Dishonest complementarianism?

All Christian egalitarians are aware that there is debate about the meaning of kephale in “the man is the head (kephale) of the woman.” At least some complementarians are not.

Is the complementarian preacher who speak as if the meaning is leadership, while many of his listeners have never heard the other interpretations, being honest? If he know many scholars understand it differently, is it honest to preach in such a way that the congregation keep on believing the meaning is undisputed?

The egalitarian preacher never have the luxury of even choosing to keep his congregation unaware of the other view. The nature of the wording ” “the man is the head (kephale) of the woman” mean the  congregation would know of the other view.

My letter in JOY: The full wording (Shortish post, looooonnnnggg footnotes)

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:

Male headship – is the very gospel at stake?

Daddy answers to God for all of us. Believe it or not, it doesn’t make me feel less of a person when my four-year-old goes around saying, ”God’s the boss of Daddy and Daddy’s the boss of Mommy.” ” – Pearl Barrett in “Why not submit”, Above Rubies magazine

This is central to the gospel message: Jesus is the way. Not “Jesus is the way, if you are male. Jesus-plus-husband is the way, if you are female.” Pearl Barrett denies the very gospel of Christ. And that brings me to