Happy Friday! As you go about your weekend, whether you’re enjoying a Valentine date or trying to avoid the Fifty Shades of Grey movie, or something else entirely, I hope you will take some time to read these great posts advocating for biblical gender equality in dating, small groups, the workplace, and more.
“I’m the Bomb: A Reflection on Dating” by Cara Strickland
“Honestly, I am pressed to find very many women in Scripture who did not initiate. These women were bold, they were thinkers and prayers, prophetesses, lovers, sisters and saints. I began to get glimmers of recognition. I began to resonate with what I was seeing and reading, as if something long asleep was coming alive.”
“Fifty Shades Of Confusing: Searching For A #TrulyHuman Perspective” by Karina Kreminski
“A perspective needs to be shared which does not shame people, especially women for their desires; a perspective which sees that sexuality, intimacy and sexual practice is a gift from God; a perspective which is outraged at the way that God’s gift has become distorted but then seeks to sensitively speak whispers from another reality, which can bring hope to a humanity that longs for restoration.”
“The Case for Mixed Gender Small Groups” by Ruth Haley Barton
“Closely connected with including one another is the commitment to listen to one another with love, respect, and genuine interest. We may already be committed to listening well, but it may take another level of commitment to listen to one another across lines of gender, believing that we all share the same basic experience of being human. Women and men have much to offer one another in community if we are willing to listen and be influenced by one another, rather than dismissing each other.”
“Esthers and Jezebels: How (not) to work for a woman” by Laura Turner
“For the love of God, women are just people. We’re not wizards or unicorns or changelings, and you don’t need to parse us. I really do appreciate that the author didn’t take issue with female bosses (as some conservative Christians do), but this kind of rhetoric is (perhaps unintentionally) insulting. It insinuates that women are somehow different enough from men in the workplace that their very being requires explanation.”
“When Adam names the woman, he does not exert authority over her” by Andrew Perriman
“The naming of the animals is not an expression of the man’s authority over them, as though it corresponds to God’s giving of dominion to the man and woman in Genesis 1:26, 28. It is a way of identifying what the animals are in relation to the man. It forms part of the search for a suitable helper.”
“3 Female Ghosts that Haunt the Church” by Jen Wilkin
“These three ghosts don’t just haunt men; they haunt women as well, shaping our choice of words, tone, dress, and demeanor. When fear governs our interactions, both genders drift into role-playing that subverts our ability to interact as equals. In the un-haunted church where love trumps fear, women are viewed (and view themselves) as allies rather than antagonists, sisters rather than seductresses, co-laborers rather than children.”
This Week from CBE
“The Bechdel Test” by Paul Hjellming
“…because men hold more power in society, they are the ones who create the structures of language that are used… Because of this, women are forced to use the language of men to express themselves instead of doing so naturally.”
“Fifty Shades of Grey: A Trilogy of Deceit, Collusion, and Domination” by Mimi Haddad
“Those that use these forms of dominance–sexual, physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual—blame victims, telling them they provoked their own abuse. To suggest that women want rape is the supreme humiliation of victims. Herein the dominance of male over female—a heinous consequence of sin–lures its prey through deception, collusion, and power.”
What articles about biblical gender equality encouraged you this week? Share them with us in the comments!
*Note: Linking to these posts is not a CBE endorsement of previous or future written work or statements made by the authors.
