male and female. Thus, according to this view, Jesus is male-human.

Finally, we can bring all these threads together, returning to the original question: “How might someone’s view of gender impact the doctrine of salvation through Christ?”

The answer to the original question is now clear: if one holds a view of gender essentialism—a view that makes some aspect of one’s gender a necessary feature

by virtue of being male, fully embody female-human nature. He lacked the aspects of identity that are unique to female-humanity.

Another implication is that the doctrine of the incarnation is made subordinate to the doctrine of gender “roles.” The historic Christian doctrine is that the Son of God became fully human, but if there is a real, necessary divide between male and female, then because Jesus is gendered, he did not fully represent all humanity.

Surveying the argument laid out above, we find that the notion that there are permanent gender “roles” is a defective anthropology. Although men and women are different, they are not different in such a way that there is a necessary and eternal division between the sexes. Christ came as a human being—indeed, a male one—but not as a male-human. Christ’s redeeming work is complete for both male and female, who are themselves made one in Christ.

J.W. Wartick holds an MA in Christian apologetics from Biola University. His interests include philosophy of religion, theology, paleontology, running, and sci-fi and fantasy novels. He writes at jwwartick.com. He loves walking with God alongside his wife, Beth.

M U T U A L I T Y | “Human Essence” 13

Book Review Malestrom: Manhood Swept into the Currents of a Changing World by Carolyn Custis James reviewed by Mark Kubo

From the streets of America to the streets in Iraq, reports coming in of late have often been violent and tragic. Men, especially young men, are frequently both victims and perpetrators. What has gone so terribly wrong, and can these malevolent forces be reversed?

Christians turn to the Bible for answers and solutions. Many, particularly in the evangelical world, believe the reason is that men have lost sight of manhood, of what it means to be “a real man.” It is because men have abandoned the God’s design for men, particularly that men need to be strong leaders in their homes, church, and society-at-large.

Carolyn Custis James agrees that men have lost sight of who they are and what God has purposed for them. She will agree that the Bible has a response to the problem.

But she quickly parts ways with the more common and traditional response that this design and purpose is men to recover what culture defines as “manly”—namely “Man the Impregnator-Protector-Provider” (22).

James argues that whereas male and female

are biologically determined, manhood and womanhood are a cultural construct and a human invention.

James argues that historic patriarchy is at the root of the issues—what she terms malestrom—which men face today.

I’m convinced that patriarchy, while alluring to many, is ultimately destructive for both men and women. (30)

James summarizes the solution she sees in the Bible as the Blessed Alliance, in which men and women are equal partners as image-bearers of God in the work that he calls. This alliance is not limited to marriage but to all spheres of relationships.

It is her contention that without the Blessed Alliance of men and women working together equally, everywhere, the gospel of Christ is diminished.

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So long as patriarchy is enthroned as the gender message of the Bible, it poses a significant barrier to a strong and flourishing Blessed Alliance

between men and women and a healthy, fully functioning body of Christ… The kinder-gentler nuanced version of patriarchy often preached from Christian pulpits merely situates Christians on the world’s patriarchal continuum… and renders the church incapable of generating jaw-dropping evidence that Jesus has come and that his kingdom is “not of this world.” (32–33)

Lest Christians who identify as egalitarians congratulate themselves on their progressive views of gender within church and society, James offers a challenge: We are mistaken to try to salvage pieces of a fallen human system like patriarchy. And while some readers may think this means egalitarianism wins out, even that system doesn’t go far enough. (69)

Quoting David Fitch, James explains that this is because the fight over equal leadership within the church is still over who get to be “head over” another. website :

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While many will object that this is a mischaracterization, James contends that egalitarian leadership is still participation in a system that patriarchy originated.

James writes that there is a “missing chapter” in the Bible: the chapter between creation and the fall. A chapter in which the audience gets to see how human relationships were supposed to work.

She suggests that this omission was not a mistake, but an intentional choice “to make us dissatisfied and hungry for something more and better than anything we’ve yet seen. It makes us hungry for Jesus, who is the missing chapter…” (34) Perhaps another reason is that if the missing chapter were present, we would use it as a codebook (as we often do with the rest of the Bible) and a checklist for “proper biblical relationships.”

Perhaps stories are a better way to penetrate past our intellectual prejudices and down into our hearts.

