Christians in California are beginning to awaken and respond to the dark implications of four pro-homosexual measures signed into law in October by the Golden State's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

These laws, on which Gender Blog first reported last month, promote homosexual, bisexual and transsexual indoctrination of schoolchildren through prescribed textbooks and activities. Further, the laws prescribe "harassment training" for offenders who express a belief that there are only two genders, male and female, or who use such language as "mom" and "dad" to describe a typical family. The law effectively bans the use of traditional language such as "mom" and "dad" as discriminatory.

Advocates for Faith and Freedom has filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn what they not-so-subtly call "stupid laws"- laws that are aimed at wholesale social reconstruction in California schools. Several other Christian and pro-family groups have joined the suit, including the California Family Council, Northern California chapter of Alliance Defense Fund and Campaign for Children and Families,

Robert Tyler, general counsel for Advocates of Faith and Freedom, points out the obvious conundrums school officials will face if the laws take effect as scheduled on Jan. 11. 

"What will prevent a 250-pound linebacker from deciding he wants to share the locker room with the cheerleaders?" asked Tyler. "If implemented, this bill will have disastrous effects in our school system. This social experiment defies common sense."

The laws prohibit "instruction or activity that is perceived to promote a discriminatory bias against gender, including cross-dressing and sex-change operations as well as so-called sexual orientation." Offenders could face discipline, including lawsuits, from the California Department of Education.

Allan Carlson, global coordinator of the World Congress of Families, supports the action, calling the legislation "a blatant attack on the natural family orchestrated by the alternative-lifestyles lobby." He points out that the upshot which supporters of the laws seek is a brave new gender-free world.
"It will prohibit anything that suggests that the natural family-a man and a woman, married, with children-is typical," Carlson said. "Thus, under this latest advance toward a Brave New World of polymorphous perversion, California textbooks will no longer be able to use words like ‘mother and father' and ‘husband and wife,' because they suggest that heterosexuality is the norm-even though that is manifestly the case, even in California."

The suit names Schwarzenegger, state Attorney General Edmund Brown Jr., Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell and others as defendants.

Pray for believers in California and their efforts at opposing this wicked agenda. God's Word stipulates that his people must obey His commands when they conflict with the laws of man. Pray they will stand steadfast while exhibiting the aroma of life commensurate with the Gospel.

Social engineers may tell us that gender and sexuality are mere social constructs, but God has objectively defined these fundamental human attributes for the good of His people and the glory of His name. 

[Mike Seaver is a pastor at CrossWay Community Church in Charlotte, North Carolina and posts regularly at Role Calling.]

Someone recently told me that they attended a Wednesday night church service at their conservative Southern Baptist church and were shocked to have a female take the pulpit, claim to be under the authority of her husband and her senior pastor and then begin to open up God's Word and give an expository sermon.

Semigalitarianism...no, I did not coin the phrase, but I think it is a helpful one. Basically, it is those people (both men and women) who say that a woman should not be allowed to preach in a church on her own authority, but if she claims to be under the authority of her senior pastor (who is a man) and under the authority of her husband (who is obviously a man) then it is okay for her to teach men in the church.

You may think that this is not a big deal or that it is not a regular practice in the church, but I think you are greatly deceived. Semigalitarianism (Semi-Egalitarianism) is taking place all over the United States in churches that claim to believe in the Inerrancy of Scripture, but they seem to make an assumption that they can declare who has authority in the church to teach. There is one major problem to this position. It is 1 Timothy 2:12-13 where the Apostle Paul says, "I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first and then Eve." You see, this verse is in the Bible and to neglect this verse is to disobey the Bible and to disobey the Bible is to disobey the God of the Bible. The church is never given the right to say someone has authority to teach when the Bible says the exact opposite. It is the same as saying that a drunken adulterer is allowed to be an overseer in a church as long as they are "under the authority" of the other pastors in the church. The problem with this is that 1 Timothy 3 specifically says that an overseer cannot be a drunk and is to be the "husband of one wife."

