Beth Allison Barr, The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth. Brazos Press, 2021. In 2016, Beth Allison Barr’s husband lost his job as a youth pastor, a position he had held for more than fourteen years. The reason? He dared challenge the church’s complementarian stance on women in ministry. The church […]
egalitarianism
If you’re going to say it is a sin for a woman to preach, you better be prepared to say more
This morning, I posted the following on Twitter: Here’s the problem with complementarianism in a nutshell. The historic justification has been that they are less intellectual & more emotionally unstable than men, but that’s clearly sexist. Women are no less well equipped than men to be profound teachers and leaders. So one might then retreat […]
The Complementarian Dilemma
Egalitarianism is the view that all offices of church ministry and leadership should be open to both genders. By contrast, complementarianism insists that some offices of ministry and leadership should be restricted to males. I am an egalitarian and yesterday I posted this tweet expressing my concern that complementarianism is not just wrong, but potentially […]
How I wrote an article critiquing John Piper … and got attacked by egalitarians
Yesterday I posted an article in which I argued that John Piper’s ill-formed and poorly argued prohibition on women teaching in seminary reveals that he is sexist, i.e. prejudiced against the female sex and gender. I did not anticipate that my argument would receive resistance from egalitarians. Trash! One individual named Henry Imler replied: Heirarchy [sic] […]
52. Women in Ministry
In 1967 Katherine Switzer made history as the first woman ever to enter … and complete the Boston Marathon. In this iconic photo you can see race official Jock Semple (the bald man in the black blazer) attempting to pull Switzer’s numbers off and stop her from running. As I reflect on the role of women ministering […]
Snapshots from Baltimore (Part 1)
Over the last few days I’ve been in Baltimore at the Evangelical Theological Society annual conference. While ETS just wrapped up last night, this evening the American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature begins (fortunately at the same venues). Thus far I’ve been intrepid with my microphone and have recorded eight — count […]
What would complementarians do with a hermaphrodite pastor?
Complementarianism is the theological view that while women and men share ontological equality (i.e. both are made in the image of God), they nonetheless properly have different roles in church, the home and the wider society. The way this often cashes out in church is that women should not teach or be in authority over […]