James tends to use stories to communicate her message. She begins each of the book’s nine chapters with recent, contemporary illustrations and stories, and uses these as launching points to reread, reimagine, and reinterpret a familiar Bible story. The Bible stories begin with the creation account, move to Abraham, Judah and Joseph, Deborah and Barak, Ruth and Boaz, Matthew, Joseph (Jesus’ earthly father), Jesus, and finally to Paul. In each retelling James shows how God worked in their lives to challenge and disrupt the curse of patriarchy.

Every retelling of the Bible stories brought surprises. In my mind, the first one that stands out is Abraham (chapter 2).

He is the patriarch of patriarchs in the Old Testament. On first glance (or even dozens) it is hard to see how Abraham could be anything but a patriarch. But James reveals that from the very start of his story in the Bible, his calling away from his father and his land, it is a story in which God slowly works to reverse patriarchy.

Another surprise was in the retelling of the story of Judge Deborah and General Barak (chapter 4). Deborah is often dismissed as a “special case” because God couldn’t find a man to fill the role of Israel’s judge. Barak is dismissed as a kind of “unmanly” because he needed a woman to go into battle with him.

James explains how neither of these views reflects accurately what God was trying to accomplish through these heroes of the faith, to break down patterns and practices of patriarchy and malestrom, and to show how the original pattern was for men and women to go into battle together against evil and to expand the kingdom of heaven.

Patriarchy is the background in which these stories originate and in which they were recorded, but when we allow ourselves to set aside the need to read them through the lenses of traditional interpretations, we can begin to see the light that God desires his people to see about how men and women are to live their lives, together, in this world. It is a relationship in which no one has “authority over” another human, but a Blessed Alliance, in which men and women work together to bring the kingdom of heaven into this world. This kingdom of heaven is a kingdom in which there are no hierarchies or power structures.

Each chapter (including the Introduction) ends with a page of five discussion questions, making this book ideal for small groups. In the spirit of the book’s thesis, I think it is important for men and women to read and discuss together what is read.

I can easily see using some or all of the stories found in Malestrom as the basis for sermons. The message will be particularly pointed if given by male pastors, as they will challenge the privileges and assumptions that have so long been used to keep men in power over women, and pastors in authority over their congregations.

Malestrom was both enjoyable and edifying to read. James writes clearly and compellingly. She challenges both traditionalists and progressives, complementarians and egalitarians. What we see today in the church, no matter how good, is ultimately not the kingdom of heaven. That doesn’t mean we should just sit by and wait for Jesus to return. We have a work to do in challenging and tearing down all systems that put one human over another. God has given us a calling and a purpose to build his kingdom by more closely reflecting imago Dei. We fulfill our call when men and women work together in Blessed Alliance to build God’s kingdom.

Mark Kubo resides in the grandeur and beauty of the rainforests of Southeast Alaska, on an island reachable only by air or water. He is a parttime pastor and volunteers for mental health and domestic violence agencies. He is married to his wife, Elise, for 23 years and has two adult daughters.

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Book Review

Borderline: Reflections on War, Sex, and Church by Stan Goff reviewed by Rachel Elizabeth Asproth

Stan Goff’s Borderline: Reflections on War, Sex, and the Church offers a fresh, if controversial perspective on the relationship between the church, war, and patriarchy.

Goff’s central argument is that war loving and women hating are ultimately two sides of the same coin, driven by the same fears that allow for the rationalization of conquest and colonization.

Goff’s argument is underlined by a survey of church and military history in which he highlights the relationship between domination masculinity and violence, often expressed in war. An Army veteran, Goff draws from his personal experience as a former career soldier to argue that fear of the feminine and hatred of women define military culture, war strategies, and even military language.

Goff testifies to the pressure-cooker, hypermasculinity of war that defines women as both “other” and “enemy” as well as his own emergence from that destructive culture and embrace of Christian theology and feminist critique.

Borderline is a no-holds-barred critique of church complicity in war and patriarchy. Surveying church history, Goff makes a compelling case that the church has supported, affirmed, and participated in violence against women, including in war. In order to accept Goff’s hypothesis—that the church is implicated in the crimes of war and that both war and the church are implicated in the oppression of women—readers must accept his underlying theology. Namely,

the gospel contradicts the church’s often-undiscerning acceptance of violence and its treatment of women. On these grounds, Borderline puts the church on trial for its record with women, asking the painful question again and again: “do you see this woman?”

