Lore Ferguson Wilbert explains The Problem With Our Complementarianism
Bit by the bug of second wave feminism in the 1960s and ‘70s, the term “complementarianism” seemed to offer conservative churches an answer. Here was a word that described how men and women were equal and distinct. Same value, different roles. Same intrinsic worth, different intrinsic expressions. It came across a simple answer to a complex equation—as almost all issues concerning the human heart are.
In the 35 years or so since then, liberal churches grew more liberal and the conservative—heaven help us. McQuinn uses the term androcentrism to describe the shift in neo-reformed environments in particular. It means being dominated by or emphasizing masculine interests or a masculine point of view. It wasn’t that the theology was all wrong, it was that the voices of church leaders were maddeningly male, through the male perspective, with male interests paramount, and evaluated by males.
Imagine with me for a moment a room of chimps all chimping about how to be a better room of chimps and pandas.
McQuinn is Wilbert’s pastor, and a fellow complementarian:
Gary McQuinn, named so many of the issues friends like Jen Wilkin, Wendy Alsup, Hannah Anderson, and others—all complementarians paying particular attention to women’s involvement and leadership—had been talking about for years.
These aren’t SJW outsiders wishing they could gain entry into complementarianism; they have already gained entry. The article is published by the Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary*. McQuinn is the head pastor of an Acts 29 church. Jen Wilkin is a minister for Acts 29 president Matt Chandler. She is also on staff at The Gospel Coalition (TGC). Wendy Alsup and Hannah Anderson also contribute to TGC, (but are not on staff).
Wilbert closes with:
A crowd of chimping chimps sounds ugly and a stampeding herd of mustangs is destructive. If your meeting rooms and lead teams are full of male voices, tread softly with that power. It leads nowhere good and nowhere healthy for the local church or the Church as a whole. Christ did a good thing when he called us all his bride, making plaid wearing, pipe smoking men squirm everywhere.
Squirm on, friends. It’s the squirm that leads to growth.
*H/T Anonymous Reader
