What bugs each side

I want to add to David’s preceding post. I think I’m seeing more clearly what it is that bugs each side (not that there are simply two) in this debate the most.
It bugs complementarians when people connect them with abuse, subordination of women, etc.
It bugs egalitarians when people suggest that they are not “biblical” or [...]

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Engaged in Different Conversations

The comments on my recent post about gender were really enlightening to me. I’m realizing that much of the difficulty complementarians and egalitarians have in communicating is that we’re each engaged in different conversations.
It seems clear to me that the fundamental issue with most egalitarians is the eradication of gender-based hierarchies in the church and [...]

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Making Distinctions, Part 2

Between Submission and Submission
Or perhaps, Submission vs. Submission. Now that I’ve said that husbands can submit to their wives without biblical violations, I can’t let that fly without making another important distinction, the distinction between the kind of submission a husband should have to his wife and vice versa. I tend to agree [...]

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Making Distinctions, Part 1

In a previous comment way back somewhere (I can’t find it now), I ruminated about the possibility that in our debating over roles and the meaning of roles, we might be skipping over some important distinctions in the frenzied tossing about of concepts back and forth.
After much private ruminating, I think have enough text for [...]

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Bruce Ware, the Danvers Statement, and Kunsman’s Thoughts on Framing Hierarchy as the Only Means of Transcending Marital Contention

[I recently read a provocative essay on the Danvers Statement and Bruce Ware's recent comments about abuse, written by complementarian Southern Baptist, Cindy Kunsman RN, BSN, MMin, ND. I have copied her essay in full, below, with her permission, because I think it raises some fascinating questions and observations that (may or do) merit concern. [...]

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Equality or Uniformity?

The other day, Wayne linked to an “open letter to egalitarians” in which a complementarian blogger asked a series of “semi-pragmatic” questions about how egalitarians would react to various situations. The questions he asked all seemed to be aimed at teasing out of egalitarians what they see as appropriate masculine and feminine behavior: stuff like [...]

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True or False?

1. Complementarian husbands do not treat their wives as equals.
2. The Bible teaches that males should lead, in the home and church.
3. Egalitarian women are offended when men open doors for them.
4. Egalitarian husbands never abuse their wives.
5. Egalitarians believe that we should have unisex toilets in public places.
6. Women start more cults than men [...]

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Open Letter to Egalitarians

David Kotter of the CBMW Gender Blog has blogged about Mike Seaver’s open letter to egalitarians. As usual, public comments are not allowed in response on the Gender Blog, however you can privately email your comments to David. Or you can comment on Mike Seaver’s post.

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You Don’t Have to Exercise Your "Rights"

Jesus once said to his disciples:

Do you understand what I have done for you? You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you [...]

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Will Positive Examples Be Taken Seriously?

In a recent thread, several people gave accounts of marriages which are problematic in some way. There were stories of several so-called “complementarian” marriages in which the wife is not able to make any decision without running it past her husband. There was the so-called “egalitarian” marriage in which the husband showed no impulse to [...]

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