Borderline also examines the sexual tone of military strategy, highlighting a connection between sexual violation and border trespass. Terms such as “penetration,” “insertion,” “extraction,” and “climax” indicate both a conquest approach to war and the desire to sexually humiliate opposition. Considering the earth is traditionally personified as a woman, while force, conquest, and conquering are maleidentified actions, crossing borders becomes a metaphor for the domination of women— sexual, social, and spiritual.

Goff testifies to his past friendship with Christian soldier and serial rapist, Marshall Brown. Analyzing the connection between Brown’s crimes and his experiences with hyper-masculinity in the military, Goff suggests that some interpret rape as merely crossing a line or a border, similar to a military objective.

Further, he argues that rape functions as an instrument of social control in war, and he makes a connection to pornography, noting that domination and humiliation fetish pornography are chiefly about the crossing and violation of borders, the

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primary metaphor that shapes his cultural critique in Borderline.

Goff devotes significant time to establishing the foil that women provide in hyper-masculine culture. In war/ patriarchal culture, men are valuable, worthy, and unique by virtue of being unlike women. In fact, men become manlier the more they differentiate themselves from women. This social rule results in an intense cultural fear of effeminacy and women in general. In other words, women become the true enemy.

Women are hated, Goff submits, only because they are women, and because men are everything they are not. This hatred, Goff believes, drives church and war culture. Borderline traces the emergence of muscular Christianity, one reaction to this deep fear/hatred of the feminine, of women in general, and of diminishing male control/rule.

Goff is a committed advocate of non-violence. This approach colors his arguments throughout the book, so those who disagree with his non-violent interpretation of the gospel will likely

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reject Goff’s conclusions. And, readers may wish for a more nuanced discussion about the motives of war, noting that not all war has been driven solely by a desire to dominate, but sometimes to liberate.

Further, readers may feel that Borderline generalizes about church and military culture too liberally.

While Goff’s pacifist view informs his argument, it is important to note that his argument is not about whether war itself can be justified. Rather, he is critiquing the nature of war and the culture of patriarchy that justifies violence in general and toward women—a system that soldiers and Christians both participate in, even unknowingly. Even if readers do not fully agree that war is an expression of masculine domination, Goff’s critique of Christianity, hyper-masculinity, and abuse still offers a challenge to the assumptions and ideology of some Christians.

Lastly, readers may object to a chapter devoted in part to homophobia in the church and military, where Goff cites it as a one factor in the creation of a dichotomous hyper-masculinity. His treatment of the issue is, for most of the book, historical.

However, in the closing chapters he takes a stance in favor of same-sex marriage.

Though mentioned sparingly, his stance on this issue may deter some readers from picking up Borderline.

Reservations aside, Borderline is a bold feminist critique of male domination as expressed in war and culture. Goff is a staunch advocate, unafraid to push men to “see women” in ways they have not before.

Goff writes, All we men need to do is fear a walk in the park alone, to be judged by how young, how thin, how hairless, how symmetrically featured we are, to be raped and disbelieved, to feel compelled to look in our backseat before entering our parked cars. To be excluded from a calling. To be a metaphor for weakness and cowardice. To be used as a receptacle for masturbation… to be beaten by someone who will tell us later he loves us. To be a scapegoat for men’s desire, or his lack of it. To stand in the presence of others without recognition. To be silenced, immobilized, masked, and reinterpreted. To hear “old woman,”

little girl,” “cunt,” and “bitch” used as epithets to put men down. To be defined by those who can never know what it is like to live in our skins.” (413)

Goff asks his readers one final time, “do you see this woman?” and it this question that reveals the most about Borderline. This book is about male domination. It is about war, sex, and the church and it intends to critique masculinity. But, it is a work for women, on behalf of them, and alongside them in relationship and advocacy. Goff presents his case against war and patriarchy intellectually, but his mission is a heart one—to cast a vision for a world free from patriarchal masculinity. Borderline is a redemptive prescription for the future that is focused whole-heartedly on the peace and justice provided for in the gospel.

Rachel Elizabeth Asproth graduated from Bethel University with a degree in English literature and reconciliation studies.

She is currently the editor of the CBE Scroll and Arise. Her chief passions are reading, writing, social justice issues, and travel. She lives in New Brighton, MN.

