VIRTUE Online? When is it ever OK for Christians to mock and belittle other Christians? Out of curiosity, I Googled myself the other day and found, much to my amazement, the following article on Virtue Online, titled in all caps: “TALLEY CROSS: ANOTHER RAVING FEMINIST.” My initial thought – honestly! – was that I’d love a t-shirt with those words and a giant cross in the background. The article, by Alice C. Linsley, was published as an “Exclusive Report” by... Read more
Looking back over the past year, it’s hard to imagine a blank space in place of the 15 posts here. None is perfect, but all are special to me. They are canvasses onto which I have poured out my soul, intellect, and imagination pondering the things of God; they have been catalysts for spiritual formation – mine, hopefully others’ – and productive engagement. Blogging (mostly) on the patriarchy has been a burden and a blessing: the burden and blessing of... Read more
I know the premise may sound crazy – gender role theology as a slippery slope to LGBTQ+?!? – but bear with me, and I’ll try not to disappoint. In evangelical patriarchy/hierarchalism/complementarianism, it is often assumed that gender role equality in the church is a slippery slope to acceptance of LGBTQ+ ideology. The argument goes something like this: when a woman exercises spiritual authority over men in a church, she rejects her divinely-ordained sexual nature as man’s subordinate. This permissiveness paves... Read more
No matter how independent you are, if you have a spouse or partner, don’t you depend on them in some way? Is that a strange feeling for you? Maybe you’re experiencing what it’s like to cleave. I take the word cleave from Gen. 2:24, which describes how a man leaves his parents and unites to his wife so that they become one flesh. The basis of this one-flesh union is God’s creation of humankind, in which he separated woman from... Read more
Why did Jesus choose Mary Magdalene to be the first preacher of the Gospel, the “good news” of his resurrection? Shouldn’t he have chosen either Peter – “the rock” (Matt 16:18) – or John, who both ran eagerly to his tomb (John 20:3)? Much has been made of the fact that a woman’s witness at the time would have counted very little, which conversely makes the resurrection story more believable; if Jesus’ followers had been trying to fake his resurrection,... Read more
At the recent 2023 Global Anglican Futures Convention (GAFCon), Anglican clergy from around the world decried the Anglican Communion’s acceptance of LGBTQ+ practices as denigrating the authority of Scripture. Yet GAFCon’s censure of other Anglicans for dismissing Scripture seems absurd when you consider that GAFCon is dominated by male clergy, many of whom abuse Scripture to justify excluding women from clerical leadership. In fact, GAFCon’s 2019 report on Women in the Episcopate sanctions male supremacy by advising against the consecration... Read more
Although I grew up in the evangelical church, I don’t recall ever being presented with a robust theology of sex. In my church, sex just wasn’t discussed, although the unspoken assumption seems to have been that premarital sex is always sinful. Before I go any further, a caveat: this post is not didactic. I’m exploring an important topic that I feel is poorly examined by my fellow evangelicals, rather than taking a stand. My own view on these matters is... Read more
For many Christians, Lent involves putting off the old self, or giving something up to draw closer to God, as we prepare to remember Jesus’ death and celebrate his resurrection. This yearly custom recalls Colossians 3:9: “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” The Lenten fast is a ritual that... Read more
The Southern Baptist Convention’s explusion of Saddleback Church this week, over the ordination of a female pastor, is a sad reminder that male supremacy continues to haunt, and hurt, the church. While the tragic events in Ferguson, Missouri and elsewhere more recently have appropriately focused the church’s attention on issues of systemic racism, male supremacy, as expressed in the ideology of complementarianism, is still embraced by many Christians. Yet white supremacy and complementarianism go hand in hand. Pope John Paul... Read more
On the heels of a recent announcement by the Church of England that it will explore using gender-inclusive terms for God, it’s worth asking – to what extent should Christians embrace gender-inclusive language? I’ve argued for gender-inclusive language in the Bible when an author’s message is intended for everyone. Unfortunately, even in some instances where the original language is ambiguous or neutral regarding gender, new translations, such as the ESV, continue to bury women under male nomenclature. The thoughtful use... Read more
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