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Even in a postmodern, post-polite culture, men often open doors for women in public. In much the same way, they need to swing open the doors for women to have increased levels of ministry in the church, author and speaker Carolyn Custis James told attendees of the annual Kaleo Conference, held Feb. 10-11 at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Ga.

Mrs. James, author of When Life and Beliefs Collide (Zondervan, 2002) and Lost Women of the Bible (Zondervan, 2005) and president of Whitby Forum, said woman are shackled from the full use of their ministerial gifts by a blueprint that the church has imposed upon them both in her denomination—the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA)—and in evangelicalism as a whole.

The blueprint, Mrs. James says, includes two pictures of women, one positive and one negative; it has depicted women negatively as a temptress and positively as a mother and wife. Though women are called to be godly wives and mothers, their callings are not limited to those roles, she said. Nor are women’s gifts limited solely to ministering to other women in the church, Mrs. James asserted.

"The stewardship of women’s gifts is a huge issue we cannot avoid," she said. "It is a serious matter to Jesus when talents are buried in the ground. But an equally important issue is the simple fact that both men and women need the spiritual ministries women offer.

"God has equipped women to edify and build up his church too. I daresay that as women exercise their gifts in new ways, PCA men will echo the words of Jesus and say, ‘She has done a beautiful thing to me.’"

Randy Stinson, executive director of The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW), expresses concern about Mrs. James’ nebulous assertion that women are to exercise their gifts in new ways.

"I would be interested to know specifically what these ‘new ways’ are," Stinson said. "We are certainly glad that someone is addressing the issue of empowering women to use their God-given gifts in the church and fully support that biblical idea.

"However, there is a clear complementary framework within the fabric of Scripture that must serve as the foundation for the way in which both men and women use those gifts in the church. God’s Word has given us much clear guidance on this and we must not move beyond it."

Carolyn and husband Frank James, president of Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Fla., were keynote speakers of the conference. Mrs. James specifically addressed the situation of gender roles in the church as it relates to Covenant College’s parent denomination, the PCA.

In response to a question following her presentation, Mrs. James agreed with a young female student that the discussion over gender roles in the church is often stifled or guarded due to fear in both men and women.

"Men are afraid they will lose their male authority," Mrs. James said, "or women are afraid they will be seen as ‘bad.’ What I see as the ‘blessed alliance’ between men and women doesn’t diminish men at all."

The PCA holds to the biblical teaching that limits the ordination of elders to men only, a teaching with which Mrs. James expresses agreement. However, there remain plenty of untapped opportunities for women to work in the church, she said.

"The PCA’s position on the matter of women’s ordination is firm, clear, and defended by Scripture," she said. "But this position still leaves plenty of room for the PCA to build a reputation as the denomination where women’s gifts are embraced, fully utilized and publicly affirmed as vital to the health of the Body of Christ.

"There is still opportunity for us to think of substantial ways to incorporate women into the full life of the church and to brainstorm new ministry vocations for women in our congregations. An encouraging precedent has already been set by the fact that some of the brightest lights in the PCA galaxy are female theologians."

Mrs. James named conference speaker Joni Eareckson Tada and authors Nancy Pearcey and Susan Hunt as examples of female theologians who are making a major impact on the PCA as well as the broader evangelical world.

"Women like these should not be exceptions, but role models for other PCA women," Mrs. James said. "The PCA is rightly proud of their achievements and our denomination benefits from their wisdom. They, in turn, cast a vision for what is possible as we contemplate the other gifted women theologians God has entrusted to us."

Stinson applauds the ministry of women such as Eareckson, Pearcey, and Hunt (Hunt serves enthusiastically as a CBMW council member), but says there must be a greater degree of biblical clarity regarding the ministries that women are to carry out within the church.

"My concern is that while Mrs. James notes the position of the PCA she does not clarify whether or not, or to what extent, she is in agreement with that position or its basis. She indicates that women are to be `unleashed’ and that the church has not fully utilized the gifts of women, but does not deal with what she thinks a corrective might look like.

"Further, regarding the gender discussions within evangelicalism, often things that go unsaid are just as problematic as things that are said. It does not seem responsible in today’s climate to call for an unleashing of women but then remain silent on the solution.

"While Mrs. James allows for the PCA’s position on ordination, the leading complementarian theologians both inside the PCA and without have said for many years that the real issue is function and content. In other words, this issue is not just about a biblical prohibition regarding ordination to an office but also about a Scriptural restriction on the function of authoritative teaching in the church.

"First Timothy 2:12 is dealing with the function of teaching and the exercise of authority, not simply prohibiting women from a title, status, or office and then telling them that they can’t have the office but they can perform the function. So, if Mrs. James wants to assert that women are not limited to teaching children and other women, then she will surely be anxious to explain specifically what other kinds of teaching ministries she is talking about and how they square with 1 Timothy 2:12."

