Doctrine Matters in Daily Life: A New Open Letter to Egalitarians

CBMW desires to biblically explain God's good design for men and women because questions of doctrine do matter in daily life.  Our understanding of the truth of Scripture informs how we think about ourselves and how we relate to others.  This reality is especially evident in the church and home when we consider interactions between men and women.  For example, our understanding of 1 Timothy 2: 12 ("I do not permit a woman to teach her exercise authority over men") naturally will shape our expectation of who we expect to see teaching the Bible from the pulpit on a Sunday morning. 

Also, a husband’s understanding of 1 Peter 3:7 ("show honor to the woman as the weaker vessel since they are heirs with you of the grace of life") will influence whether or not he holds open a door, elbows his way into a lifeboat, or uses his strength to save himself during an earthquake rather than a class of students under his charge.  A woman who understands that men and women are both saved in the same way through the blood of Jesus Christ, will not expect Galatians 3:28 ("There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.") to suggest that there is no longer an ethnic difference between Jews and Gentiles nor distinguishable characteristics between men and women.

Mike Seaver at the blog Role Calling understands the shaping effects of sound doctrine, and is facilitating a conversation about gender roles and God's design of men and women.  His recent post A Semi-Pragmatic, Less Theological Open Letter to Egalitarians has a list of 10 questions that hopefully will help egalitarians and complementarians explore the intersection between doctrine and daily life.  The comment section is open now, and later this year he will provide a summarizing post.

For example, Mike would like to hear from egalitarians who are willing to weigh in on insightful questions:  If the Titanic disaster were to happen again, would you desire 50% of the seats on the life boats to be left for men?

His list is not limited to hypothetical questions.  For example:  Do egalitarian parents train their boys that it is okay for them to be "stay at home dads?"  If so, does a lot of domestic training happen with these boys?

I am eager to read the comments and gain additional insights into the inner workings of egalitarian marriages.  To wit:  If two egalitarians are married with children, and they hear a noise downstairs at night, should the man or the woman go downstairs to investigate, or would it depend on who had done it the last time?

To the many egalitarians who regularly read and give us feedback at Gender Blog, I would like to thank you for engaging with us in this ongoing dialogue.  I would appreciate if you would invite your friends to comment over at Role Calling to help complementarians better understand the practical outworking of the egalitarian doctrinal position. 

Thanks in advance; I look forward to reading your comments there.