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M U T U A L I T Y | “Human Essence” 17

Vulnerability Makes the Man A Review of Man Enough: How Jesus Redefines Manhood

by Nate Pyle reviewed by Tim Krueger expectations. In doing so, men are freed to develop and share their unique gifts.

When they do, they will find that they are already man enough.

They say clothes make the man.

Translation: appearance counts for a lot, even everything. When image is paramount, vulnerability becomes the enemy. It threatens to shatter that image, exposing the person underneath.

Nobody says “vulnerability makes the man.” Until now.

Nate Pyle’s new book, Man Enough: How Jesus Redefines Manhood calls Christian men to disregard elusive cultural ideals of masculinity in favor of Jesus-like vulnerability, love, and relationship.

Weaving his own story together with analysis of history, sociology, and Scripture, Pyle builds his case on two basic ideas: 1. Our definitions of masculinity are inadequate. They are inconsistent, unattainable, unhealthy, and often antithetical to the gospel.

2. Christian men should follow Jesus’ example, regardless of cultural

Man Enough begins with a wellargued and thoughtful critique of Western cultural ideals of masculinity, tracing their history and impact on boys, men, and those around them. Having established that these ideals do not align with Jesus’ life and are unhealthy, Pyle looks to Scripture. He makes the case for a masculinity modeled on Jesus, who was meek but also bold, vocal but also silent.

He was single, financially dependent, emotional, and vulnerable. He defied cultural categories in order to live out his full humanity and model the kingdom; Christian men should, too.

Though the book is well-written and compelling, a couple weaknesses stood out. First, in a book that challenges cultural gender norms, I was surprised to see a few stereotypes that are counter-intuitive to the direction of the book. One section casts various traits and desires as “masculine” or “feminine” (158–60), only to conclude that “Jesus showed us that to be fully

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human is to embrace the masculine and feminine qualities that exist within all of us” (160, emphasis mine). Why, then, call them “masculine” or “feminine”?

Challenging these categories would be in line with a major theme of the book, stated only a few pages earlier: “being a man isn’t about being manlier; it is about being a man who is becoming more fully human” (151).

Second, at times, Man Enough may appear to stretch some biblical texts to make them about masculinity when that is not their focus (an analysis of the Last Supper, on pages 82–84, for instance).

However, the intent is clearly not to stretch Scripture to support a point, but to glean lessons about Christian living and apply those standards to male behavior. Pyle even writes elsewhere that “nowhere in the Bible does it state that Jesus came to model masculinity” (90). Still, I think more care could have been taken with some of the biblical analysis. It would be a shame for one or two wrong impressions to cast doubt on Man Enough’s fundamentally solid use of Scripture.

As I read, my concerns over these weaknesses were eased by the clear message of the book and by many specific statements that clarified the author’s intent and values.

On the whole, I heartily recommend Man Enough. It is well-written, wellwebsite :

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argued, amply sourced, and engaging. But what impresses me more is that Man Enough embodies what it teaches. Pyle is vulnerable about some of his deepest struggles and insecurities, and we all benefit from his example. He models what it looks like to take the first step in building communities where men are freed to trade image and expectations for honesty and authenticity.

Pyle’s openness and style give Man Enough broad appeal. The ideas will certainly appeal to egalitarians, but I think that the book will resonate with men of all perspectives, for the simple reason that Pyle taps into experiences and insecurities shared by so many men. And, while the book has strong egalitarian themes, they are not the primary focus, so will not turn off readers who disagree with them.

The fact that Man Enough is one of several new Christian books re-evaluating masculinity testifies to the evangelical world’s appetite for this conversation. As the wider American culture dismantles longheld values surrounding gender identity, evangelical Christianity is searching for its moorings, sometimes discovering that we have been tethered more to a cultural patriarchy than to Jesus. Christians are recognizing that the patriarchal standards by which masculinity is measured are inadequate, if not actively harmful, and are looking for something different. Man Enough provides direction.

And that direction is beautifully ironic.

Manhood, just like womanhood, finds its fulfillment in Jesus, who is fully God and fully human. In Pyle’s words, “Jesus is the new model for both men and women, and in him, men and women are brought together as they seek to imitate Christ” (90).

Man Enough calls us all to set aside shallow definitions of manhood or womanhood in favor of something greater—a humanity patterned after Jesus. That’s an idea we should all get behind.

