JOY magazine, South Africa, published an article, Gender Hierarchy in the home, in their January 2012 issue. It was also published in their Afrikaans sister, JUIG. That was in response to a letter I wrote to them. I plan to soon respond to the article on my blog, but meanwhile, here is the letter they recieved. Black normal font is for the words in both my letter and the magazine, black bold for the words they left out. Red is for words they inserted.
What I add this time round, but which were not in my original letter, are footnotes and the numbers to reference them. (Because the Christian Patriarchy movement – which include Quiverfull – sounds absolutely unbelievable to those who don’t know it, and my remarks about them may sound like sensasionalism to JOY/ JUIG readers if not backed up.)
There is a lot to appreciate about JOY and JUIG magazine, but lately I noticed a disturbing trend creeping into both Joy and Christian society in general.
There are doctrines in America known as “Christian Patriarchy” and “Complementarianism” which promotes gender hierarchy in the church and home.(1)(2) For example, patriarchy teach wives and children should answer to husbands who, in turn, answer to God for them(3) (despite the clear Biblical teaching that Christ is the only mediator between humans and God.) Some patriarchists even teach a wife should obey her husband when he asks her to sin.(4)(5) They believe women belong only at home (6)(7)and should not vote, (8)nor teach men.(9)
Even some churches that do not overtly accept patriarchy (yet?), are tacitly accepting it through “Biblical manhood and womanhood,” the idea that men have the role of doing A, B, and C for the Lord, but women should do D, E, and F. Such gender roles restrict women from using their A, B and C gifts, and men from developing the D, E and F virtues. Scripture never says some gifts are for men and some are for women.
I am afraid that, in a lot of small ways, these ideas are trickling into JOY. To mention a few examples: (more…)
