Acts, Chapter 8
26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, a writer for CBMW: “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” 27 So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, …
34 The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” 35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scriptu
re and told him the good news about Jesus.
36 As they travelled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?”
38 And Philip answered him: You being a eunuch stands in the way, as you would not fulfil your Biblical Manhood role*. If people like you are allowed in the church, it will increase gender role confusion, and may even lead to greater acceptance of homosexuality.
– From GRIME (Gender Role IMplementation Edition) Bible
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* Edit: For clarity, I did not imply that this character was involved in homosexual acts. Some complementarians claim that a lack of clearly defined gender roles, and not insisting that everyone live up to their roles, should be blamed for an increase in homosexuality. I tried to politely disagree with that idea – it is impossible for this man to fulfil a complementarian husband and father role, but he can still be what God called him to be.
Comments on: "GRIME: The Ethiopian eunuch and the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood" (9)
And here I thought what would stand in the way is that his boss is a woman! 😉
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Natasha – that’s in verse 39! 😉
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Something to keep in mind here, is that a eunuch was a man captured in war and castrated. Such men were then made to work for the leaders who captured them. Sometimes, they were given responsibilities over the harems of kings because they could be trusted not to violate the women. Sometimes they were promoted and promoted until they ended up in a very high position of responsibility such as this man. There is no indication anywhere that they were used as sexual slaves. Rather they remained celibate servants.
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To clarify, I did not imply that this character was involved in homosexual acts.
Some complementarians claim that a lack of clearly defined gender roles, and not insisting that everyone live up to their roles, should be blamed for an increase in homosexuality. I tried to politely disagree with that idea.
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Agreed, Retha. You’d think according to those folks that Christianity was all about having large families. Eunuchs not only couldn’t do that, but must remain always single. Singleness is not a desired trait in churchgoers in the evangelical/fundamentalist world.
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I love how with that story to targeted that stupid Comp idea of being so concerned with gender and gender roles. Thank you for your wise post Retha!
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Brilliant!
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You need to look up this chapter this is not what it says in my NIV bibble at all
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It is a parody to make fun of a certain group’s unscriptural ideas.
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