Tim Krueger is the editor of Mutuality and is CBE’s publications and communications manager.

He grew up in the Philippines and studied history and Bible at Bethel University, MN. He loves discovering God’s fingerprints in history, language, and culture. He and his wife, Naomi, live in Saint Paul, MN.

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R

eflect with us

by H. Edgar Hix

What. Wait!

Who Said “What”?

We all have our little pet peeves. As a writer, one of mine is using “what” wrongly. For example: “When I look in the mirror, what do I see?”

In my case, I see a 60ish, a-bit-past-pudgy male Caucasian with white hair, either a really big bald spot or a bit of hair left around the corners, and a huge Santa beard.

See the problem? When I ask “What do I see?” I answer by defining my body.

Don’t get me wrong, my body and I are the same person. But, my body is only partially definitive of who I am.

If I look in my mirror and ask, “Who do I see?” I get a different picture. I see an evangelical Protestant Christian who loves his God, wife, seven cats, poetry and fiction, and theology; who suffers from (and takes medications for) depression and anxiety, is tempted by unnecessary food and sugar (read chocolate), knows he needs to exercise more…

The body is still in there. I cannot, and don’t want to, escape my body. I use my eyes and mouth. I don’t use my feet and arms enough.

I keep my brain active.

When you look in the mirror, do you just see a what or do you see the who?

Do you see a female? Then yes, that’s part of who you are. Do you see a Christian? Great! That’s a very essential part of who you are.

Do you see a mother, mathematician, married/single, mastermind, or muddled mind? Each, including your gender, is a part of who you are.

But, you and I must not let the parts be left apart, dissected with pins in them. The parts become the whole and the whole becomes a unique person who is beyond stereotypes and more than her parts.

Each of us is a unique flicker in the overall flame that is the family of God. Each unique flicker is part of the brilliance that is God’s creation, and God made each unique so he could love each uniquely.

You and I. We’re each unique wavelengths of the light created by the Light. So, go ahead. Shine, you little who.

H. Edgar Hix is a Minneapolis, Minnesota, Christian poet and writer.

He has a special interest in encouraging Christians to avoid unbiblical sexism, classism, and racism. His objective in writing is to express the humanness of being Christian and the tragidies and joys of this life as a human being.

M U T U A L I T Y | “Human Essence” 19

M

inistry News

“Becoming New” Conference Highlights This July 24–26, hundreds of egalitarians from all over the world descended on Los Angeles, California for CBE’s 2015 conference, “Becoming New: Man and Woman Together in Christ.”

Over three days, 234 attendees and 28 speakers from 16 countries met to teach, learn, and worship together at this life-changing event! Here are just a few highlights...

Attendees enjoy a lecture by one of the many engaging, world-renowned speakers. Photo credit: Ken Fong.

What attendees had to say about “Becoming New” “It was the best conference we have ever attended. I loved that people from different countries and religious traditions came together united by the Spirit.”

“I had an unexpected long talk with [a speaker], and I felt like women must have felt around Jesus. No diminishment, no subtle superiority. Just genuine humility. God ambushed me.”

“The conference was an entry way into healing very deep places in my heart.”

“Thank you so much for providing me a scholarship to attend! I was very blessed by my time in fellowship with other believers, and this conference provided a safe space to continue in my process of discerning and confirming my egalitarian leanings.”

Eugene Cho, pastor of Quest Church in Seattle, Washington preaches on misogyny and the church. Photo credit: Ken Fong.

Most tweeted quotes from “Becoming New” “A feminist is a person dedicated to the dignity of men and women.”

—John Thompson “Because of the Samaritan woman, the whole village believed. She is the most underrated evangelist and church planter in history.”

—Eugene Cho “2000 years ago there was a courageous Middle Eastern man who dared to walk with women in an unacceptable way.”

—Anne Zaki “We want our women to be doctors, lawyers, PhDs, and leaders.

Until they reach the doors of the church.” —Mariam Youssef

20 M U T U A L I T Y | Autumn 2015

“As Christians, our first callings are to make shalom and make disciples. Biblical gender equality makes us do both better.”

—John Stackhouse “In 1923 foot binding stopped. It went from fashionable to unfathomable. Once advantageous to outrageous. This gives me hope that the church can end gender inequality.” —Ken Fong “The old reality is patriarchy. The new reality, with the cross in the center, is mutuality.” —Adelita Garza Search for #cbela15 on Twitter to read more and experience the conference through the eyes of attendees.

