Advanced Search

Ideas Have Consequences: Justice Begins with a Consistent Reading of Scripture

Keynote speakers Andrew Bartlett, Steve Holmes, and Lucy Peppiatt consider the spiritual and social consequences of theological patriarchy.

In Kenya, many churches bar women from church leadership and some teach very strongly against women as religious leaders, hence men dominate church leadership. This is also manifested in the political arena, where women lack representation. This parallel suggests that barring women from leadership is not a biblical premise but a cultural one. This session will bring into focus fundamental values inherent in both religion and politics that tend to inform our sense of judgment and the constitutionality of our engagements.

How does gender breed violence, and what can we do to cange this? The gender caste system and men's violence have kept us in captivity for too long. Jesus re-reveals God's original intention for male-female partnership and demonstrates what it means to be fully human and truly free in the kingdom of God.

Some areas of sexual violence have been perpetuated by cultural practices like wife inheritance (a male relative inheriting his kinsman’s wife after he dies). While on the surface the church seemed to challenge cultural practices, this has not been the case with practices that have been sexual and which largely affect women. Wife inheritance and gender prejudice is a major contributing factor to the spread of HIV and AIDS.

Seeking Justice and Loving Mercy: Gender and Equality in the Bible and our Culture

This recording surveys the exegetical, theological, and practical foundations for mutuality between men and women in Scripture. It also surveys and responds to the primary objections to biblical mutuality.

Authority, Scripture, and Women in the Church

Cascading Presentation: Ideas Have Consequences

Hidden behind much patriarchal thinking is a pervasive patrilineal worldview. The belief that the family line is a male line and that males own and inherit the resources, has colored nearly all our cultures in the past and still accounts for much oppression and sidelining of women. Beulah will speak from her experience in south Asian culture, recognizing that, within families, women often become the perpetrators of discrimination against females. Does that happen to some extent near all of us? The Bible culture too is patrilineal. How shall we view that?