Wednesday, March 9, 2016

I Fail to See the Beauty of Complementarianism

The Together for the Gospel (T4G) conference will take place in Louisville, Kentucky on April 12-14. The conference will feature an exclusively male line-up of Religious Right speakers such as R. C. Sproul, John Piper, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Albert Mohler, and C. J. Manahey of the Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville.

The Council on Biblical Manhood & Womanhood, a Christian organization devoted to male "headship" and rigid gender roles, will be hosting a pre-conference called "The Beauty of Complementarity". The pre-conference will feature pro-patriarchy, anti-feminist and anti-LGBTQ workshops.

  • Complementarity and the Disappearance of Men
  • Complementarity and the Beauty of Submission
  • Complementarity and the Call to Purity
  • Testimony: My Journey Out of Lesbianism to Complementarianism
  • Testimony: My Journey Out of Feminism
  • Redemption Through Motherhood: Why Caring for Children is Caring for the World
  • The Gospel for the Struggling: Overcoming Sinful Desire
  • God's Design for Women

The pre-conference will feature a special women's track with stereotypical gems such as these.

  • Count It Pure Joy: A Generation Returning to Motherhood
  • Fitted for Flourishing: How the Bible Creates a Happy Home
  • Teachers of Life: Titus 2 and Theological Discipleship
  • Bound for Life: Following Your Husband Through Life's Challenges

Complementarians baffle me. In their desperation to restore outmoded gender roles, they struggle to recreate an era that never really existed. They insist that women will find happiness if they abandon their autonomy and dignity by submitting to a man, even though many women know better. They stubbornly ignore evidence that gender roles are not innate, and that gender identity can take infinitely many forms. Glaringly, they also ignore the unhappiness, unfairness, and even abuse that occur in complementarian communities.

I suspect that complementarian men feel threatened in our day and age. They live in a world in which many women demand equality and LGBTQ people serve as a reminder that sex and gender are not binary. They live in a world in which white, straight males no longer have the unfair power and privilege they had decades ago. Desperate to regain power, they seek refuge in a patriarchal system, no matter how outdated, unfair, or inaccurate that system may be.


4 comments:

  1. I've long held that one of the differences between primitive and advanced societies is that the former believe there is only one possible way of life which everyone should follow, while the latter accept a multitude of ways of life, recognizing that not everyone has the same needs and desires. Fundamentalists are still primitive.

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    Replies
    1. Infidel -- Imagine how frustrating it must be for a primitive group of Christian fundamentalists to live in an advanced society.

      Delete
  2. Complimentarianism seems such a misnomer, on several levels.

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    Replies
    1. Agi Tater -- It gives no compliments to women (well, maybe back-handed compliments), and it fails to prove that rigid gender roles make men and women complementary.

      Delete

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