Do We Need Another Statement?

So the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood put out what they’re calling the Nashville Statement about human sexuality and transgenderism, signed by many upright and godly people, and therefore, of course, causing a firestorm on social media. Amidst some substantial disagreement, like this good one, many ugly words were let fly, which I will not link to.

I only recently pulled myself together enough to click on the Danvers Statement, and truly, the whole time I was reading it, the thing I most felt is that I don’t quite understand the purpose or reason for these kinds of lists of theological points to be hung out there on the Internet, signed or maligned by those who pass by. I’m guessing that there are conferences and other literature that go along with them, but I haven’t been curious enough to go find out. I like writing and thinking about gender and sexuality, but not enough to figure out what these statements are for, or even to read them super carefully.

The trouble for me, as usual, isn’t so much theological as aesthetic. It’s not that I disagree for a moment about what the Bible really does say about men and women, about male and female, about the fall, about redemption. It’s that I feel very cautious, a check in my spirit perhaps, about how those passages are being interpreted and what kind of meaning is poured into the various theological and biblical words. Words like ‘Biblical’ and ‘Womanhood’ can be rightly or wrongly used in measurable and discernible ways, but then after that initial objectivity, all sort of shadowy subjectivity is poured in and out, meaning that can be hard to discern or tease out.

Deeply held and unquestioned cultural assumptions are always part of the bubbling cauldron, whether known and named or not. Where I grew up, womanhood included heating the bath water of the man, and probably collecting the firewood to do it. If you asked someone to find that command in the Bible, eventually with a lot of stretching and straining, they might be able to do it. Going back and saying, no, it really doesn’t say that, could produce hurt feelings one way or another. We aren’t worried over here about the temperature of the bath water, but there are many other ideas about how women should be, and men also, that are hard to name because they are so deeply part of our cultural identity, either for good or for ill.

And we are at a wretched cultural moment–the world has chosen and embraced one kind of being, unconditionally and dogmatically, at a time when portions of the church are wandering around in a vague circle, sure that The Bible is Good, but falling into distractible arguments over what it says and which app makes it the easiest to listen to. We are as likely to fight with each other as anyone, and meanwhile the great powerful current of Twitter has already moved on to the next thing.

Can I be any more vague? you’re probably asking yourself. Give me some time I probably can be. Maybe tomorrow I’ll try to really say what I don’t like about this statement and the Danvers one. Or maybe I’ll just post some pictures of my school room. It’s kind of a toss up at this point. I don’t like real controversy. I like the fake, fun kind, where I make fun of Gwyneth Paltrow and you all think I’m funny and clever.