Does Sarah Palin Present a Dilemma for Complementarians? Part 3

Life is endlessly interesting and God's Word speaks to every facet of this complex and joyful life.  Lifted suddenly from relative obscurity, Governor Sarah Palin is now being analyzed (and accused) in the media from unprecedented angles.  It is encouraging to see Christians thinking biblically and quickly about this new dimension of the presidential campaign.  Nathan Finn notes, "There may be any number of reasons why Sarah Palin—or any other female—would make a problematic candidate for high political office. But gender should not be one of those reasons.   He also quotes Barrett Duke:

God's design for male headship in the home and the church does not require the exclusion of women from leadership in public life, where spiritual headship is not involved. Such extrapolation carries the biblical teaching about the role of women beyond the Bible's own application.

It is permissible for a woman to serve, and she is not required to imitate a man to attain that position.  The Bible expansively shows that from the beginning men and women were created to be quite different.  Even though a man or a woman could serve in a particular office, it does not extinguish the innate differences between male and female leaders.   J. I. Packer notes, "It is important that the cause of not imposing on women restrictions that Scripture does not impose should not be confused with the quite different goals of minimizing the distinctness of the sexes as created."  Though equal in value and dignity, men and women are created to be complementary in their role and function in the church and home.  These complementary differences will necessarily be expressed in other areas of life.

When placed in leadership, a woman sometimes feels the need to abandon her femininity.  A woman serving as a Vice President is still female, and her womanliness should be expressed as she serves.   Though biblically permissible, if a woman is elected vice president, it will feel peculiar for quite a while.  We will need to resist the urge to typecast the Vice President into a "national mom" or another more familiar form of female leadership.  There will also be an element of personal strain on the people because there are inalienable aspects to the sexes.  Packer says:

By this I mean that, other things being equal, a situation in which a female boss has a male secretary ... will put more strain on the humanity of both parties than if it were the other way around.  This is part of the reality of the creation, a given fact that nothing will change.

This reminds us that male headship in the church and home naturally (though not necessarily) extends into other areas of life.  A woman Vice President is permissible, but humble male leadership is more typical. Even though Esther and Deborah are viewed positively in Scripture, they were the exceptions in a long line of kings and male leaders.