Gender Blog

CBMW Responds to TIME (Pt. 3)

Jeff Breeding
October 29, 2009

Here's the final clip from our conversation with Denny Burk and Jim Hamilton on the TIME cover story .

To watch this video, you will need to have Adobe Flash Player installed. You may download it here: http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer

 

You can watch the entire conversation here.

 

CBMW Responds to TIME (Pt. 2)

Jeff Breeding
October 28, 2009

Here's more from our conversation with Denny Burk and Jim Hamilton on the TIME cover story .

To watch this video, you will need to have Adobe Flash Player installed. You may download it here: http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer

 

You can watch the entire conversation here.

 

CBMW Responds to TIME (Pt. 1)

Jeff Breeding
October 27, 2009

Time Magazine's recent cover story, The State of the American Woman , has generated a fair amount of conversation. CBMW staffer John Starke sat down with Denny Burk and Jim Hamilton to discuss a variety of issues related to the piece. In the clip below, Burk and Hamilton offer their initial responses to the article.

To watch this video, you will need to have Adobe Flash Player installed. You may download it here: http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer

 

You can watch the entire conversation here.

 

Carson on Submission

John Starke
October 26, 2009

In the following clip, D.A. Carson discusses submission in marriage. This clip is from Carson's address at the Different by Design 2009 conference.

To watch this video from the Different by Design 2009 conference, you will need to have Adobe Flash Player installed. You may download it here: http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer


Part 1 on Permit can be seen here.

Part 2 on Authority can be seen here.

Part 3 on Adam before Eve can be seen here.

Part 4 on Elders and Deacons can be seen here.

Part 5 on The Christian Family can be seen here.

You can listen to all of Carson's address here.

 

Galatians 3:28 - Prooftext or Context?

Jeff Breeding
October 23, 2009

In our latest installment of Unchanging Truth, we would like to highlight this article from Pete Schemm on Galatians 3:28. As Dr. Schemm notes, this is a key text in the gender debate, with egalitarians often citing it as proof that there should be no gender-based distinctions in the church. Dr. Schemm helpfully analyzes this verse in its context and shows that it does not support the claims of egalitarians. If you are interested in the gender debate, this is a key text, and Dr. Schemm's article will help you understand what Paul is communicating to these Galatian Christians and to us.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28

No single verse of Scripture has attracted as much attention during the modern gender role debate as Galatians 3:28. The declaration by the Apostle Paul that "there is neither ... male nor female ... in Christ," though not directly addressing the role of women in the home and in the church, nevertheless, has played a critical role in the development of the issue. Egalitarian and complementarian scholars claim to be in general agreement about the main point of this verse-all believers are united in Christ. The question concerns what else this verse might entail. Clearly salvation does not eliminate all of our human differences. As Christians we retain racial, social, and gender distinctions. In what sense, then, is it true that in Christ there is neither male nor female? Does Gal 3:28 negate gender specific roles?

Egalitarians answer the latter question affirmatively, seeing the text as "the foundation for a new social order in the church." The result of this new social order is that there are no longer gender-based ministry distinctions in the home or the church. Complementarians, however, do not find such a proof text for eliminating gender roles here in the midst of Paul's argument for justification by faith alone (Gal 3-4). As S. Lewis Johnson has put it,

Never could the Apostle Paul have envisioned the place of Galatians 3:28 in contemporary evangelical literature... . While traditionally commentators have discussed Paul's words in the context of the Biblical doctrine of justification by faith, that has become a secondary matter. One can understand this to some extent, since the vigorous debate over sex roles has, in effect, lifted it from its exegetical underpinnings and set it as a lonely text, a kind of proof text, in the midst of a swirling theological debate. This is not without justification, but it also is not without peril. I am referring to the human tendency to forget sound hermeneutics and find things that are not really in the text.

In an effort to understand the text as it was intended, this article argues that Gal 3:28 does not abolish gender specific roles for men and women. Rather, Paul simply has in mind that all believers, no matter what their racial, social, or gender status, share the same spiritual status in their union with Christ. Further, if one chooses to speak in terms of "equality in Christ," based on Gal 3:28, it must be done carefully and with precision. It is only properly understood as equality "in Christ," or as equal status "before God," not gender equality in role or function.

You can read the entire article here.