A Theology of Abolition
- Details
- Written by: Mimi Haddad
Mimi Haddad, President of Christians for Biblical Equality International
Intro
Thank you CBE Melbourne, for the honor of addressing such an accomplished and devoted community. CBE has been truly blessed by your leadership and we look forward to many more years of partnership beside you, all for the glory of Jesus. It is for the sake of the Gospel we work together like this now and always.
Amartya Sen
As some evangelicals debate whether women can hold senior positions in the church or academy, or have an equal voice in their marriages and families, 200 million females are missing from the planet. The gender ratio has never been more skewed according to Amartya Sen, Harvard professor of economics and philosophy. 26 years ago, Sen was the first to suggest that the world was facing a gender holocaust. His study showed that 100 million females had vanished. For his research, Sen won the Nobel Prize and launched a gender lens in economics that heightened the scrutiny of humanitarians and researchers, who with one voice, declared the scope and impact of patriarchy to be one of the most malicious and debilitating forces in history.
Definition of Patriarchy: By patriarchy, we mean what Merriam Webster means
1: A social organization marked by the supremacy of the father in the clan or family, and
2: A society or institution organized according to the principles or practices of patriarchy
The UN Millennium Project: In response to the research of Sen and colleagues within the NGO world, the UN Millennium Project—a consortium of 250 global experts working to end poverty, hunger and disease—recognized that…the “Empowerment of women has [proven to be]… one of the strongest drivers of social [well-being]… and is acknowledged as essential for addressing the global challenges facing humanity.”1
Trinity without Tiers
- Details
- Written by: Kevin Giles
The Trinity Argument for woman's subordination.
Kevin Giles
George Knight III in his 1977 book, New Testament Teaching on the Role Relationship of Men and Women, invented the post Women’s Lib case for the subordination of women. He argued that the Bible teaches the “equality” of the sexes and their “role differentiation.” Who could disagree with this? However, when unpacked what we find he is arguing is that “equal” means spiritually equal and role differentiation means men have the “role” of leading and directing; women the “role” of submitting and obeying.
He argues this is what 1 Timothy 2:11-14 teaches grounding men and women’s “role differences” in creation before the fall. Thus women’s subordination is the transcultural and trans-temporal God-given ideal.
Then on the basis of 1 Corinthians 11:3 (the head passage) he argues that just as the divine three persons are ordered hierarchically, so too is the man-woman relationship is ordered hierarchically. Indeed, he argues the latter is predicated on the former. The Father is “head over” the Son, and men are “head over” women. No higher basis for women’s subordination can be found; it is grounded in the life of God.
Knight’s Novel teaching was embraced with great enthusiasm by evangelical men who felt their God-given precedence was in jeopardy and by many women. As the argument from creation, predicated on a novel interpretation and 1 Tim 2:11-12 failed to convince many Wayne Grudem in his 1994, Systematic Theology, revived the Trinity argument which then became the primary argument for the permanent subordination of women. Bruce Ware became his number one collaborator in this exercise. They were able to win over most of the evangelical world.
In Complementarian circles not one voice was raised in opposition to the Trinity argument and article after article and book after book put this case. From May 1st 2015 to May 30th 2016 no less than four major books put this case.
On June 1st 2016 it seemed the Trinity argument had triumphed.
Paul and women: was the apostle a misogynist?
- Details
- Written by: Kevin Giles
Paul and women: was the apostle a misogynist?
Kevin Giles
I have been involved in the very divisive and painful debate over what the Bible teaches on the status and ministry of women for over 30 years. Few people have published on this issue more than me. In most of my writings on the male-female relationship I have concentrated almost entirely on what the Bible says. However, I must admit to you in the last few years I have been saying something more. I now tell people, without even looking at the Bible, you should not believe that God has subordinated women to men. We now know the earth is not flat, the sun does not revolve around our little planet, the world we live in is not 7000 years old, and women are a not subordinate class who God has excluded from leadership. On the first three matters the few verses in the Bible that theologians in past times quoted to prove these things do nothing of the sort. They simply reflect the beliefs of everyone in pre-scientific times and as an historical document the Bible from time to time innocently reflects these beliefs. We as Christians are not bound by these reflections of pre-scientific ideas most of us agree. It is the same with women. God has made it crystal clear to us in the last thirty years that women can have first class leadership abilities, first class minds and whip us men on most things. At this stage of my life, in the world in which I live, nothing at all inclines me to believe women are subordinated by God to men. I admit I come to read the Bible today with this conviction in my mind.
Today we consider what Paul says on women because Paul more than any other writer in the NT is taken to subordinate women to men, or to put it the opposite way, to give to men “headship”, in plain speech, leadership. I think this is a very one sided and objectionable reading of Paul and this is what I will argue today.
Paul the historical man.
Paul was a first century Jewish man. We all accept that he did not drive a car, did not have a radio or TV and knew nothing about computers, and he could not have imagined a world where women freely chose who they would marry, went to university, could support themselves financially and hold any job, including being the prime minister or president of a nation. We should therefore not expect him to speak or think of women as most of us do in twenty first century Australia.
In his cultural context women were subject to a man all of their life; father, husband, guardian, or eldest son when widowed. They were as a general rule not educated except in domestic duties and their husband was selected for them and she had to obey him. In public they were expected to keep silent when men were present, and the idea that women could be communal leaders was inconceivable, except in a limit way for a few wealthy widows.
What is the slogan “equal but different” all about?
- Details
- Written by: Shane Clifton
Dr Shane Clifton’s workshop critiquing the conservative position that women and men are equal in being but functionally different – that men function as leaders and women as followers – is based on a chapter from the book Raising Women Leaders: Perspectives on liberation women in Pentecostal and Charismatic Contexts, edited by Shane Clifton and Jacqueline Grey.
An excerpt of the relevant chapter can be found here (0.5MB)
Women and Abuse
- Details
- Written by: SusanOrr
"I just want the violence to stop"
[Powerpoint Presentation from the workshop (With handout at the end)]
What is abuse?
-
Every couple has arguments or disagreements. In a respectful and equal relationship, both partners feel free to state their opinions, to make their own decisions, to be themselves, and to say no to sex. In an abusive relationship, one partner tries to dominate the other through physical harm,criticisms, demands, threats, or sexual pressure.
For the victim and her children, this behaviour can be very dangerous, frightening, confusing and damaging.