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Pastor Frank Stevenson (far left) receives the Priscilla and Aquila Award for making sacrifices for women’s leadership.

Stevenson was stripped of his credentials after licensing 15 female preachers in his church in Nashville, Tennessee.

Shi-Min Lu (left), a student paper competition winner, presents on Ephesians and 1 Peter in light of GrecoRoman household codes.

Photo credit: Ken Fong.

The Work Continues...

“Truth Be Told” conference and leadership training September 16–20, 2016 | Johannesburg, South Africa The day after “Becoming New,” CBE and its partners (right) were already hard at work planning for the 2016 conference and leadership training in South Africa: “Truth Be Told.”

Gender-based violence in South Africa is the highest in the world.

“We have the right laws in place, but society is patriarchal.

Government and business are ahead of the church. Religious leaders are social gatekeepers and therefore have enormous influence,” explains Xana McCauley, pastor at Rhema Bible Church (right), host of CBE’s 2016 conference.

Your gift will help CBE share the vital message of biblical equality at this groundbreaking event. We need $21,000 to prepare and launch “Truth Be Told” in South Africa, September 2016. Give online at cbe.today/support or by scanning the QR code to the right. Or, donate by phone at 612-872-6898. bookstore :

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M U T U A L I T Y | “Human Essence” 21

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resident’s Message

by Mimi Haddad

Sharing Humanity, Not Neutralizing Gender Perhaps you noticed the furor after Target removed gender signs on children’s toys and bedding. Some considered this to be caving to the culture’s “winding, zigzag gender line.” 1 Others welcomed the effort as removing barriers that bar girls from toys, interests, and ultimately even careers once viewed as off limits to them. For these parents the question is not: Is my daughter confused about her gender? The issue is: Given male privilege, will my daughter’s aspirations and talents be welcomed? Will she have the same opportunities as males? Or will society shame her, accusing her of denying her femininity, as often happens?

Consider Lavinia Goodell (1839–1880), the first woman licensed to practice law in Wisconsin. A devout Christian, Lavinia was drawn to a career occupied by males. She taught herself law and passed the county bar in 1874. Several of her cases went to Wisconsin’s Supreme Court, where she was not allowed to represent her clients because the Chief Justice denied her admission to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, insisting that women’s sacred sphere is bearing and rearing children. Thus, to pursue work outside the home violated the “law of nature.”

Where the Chief Justice embraced gender essentialism—the belief that our human essence is inseparable from sex and “gender roles”—Lavinia pursued what I call “human essentialism.” She did not question her sex or try to deny differences between men and women. Rather, by using her talents to advance justice and human flourishing, she revealed her truest “nature”—that of a human created in God’s image and recreated in Christ.

Scripture repeatedly points to human essence as co-creative, co-protective, and co-nurturing. Humanity, created in God’s image, reflects the creative, protective, and nurturing qualities of God. To reduce human essence to gendered roles or work (whatever they might be) not only limits humans’ scope in caring for a hurting world, but also justifies the marginalization and abuse of women by denying females their God-given agency (Gen. 1:26–31). Those who favor gendered toy aisles often insist that to reject gender essentialism in favor of human essentialism is to negate differences between males and females. They assert that males are hardwired for authority and even aggression, while females are hardwired for nurture, submission, and to attract the sexual desires of males. This is the core of what it means to be male or female. By playing with “appropriate” toys like dolls, girls exercise their God-given natures, just as boys do by playing with GI Joes with biceps the size of Barbie’s waist! GI Joe and Barbie,

22 M U T U A L I T Y | Autumn 2015

Beauty and the Beast—it sounds too much like Genesis 3:16: “your desire will be for your husband who will rule over you.”

Yet, if girls are innately more inclined to nurture and boys are drawn to competition and aggression, they need each other for balance! This is what many businesses and boards are discovering.

When organizations increase the number of women on boards or in leadership, they create more ethical work practices and outperform their competitors. Perhaps Target got it right! If males and females are created in God’s image to care for the world with equal influence and authority, then let them play with any toy, because both are needed in all professions, at all levels.

