From time to time, I get asked if I will put a post on my blog by a guest author. I often try to do so because I love to promote the work of others. Anne Garboczi Evans is a Christian fiction author with Hartline Literary Agency. She holds a Master’s in Counseling. She approached me a few weeks ago because she had found SimplyChurch on a list of the top 100 Christian blogs, (I know–crazy. I find it hard to believe too). She pointed me towards an article she has written. “All Men Are Created Equal–But What About Women” is on a subject close to my heart, and Anne writes with humor and a compelling logic. So here are the first few paragraphs of her article with a link to the remainder of the article:
The issue of women’s roles in marriage, the church, and the workplace is a sharply debated one. What’s right? Patriarchy? Complementarianism? *gasp* Egalitarianism? How do we avoid merely instituting the cultural norms of the Middle Ages, 1950s, or 21st century rather than actually doing God’s will?
As any Bible-believing Christian, when I want to know what God thinks about something, I look at the Bible. And no one can deny that the Old Testament is chockfull of Patriarchy: Solomon with all his wives, Naomi left penniless because she didn’t have a man, Nabal’s abusive use of Abigail. Yet, the Old Testament is filled with other things too: adultery, idol worship, unbelief, lies, and murder. The fact that God found something worthy of recording does not mean He approves of it. In fact, a major portion of the Old Testament is a lesson in what not to do. Hence, Stephen asked his countrymen which of God’s prophets they hadn’t persecuted or killed.
So the fact that Patriarchy and hierarchal relationships between men and women is in the Bible really tells us nothing about God’s will. We need to dig deeper into the Biblical text to discover not just what happened, but what God thought about what happened.
It’s well worth your time to read the remainder of Anne’s article.
My latest book, The Black Swan Effect: A Response to Gender Hierarchy in the Church