Willow Branches in Autumn Winds

I’ve been thinking a lot about gender lately. Why do I gravitate to controversial topics?

Anyway, I read the “Gender Blog” on the website of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. I think it’s important to read things from perspectives other than my own, so that’s one reason for following this. But it also gives me lots of fodder for blog posts (I just wish I had more time to actually write them! Hopefully I’ll get on that.)

Here are some bullet points on some thoughts I’ve been having lately:

• Conservative evangelicals put way too much emphasis, in my opinion, on the importance of gender roles. The concept of authority also seems to be overemphasized in much of the writing on this topic.
• It seems to be assumed that a Christian who thinks women should be allowed to teach or preach or lead must also think that men and women are not different from each other. This is not true. I do think that in general, there are differences between men and women, and this is important. But I don’t believe that men and women being created differently means that men and women are assigned to different roles by God.
• Complementarians seem to think that masculinity and femininity have concrete definitions, and that it is important for all men to fit squarely into the definition of masculine and all women to fit neatly into the definition of feminine. This seems dangerous to me.
• Complementatians feel it is important that we all fit into the right boxes, but this distracts us from actual, real-life relationships. Real people and real relationships are not about following rules, but about seeking to know, understand, love and serve each other.
• The concept of men being fathers doesn’t get nearly as much attention (at least in the things I’ve read) as the concept of women being mothers.