The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth
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The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth
A gender hierarchy in which women rank under men can be found in almost every era and among every people group. When the church denies women the ability to preach, lead, teach, and sometimes even work outside the home, the church is continuing a long historical tradition of subordinating women.
Beth Allison Barr • The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth
No matter how much Moore wants to separate “pagan patriarchy” from “Christian patriarchy,” he can’t. Both systems place power in the hands of men and take power away from women.
Beth Allison Barr • The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth
This pattern of devaluing women’s work—whether the type of work or the monetary value of the work—is an example of patriarchy: a general system that values men and their contributions more than it values women and their contributions.
Beth Allison Barr • The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth
For evangelicals these attitudes are connected: limiting women’s spiritual authority goes hand in hand with limiting women’s economic power.
Beth Allison Barr • The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth
Ironically, complementarian theology claims it is defending a plain and natural interpretation of the Bible while really defending an interpretation that has been corrupted by our sinful human drive to dominate others and build hierarchies of power and oppression. I can’t think of anything less Christlike than hierarchies like these.
Beth Allison Barr • The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth
As Christians we are called to be different from the world. Yet in our treatment of women, we often look just like everyone else.
Beth Allison Barr • The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth
By staying silent, I had become part of the problem. Instead of making a difference, I had become complicit in a system that used the name of Jesus to oppress and harm women.
Beth Allison Barr • The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth
The reason the teenage girls in our youth group were forced to put on baggy T-shirts wasn’t because Jesus cares that much about bra straps. It was because the leaders at that camp had confused nineteenth-century ideas about women’s purity (not to mention male culpability) with what it meant to be a Christian woman.
Beth Allison Barr • The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth
The patriarchy that continues to appear in biblical text is a “mere accommodation to the reality of the times and culture; it is not a reflection of the divine ideal for humanity.”35 Patriarchy is created by people, not ordained by God.