Gender differences—whatever they are—do not define, replace, or supersede the essence of our humanity as people created in God’s image and reborn in Christ. In fact, it is the other way around, as Lavinia Goodell demonstrated. Gender essentialist assumptions are used to exclude and marginalize women from positions of shared leadership—something challenged by the human essentialism throughout Scripture (in Gal. 3:28, for example). It is not our gender, but our abilities and character that equip us for leadership. This explains the diversity of leaders throughout Scripture and history.

Despite the gender essentialist assumptions of culture, especially Christian culture, we demean our own uniqueness as image bearers when we limit our influence to categories of male and female. As professor Clyde Kilby of Wheaton College wrote, every human being possesses the dignity of what C.S. Lewis called their “divine, magical, terrifying and ecstatic” existence. Rather than boring into ourselves to learn what category we might be part of, we do well to forget ourselves and do our work. Kilby reminds us that every day is filled with eternal possibilities, and every person, regardless of gender, contributes to “the cosmic canvas” revealing that our origins as men and women come from the heavens and that our creator is the Alpha and Omega.2

1. Grant Castleberry, “Missing the Target: Some Brief Thoughts on Target’s Cultural Capitulation.” CBMW.org. Available at http:// cbmw.org/public-square/culture/missing-the-target-some-briefthoughts-on-targets-cultural-capitulation/ 2. Clyde Kilby, “A Means to Mental Health.” Wheaton.edu. Available at http://www.wheaton.edu/~/media/Files/Centers-and-Institutes/ Wade-Center/AMeanstoMentalHealth_Web.pdf.

website :

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raise and Prayer

Praise

Prayer

• Our LA conference was a huge success! Two hundred thirty-four attendees joined us for a spectacular weekend.

Find highlights on pp. 20–21.

• CBE has published an exciting new DVD series, Is Gender Equality a Biblical Ideal? It gives an overview of gender theology and its consequences. Available exclusively at CBE Bookstore.

• Mimi just completed the first of a series of lectures at Campellsville University, part of a new CBE lectureship.

• Planning is already under way for “Truth Be Told,” our 2016 conferenc and leadership training in Johannesburg, South Africa. Pray for God to guide the planning and smooth the path ahead.

• Pray for continued success in partnering with Christian foundations to expand CBE’s work.

• Pray for a successful Give to the Max Day 2015 giving campaign on November 12. Give to the Max Day is significant in helping CBE meet its financial goals each year.

Christians for Biblical Equality

CBE Membership

Mission Statement Christians for Biblical Equality (CBE) exists to promote biblical justice and community by educating Christians that the Bible calls women and men to share authority equally in service and leadership in the home, church, and world.

CBE offers individual and organizational memberships. Membership is available to those who support CBE’s Statement of Faith. Members join a community of believers dedicated to biblical equality, and who together make CBE’s ministry possible. Member benefits include:

Statement of Faith

• Subscriptions to CBE’s quarterly publications, Mutuality magazine and Priscilla Papers journal, including digital access to back issues

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

Core Values • 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.

To learn more about CBE’s values, history, and ministry, visit cbe.today/info

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• Exclusive discounts at CBE’s bookstore • Discounted registration to attend CBE conferences Visit cbe.today/members to renew your membership, become a member, or learn more about our membership program.

Non-Member Subscriptions Non-member subscriptions to Mutuality and Priscilla Papers are available to libraries and inviduals.

Visit cbe.today/subscriptions to learn more.

Get Connected with CBE Connect with CBE online to learn more about us, enjoy the resources we offer, and take part in our ministry.

Visit our website to find resources or to subscribe to Arise, our free, weekly e-newsletter (cbeinternational.org ).

Follow our blog, the Scroll (cbe.today/blog ).

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M U T U A L I T Y | “Human Essence” 23

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Featured Resources from CBE

Man Enough How Jesus Redefines Manhood Nate Pyle

Is Gender Equality a Biblical Ideal? is a five-part DVD series that explores the biblical, historical, and social precedent for women’s shared leadership in the church, the home, and the world. Topics include Old Testament, New Testament, church history, power dynamics, and working cross-culturally.

Created to inspire NGOs, humanitarian organizations, and Christian leaders to effectively promote the full gifting, vocation, and authority of women throughout the world, the DVD series comes with a companion workbook, making it a wonderful resource for both personal and group study.

Lime Green Reshaping Our View of Women in the Church Dr. Jackie Roese