More Trinity and Gender Reflections … This Time from Women

More Trinity and Gender Reflections … This Time from Women June 29, 2016

It is good to see more women getting into the Complementarian-Trinity “civil war,” well no actually, its not good, all civil war is bad, disunity is harmful, but you know what I mean.

Over at Practical Theology for Women, Wendy Alsup gives her view on eternal subordination and makes a forthright statement which should be noted:

When these leaders emphasize female submission instead of wifely submission, they are speaking of submission as if it were an ontological characteristic. Consider how John Piper answered a question on whether a woman should be a police officer.

“At the heart of mature manhood is a sense of benevolent responsibility to lead, provide for, and protect women in ways appropriate to a man’s differing relationships. … At the heart of mature womanhood is a freeing disposition to affirm, receive, and nurture strength and leadership from worthy men in ways appropriate to a woman’s differing relationships. … it would be hard for me to see how a woman could be a drill sergeant … over men without violating their sense of manhood and her sense of womanhood.”These leaders of The Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood believe that this benevolent responsibility of man and joyful receiving from woman is the heart of mature manhood and womanhood – not roles for husbands and wives but the essence of the two genders, and they believe it holds still in the New Creation. So when these same men start talking about submission in the Trinity, it makes sense to import the categories they have already established back into the discussion. And they, not any of their detractors, have set this frame. If a woman is not fully female without submissiveness, how is Jesus fully God’s Son without it as well? That, friends, is by definition ontology.

Over at CT, Courtney Reissig has a piece on Why Complementarian Men Need Complementarian Women. While she sides with EFS, she makes a call for unity:

In the midst of this particular civil war among complementarians, I believe that peace and unity are still possible. Perhaps it begins with where CBMW started in the first place—with men and women working together for the cause of Christ, unified around our shared identity as image bearers of God, both male and female.


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