JBMW Forum: Q & A on Danvers Statement

JBMW: Twenty years ago, the founders of CBMW penned the Danvers State­ment on Biblical Manhood and Wom­anhood. Can you reflect on the sig­nificance of and impact of the Danvers Statement in the evangelical church? Is it serving its purpose?

Wayne Grudem: I think the Danvers Statement has been used by God to de­fine a clear, balanced, biblical perspective on men's and women's roles. It has been widely accepted by organizations and denominations that hold to a "comple­mentarian" position on men and women in marriage and the church. I think it is an indication of God's favor that the statement has had no change of word­ing, nor have we felt the need to change the wording, for the entire twenty years it has been in existence. It has served as a "standard" by which people could evaluate their faithfulness to the bibli­cal teaching on this matter. It avoided giving in to a liberal watering down of the Bible's teaching on the left, or to a harsh, overly-conservative, male-chau­vinist kind of addition to the commands of Scripture on the right.

If CBMW had not published the Danvers Statement in 1988, there would be not one "complementarian position" in the evangelical world, but hundreds, resulting in much confusion, and en­abling evangelical feminists to criticize the most offensive expressions rather than having to deal with a responsible, biblically balanced statement that af­firms the equal value of both men and women and their differences in roles ac­cording to Scripture.