Part two of CBMW’s two-part examination of James’ teaching will look at her assertion that the essence of biblical womanhood is the calling of the woman to be a warrior and a theologian within the‘blessed alliance’ between men and women God has ordained within creation to carry out the cultural mandate.

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Stay at home moms are not a threat to civilization, as one feminist argues, but they are one of society’s cornerstones, R. Albert Mohler Jr. said March 22 on the Focus on the Family radio program.

Responding to a recent attack on stay at home mothers by feminist Linda Hirshman on ABC’s "Good Morning America" in which Hirshman called the life of the stay at home mom "unfulfilling," Mohler said being a stay at home mom is a challenging and difficult job, one that requires a great depth of knowledge and skill. Mohler is president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a council member for The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW).

"I can’t imagine what would be more interesting than dealing with the challenges a mother faces," Mohler said. "She’s got medical challenges, financial challenges, social-relational challenges, psychological and even psychiatric challenges. She has meal and nutrition challenges, and she has domestic engineering challenges. A mom pulls all that together.

"As a dad, we come home and are simply amazed at how it has worked when we are gone. All it takes is mom being sick for one day, and dad finds out what an executive responsibility really looks like."

In a segment that aired over two days on "Good Morning America" last month, Hirshman bitterly criticized mothers who choose to stay at home and raise their children, calling them "a threat to civilization." A woman is wasting her education by choosing home and children over workplace and salary, she said. Hirshman was, in part, promoting her new book entitled "Get to Work: A Manifesto for Women of the World."

Mohler’s response originally aired Feb. 24 on his nationally syndicated radio program. Focus on the Family founder and host James Dobson heard about the show and aired portions of it on his own program. Mohler is a member of Focus on the Family’s board of directors.

Dobson called "Good Morning America’s" attack on motherhood "outrageous" and admonished the network to present the other side of the story.

"This is beyond the pale," Dobson said. "What ABC has done here is they have gone back and resurrected one of those radical feminists from the 60s and 70s with crazy, off-the-wall ideas. I guess because it helps the ratings. But it is insulting to every woman who is out there doing that (stay at home motherhood) job."

Hirshman is worried about the upswing among women with college degrees—even many from elite universities—who are choosing to stay at home and raise children is undermining feminism.

But Mohler said the fact that so many women—including many who are not Christians—are opting to stay home to raise a family demonstrates the compelling nature of the call to motherhood.

"It’s a sign of God’s common grace—the fact that the family has a compelling call to it, that even those who do not believe in Christ understand," Mohler said. "But for Christians, it is an even deeper mandate because we are accountable to Scripture and we know that the family is not just about the practical functions of raising children and nurture and all the rest, it’s about the glory of God disclosed in that little domestic sphere where, when things are rightly ordered, God receives the glory and the world looks at it.

"You might think of this as your own way of sharing the Gospel by showing what God is all about in the family. You can testify to God and be a witness to your neighbors just by the priority of family in your life and by the right ordering of your own home."

Dobson said the media’s use of radical feminist pundits to address family and motherhood is irresponsible because many of them are not married, do not have children and thus are not qualified to speak to these issues.

"Most of these (radical feminist) writers from the 60s and 70s had never been married," Dobson said. "They didn’t like children and deeply resented men. Yet they advised millions of women how to raise their children and especially how to produce healthy boys…Isn’t it interesting that the media never homed in on that incongruity?"

Mohler said Hirshman’s most disturbing comment was her assertion that "an educated and competent adult’s place is in the office." Hirshman further said staying home with children is too boring and unfulfilling for an educated and "complicated" woman. But Mohler said the calling of motherhood is anything but uncomplicated and unfulfilling.

"There is no corporate CEO who has a job as demanding as a mom, as requiring specialized skills, specialized abilities and intuition," said Mohler, whose wife, Mary, is a stay at home mom. "I am a dad and my wife gets it far more than I do."

To hear the full Focus on the Family broadcast with Mohler, please see

http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/Focus_on_the_Family/archives.asp?bcd=2006-3-22

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Apparently TIME magazine is not aware that the use of the universal masculine "man" to mean "human race" risks confusing postmodern readers.

On the cover of the March 13 edition of the news weekly, TIME appropriates the term in a headline "The Untold Saga of Early Man in America." The headline alludes to TIME’s cover story on human skeletal remains discovered in America estimated to be more than 9,000 years old.

The common argument of evangelical Bible translators who take a so-called "gender-neutral" approach to translating is that the use of the universal masculine—"man"—is so outdated that postmodern readers do not understand its meaning.

Thus, the argument goes, for the sake of accuracy and clarity, masculine gender language—though long understood as a general term for human beings—must be dropped and replaced by a clearer, less offensive "gender neutral" term. Bible translations such as Today’s New International Version (TNIV) take such an approach.

Wayne Grudem, board member for The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and author of a number of books and articles on Bible translation, points out that TIME’s use of "man" still accords with standard contemporary style guides including the Associated Press Stylebook, Strunk and White’s Elements of Style, and most dictionaries.

