So it has been near impossible to exist the past couple of weeks in the Christian blogworld without encountering ongoing conversations of sexism, gender roles, and the like. Thanks to “He-who-must-not-be-named” recent posts (thanks Makeesha for the reference), it has become a very hot topic.
But the results have been sad. Very sad and depressing. I expected the healthy debate between the complementarians and the egalitarians (if you don’t know those terms, lucky you), but not the affirmation of sexism I have seen among many men. Over the past couple of weeks I have read posts (by men) who say-
– that since God is sexist we need to redeem sexism from the negative light it has been painted in. It is a good thing we need to affirm.
– that if you believe in the equality of women you must be worshiping a false god
– that Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” only refers to salvation. We are all saved through Jesus, but that it has no bearing on culture. So slavery, racism, and sexism are not things the Bible speaks against.
– that because women were offended by “he-who-must-not-be-named”, they are now huge fans of his stuff
– that although they might affirm the equality of women, it is not an important enough of an issue to actually do anything about because Jesus didn’t focus much on it.
It seems like this whole issue has just made it possible for the closet sexists in the Christian community to come out and say what they really think. I had hoped that as the church we were beyond that, but I obviously was very very naive. What I found even sadder than the rampant sexism in the church were the numerous responses of non-Christians who upon encountering this display of Christian sexism stated that they were reaffirmed in their decision to reject the church and wanted nothing to do with people who were so backward and hateful towards women.
there is something very very wrong here.