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I work on assembly line.\u00a0 There are about 40 jobs on the line<\/em> that I work on.\u00a0 Each person does their job and are greatly encouraged to stay in their lane.\u00a0 <\/em>Since Evangelicalism is a part of my past, I asked the team leader \u201cDo you assign certain roles to men and certain ones to women?\u201d She said, \u201cNo, we try to fit the person to the job.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, there are no gender roles, just like there are no ethnic or racial roles on the assembly line.<\/p>\n But complimentary philosophy goes even further than stereotyping women into certain jobs in society, the church and the home.\u00a0 It also keeps alive the practices of the past in assuming that women cannot have any authority over men and should only aspire to certain things.\u00a0 I hope you saw that the team leader was a woman.<\/p>\n The trouble with complimentary philosophy is that after it assets that man and woman are equal, it digresses into the exceptions.\u00a0 They are equal, but the man has authority over the woman and even over her body.\u00a0 They are equal, but she must submit to him.\u00a0 Some take these assumptions even farther to assume that she should submit to him sexually even if she doesn\u2019t want to.\u00a0 She should get her teaching only from her husband and only serve certain roles in the home, church, and society.\u00a0 Some groups go so far as to limit the occupations she should have to only a few (like nurse and teacher).<\/p>\n When I look at this from an outsider view, it reminds me a lot of slavery.\u00a0 In the United States, slavery was limited to white people dominating black people and most likely considered complimentary.\u00a0 It was assumed to be the way it was supposed to be.\u00a0 It was even fairly easy to find validation for slavery in the Bible and certainly it was the way of the world at that time.\u00a0 Slaves were not considered equal because they had their role to play (they did the work and slave owner ruled them).<\/p>\n Here are just a few observations about how complimentary philosophy \/ theology is not fair or equal.<\/p>\n Like slavery, the man essentially rules over the woman.\u00a0 His will is supreme and, ultimately, she is required to do whatever he wills.\u00a0 She may have a say<\/em>, but she can always be overruled.<\/p>\n Like slavery, she will never even be considered to lead the man.\u00a0 She is always the follower no matter how inept the man is or how brilliant her ideas are.<\/p>\n Like slavery, she will never fully get credit for the work she does.\u00a0 It will always be under the umbrella of his care <\/em>and she may be praised for jobs done per instruction but never fully honored or appreciated.<\/p>\n Like slavery, she has an extremely limited voice.\u00a0 She cannot speak in church as a pastor or teacher.\u00a0 She cannot even lead studies where men are present (only other women and children).<\/p>\n Like slavery, lordship is valued and honored for the man, but she will always be bossy or disobedient if she speaks her mind.\u00a0 Even though Jesus denounced lording over others, complimentary philosophy promotes it.\u00a0 While Jesus and Paul promoted equality of all races, positions and genders, complementarianism does not.<\/p>\n Like slavery, violence toward women is eventually accepted.\u00a0 Many under this assumption, ultimately believe they can force their wife to have sex with them because it is her role.\u00a0 Some religions even promote beating their wives to keep them in submission.\u00a0 A woman who disagrees too strongly or doesn\u2019t obey her husband is seen the way some theology views other <\/em>people (worthy of death).<\/p>\n Like slavery, men are exalted as supreme simply because of the classification they were born into.\u00a0 Women were also demoted to a lower station because they have a vagina and are sometimes a little weaker physically.<\/p>\n Evangelical Christians generally assume no one will take this too far.\u00a0 But, similar to slavery, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.\u00a0 Because men feel they are led by a higher ethic (it\u2019s in the Bible or another holy book), they feel exonerated for their behavior.\u00a0 After all, if God put them in this role, they ought to exercise it.\u00a0 It\u2019s like a license to steal.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not going to spend any energy on wrestling with the Bible verses because most people already know what they say.<\/p>\n Just like we eventually realized slavery and racism were wrong, it is time to release ourselves from the shackles of this broken philosophy.\u00a0 Men and women don\u2019t have roles in society and the church.\u00a0 They have gifts and talents and words to speak and songs to sing.<\/p>\n Why not free ourselves to climb to new heights by acknowledging all the voices?<\/p>\n Why not embrace all people as capable of leading us to a new tomorrow?<\/p>\n Why not realize that diminishing one group will never elevate the larger group?<\/p>\n We must realize that subduing any group only brings down the whole?<\/p>\n As you may know, I see the American Evangelical church in sharp decline, mainly because it has tried to subdue women and minorities and others it disagrees with.\u00a0 It became powerful and was corrupted by its own power.\u00a0 It became good at recruiting new members, but then never became what it could have been and now is going through a dying process that may end in its mortality.<\/p>\n I do have hope for the future, but we have to move away from misogynism, racism, homophobia and all the other philosophies created in our fearful minds.<\/p>\n We must be brave enough to experience new ideas that make us feel vulnerable.<\/p>\n To be genuinely great, we must embrace equality for ALL.<\/p>\n Be where you are, be who you are,<\/p>\n Karl Forehand<\/p>\n Support us on Patreon<\/a>\u00a0 *\u00a0 \u00a0The Desert Sanctuary Website<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I work on assembly line.\u00a0 There are about 40 jobs on the line that I work on.\u00a0 Each person does their job and are greatly encouraged to stay in their lane.\u00a0 Since Evangelicalism is a part of my past, I asked the team leader \u201cDo you assign certain roles to men and certain ones to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4370,"featured_media":1678,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[202,637],"tags":[167,938,640,833,505],"class_list":["post-1673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church","category-marriage","tag-church","tag-complimentary","tag-marriage","tag-misogyny","tag-roles"],"yoast_head":"\nKarl Forehand is a former pastor, podcaster, and award-winning author. His books include Apparent Faith: What Fatherhood Taught Me About the Father\u2019s Heart and The Tea Shop. He is the creator of\u00a0The Desert Sanctuary<\/a>\u00a0podcast. He is married to his wife Laura of 32 years and has one dog named Winston. His three children are grown and are beginning to multiply!<\/h5>\n
Pre-order Being: A Journey Toward Presence and Authenticity<\/a><\/h4>\n