"Too bad that way of using the word ‘man’ went out of the English language about 10 years ago, according to TNIV translators," Grudem said. "I guess that means nobody will understand what TIME means by its headline."

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When men and women faithfully fulfill their biblically-ordained roles in the home and church, they are giving the world a picture that reflects the character of God, Randy Stinson told an audience of college students during the sixth annual "Give Me An Answer" collegiate conference last month at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY.

Stinson, executive director of The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW) told students that the Bible is clear regarding the roles men and women are to play in the home and in the church. The Bible is not quite as muddy on the topic as many in the evangelical world insist, he said.

"The Bible is very clear on a number of things regarding gender issues," Stinson said. "I am taken aback by the confusion on this issue in the culture, confusion over something as basic as what it means to be a man and what it means to be a woman."

Much is at stake in the debate, Stinson said, particularly an accurate portrayal of the character of God. In Scripture, we learn that God has ordained complementary roles for men and women as part of the fabric of creation, Stinson said. Ephesians 5 makes it clear that when men and women function in these roles in the home, they are reflecting the gospel itself along with the character of God, he said.

"In Ephesians 5, the mystery that is being revealed is this relationship between man and women," Stinson said. "This relationship—the way it was in the garden before the fall—was always intended to be a picture of Christ and the church, to point people to Christ.

"This isn’t about us. It is about God. This order is reflecting something about God. This is not about ‘who’s the boss?’ It is about Christ and the Church and the gospel. Yes, it does involve authority and submission, not in the sense that it is oppressive, but in the sense that it paints a picture."

Stinson told students that the Bible’s depiction of complementary gender roles is particularly offensive to most in the culture and some in the church because it involves a structure of authority. But to understand a hierarchy within the home and church as oppressive and restraining to one or both genders is to misunderstand the biblical teaching, he said.

"Authority is a bad word today," Stinson said. "People don’t like authority. Unfortunately, for those people, the Bible has a lot to say about authority. The Bible has given us clear structures in the home, the church, and in society and the Bible says authority structures have been given for our good. In my estimation, it is the imprint of God on everything. Authority and submission are given by God and the church."

Stinson unpacked the Bible’s teaching on gender roles in the home and church, showing how a complementarity of the genders is in view from the beginning in the first two chapters of Genesis. The apostle Paul builds his case for male headship in both the home and the church by grounding his teaching in Genesis, he pointed out.

Gender role confusion is a product of the fall as Gen. 3:16 makes clear, he said. Before the fall, both the man and woman were submitting graciously to God’s complementary design, he said.

God’s design for the home and church is also reflected in the relationship of the persons of the Trinity, he said. The Trinity is a model of equality, difference, and unity. The members of the Godhead are co-equal, co-eternal, equal in essence, and yet each member plays a distinctive role in redemption with the Son submitting to the Father.

It is the same within the home and church, Stinson said; while men and women are equal in essence and value and each are equally made in the image of God, both genders are given equally important roles to fulfill to the glory of God.

"This does not violate their full equality," Stinson said. "What you have in the Trinity is equality, difference, and unity. There is order even in the Godhead."

Within the church, the Bible restricts women from teaching or exercising authority over men, Stinson pointed out. However, all members of the body are gifted and all gifts are of equal value in the service of the church. But the Bible—in passages such as 1 Tim. 2 and 1 Cor. 11—sets clear parameters for how gender roles are to play out in the church, he said.

This structure is the same for both the home and the church, he said. Men are to serve as the spiritual leaders in the home and as elders or pastors that lead the church. This does not denigrate the value of women nor does it keep them from serving in many vital roles that are key to the health of the church, he said.

"Everybody has a place in the body of Christ," he said. "And one place is not more important than the other. It does not reflect your value before God. Your value is not determined by how many accolades you get and how public your role is. Every part of the body is important.

"The two clearest institutions in the Bible are the home and the church. It only makes sense that God would put clear structures in place and make clear what He wants and how He wants those things to work together. Let’s not underestimate structure. How you structure things many times will determine how well things will work later on and how it honors God later on."

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Several speakers affiliated with The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW) will be featured this spring at three "Iron Sharpens Iron" conferences calling men to ownership of their biblically-ordained roles in the home and church. The conferences are sponsored by Vision New England Men’s Ministries.

Robert Lewis and Crawford Loritts, two CBMW board of reference members, will be featured at the first event, to be held on March 4 in Hartford, Conn. The second conference will be held March 18 in Albany, N.Y., and will include Steve Farrar and Stu Weber. Weber is also a board of reference member, while Farrar serves as a CBMW council member. At the final event in Boston, Mass., on April 1, Randy Stinson, executive director of CBMW, and Lewis will speak.

Farrar, Weber, and Lewis have written numerous books on biblical manhood, which are available in the CBMW webstore at www.cbmw.org/store.

CBMW will be offering free literature to attendees of the Boston conference. To register or for more information, please visit www.ironsharpensiron.net.