If we start trying to reinterpret one passage of Scripture, what stops us from reinterpreting the rest of it? The problem with Semigalitarianism is not just that it has females teaching men in a Sunday School class or from the pulpit, it is that it is ignoring a clear biblical passage.

I know many women who are excellent teachers (my wife being one of them) and they are to use their gifts to teach other women (Titus 2) and to care for their children, but there is a distinct absence in the Bible of a man promoting something opposite from what Paul says in 1 Timothy 2:12-13.

So here are some questions we must ask...because I think a lot of my conservative friends have not even thought through this issue.

Can a woman be a senior pastor in a church?
Can a woman teach in a church?
Can a woman teach men in a church?
Can a woman teach in the church if she is under the authority of the senior pastor and her husband?

When we step outside of the feminist air that we breathe everyday and into an honest look at what God's Word says, I don't think the answer is really that hard.

What is teaching your teen or preteen girl what it means to be a true woman?  Is it the culture or biblical teaching from a local church?   

A new discipleship curriculum written by Susan Hunt and published by the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) seeks to provide local churches and their girls with a bold and biblical answer to the question of authentic womanhood.

"Becoming a True Woman" provides wise biblical discipleship for both pre-teens and teens through two main studies: "Becoming a True Woman while I'm trying to make it through middle school" and "Becoming a True Woman...while I still have a curfew."

The "Becoming a True Woman Leader's Guide" begins by helping girls define a woman's true purpose-to glorify God, and establishes a biblical framework for such issues as roles in the home, submission, homemaking, and how a true woman reflects her redemption. Thus, the study gives a thorough biblical foundation for womanhood.

Susan Hunt is an author, speaker and member of The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW). She also serves as consultant to the Presbyterian Church in America's Women in the Church Ministry. She is the author and co-author of numerous helpful books on biblical womanhood including By Design: God's Distinctive Calling for Women and The True Woman: The Beauty and Strength of a Godly Woman, among others.

The study is aimed at helping local churches to instill in their girls a desire to live out biblical womanhood to the glory of God, a notion that is decidedly countercultural in the 21^st century West. 

"The Apostle Paul wrote to Titus, a pastor, and gave him instructions about church life," Hunt writes in the greeting letter to pastors in the leaders guide.

"One of Paul's instructions to Titus, and to the church in all ages, is that the church is to equip older women to teach younger women (Titus 2:3-5). Your ministry to girls is one way help your church obey this mandate. It is also a way you help the Bride of Christ prepare for His coming."

"Becoming a True Woman" curriculum is highly recommended and is available through the PCA website.  Let us equip our daughters to model the glorious beauty of biblical womanhood for a culture that defines the true woman as the powerful, upwardly-mobile woman, a culture that desperately needs to see the light of the gospel radiating forth from the lives of our future wives and moms.

This post is the third part of a series responding to Molly Aley, a self-described "99% egalitarian" blogger who recently posted My Disassembling Protestantism: Sola Scriptura.  In that post, she questioned whether or not the Scriptures were clear or even intended to be clear, and cited the following evidence:

Complementarians and Egalitarians both find their position from Scripture.  The Arminian and Calvinist positions both claim they are found in the clear teaching of the Bible.  Charismatic and non-Charismatic both base their stance on the Scriptures.  The Church of Christ claims it best reflects God's desire for the way "church" ought to be, but then again, so does the Baptist and the Pentecostal, and all three of them point to the Bible for "proof" that they are right. 

Certainly the Bible does contain challenging texts that require prayerful wrestling and cogitation in a community of believers.  John Piper helps us to understand why God inspired hard texts, and how a believer should respond.  My point is that the Bible itself is not to blame for disagreements in the church. 

On page 53 of Bible Doctrine, Wayne Grudem suggests two causes for long-standing disagreements.  One alternative is that Christians are seeking to make affirmations where Scripture itself is silent.  At these points, often on practical questions such as methods of evangelism or appropriate church size, the solution is to allow for differences of viewpoints within the church.

A second alternative more relevant to the gender debate is that believers have made mistakes in their interpretation of Scripture.  Grudem says, "This could have happened because the data we use to decide a question of interpretation were inaccurate or incomplete.  Or it could be because there is some personal inadequacy on our part, whether it be, for example, personal pride, greed, lack of faith, selfishness, or even failure to devote enough time to prayerfully reading and studying scripture."

Please do not read this as an accusation or personal attack, because that would miss my point.  Before we suspect the Bible of being muddled, we need to understand that we ourselves are muddled by sin.  We need to see ourselves as the Psalmist who is aware of his personal need and craves understanding from the perfect statutes of God (Psalm 119).

Please understand this primarily as a call to both complementarians and egalitarians for humility in dialogue, heart introspection, and a renewed zeal for engagement over the biblical texts themselves.  If you are new to the debate over gender issues, then the place to begin is with the Bible.

This post is the second part of a series responding to Molly Aley, a homeschooling mother of five, undergraduate psychology student, lover of God, Alaska resident and self-described "99% egalitarian" blogger who recently posted My Disassembling Protestantism: Sola Scriptura.

I understand that Molly is representing her own thoughts and not serving as the official spokesperson for all egalitarians everywhere.  (And I certainly don't pretend to speak for all complementarians!)  I understand that many egalitarians believe the Bible is the final authority, and a dialogue based on careful reading and exegesis of the Scriptures is a healthy process for the church.  CBMW is glad to engage in this ongoing civil discussion through JBMW, many published books, this website, and personal interactions.

The key point that I would like to make today is that a consistent complementarian could not make the statement, "I'm fed up with Sola Scriptura." Sola Scriptura is essential to the complementarian position.  Revelation from the Word of God is the only solid foundation for our understanding that men and women are equal in value and dignity, but distinct in their roles and functions at home and church.

The foundation of the complementarian position cannot rely on reason alone.  There is not a convincing rational argument about why I should lead my family and not my wife.  An argument for male headship could not be solely based on greater spirituality (not true, we have equal access to the Cross), greater intelligence (not true anyway), greater height (true, but not relevant), or greater strength (true, but domination based on strength is not the same as leadership).  The argument for complementarianism depends ultimately on Scripture alone.

I can't make a convincing argument for male headship in marriage based on my feelings alone.  Feelings are a helpful guide, and to me it feels good and right to hold a door for a woman or to hold my daughter protectively close during scary parts of movies.  In this sense, I agree with John Piper that God wrote manhood and womanhood on our hearts and deeper down men and women know it.  Unfortunately, sin has defaced this imprint.  In other words I would not trust the inclinations of my deceitful heart because the temptation toward pride, selfishness or laziness in marriage is too great.  On the other side, it seems to me that an argument against male headship based on feelings apart from the Scripture ultimately reduces to, "I feel patriarchy is yucky."

I can't make a convincing argument for male leadership in the church or headship in marriage based on tradition alone, even though it has been the long-standing practice of the Church for centuries.  Times and traditions change but the Word of God endures forever.  Tradition must be guided by revelation.

The complementary nature of manhood and womanhood and its implications for the home and church can only be defended from the Scripture alone.  Sola Scriptura is essential to the complementarian position.  But, praise God, we do have the Word of a speaking God to guide and correct our reasoning, feelings and traditions.  All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

The Word of God is not only understandable and authoritative for matters of home life and church doctrine, it is also sufficient to fully equip a man or woman of God for every good work.  It is profitable.  Training in righteousness will lead to competence in loving headship and joyful submission. 

If the Scriptures are clear and sufficient, then why is there an ongoing divide between egalitarians and complementarians, Calvinists and Arminians, and other disagreements over interpretation in the church?  We will address that tomorrow in part III.