No Middle Ground?

By guest writer Jeannie Babb Taylor.

Recently a traditionalist stated, "Complementarians and egalitarians may take profoundly different positions in the debate over gender roles in the home and church, but the two sides agree on one thing: there is no middle ground in the debate."

Well, I believe there is always a middle ground.  It may not be good ground, it may not be a desirable place to be, but it is always there.

People with extreme positions like to pretend it is all-or-nothing.  They talk about "the slippery slope" as if it were a real thing, without knowing that it is the name of a logical fallacy!

They make stupid statements like, "If you believe in women preachers, you HAVE to believe in homosexual preachers, too."  Sorry but no one tells me what I "have to believe."

And there is no slippery slope.  It's actually a continuum.  Nearly all beliefs are. I can show you how even seemingly polar beliefs like evolution and creationism are a continuum. Even people who make statements like "I take the Bible literally" are not as extreme as they think.

Not only does middle ground exist.... For years, comps have claimed that they ARE the middle ground!  So I for one am glad to see them admit that they are, in fact, extremists.

Comments

[pad]

re: underground

There is no middle ground but there is an underground.

Pro-complimentarian women are breaking all the "rules" for none of them actually do keep quiet, nor do they shrink to the back pew or wear veils or walk behind their man.

Nonsense. “Silence” and “submission” as is touted as beneficial is not reality nor is it Christ-like. The Christian Woman Set Free by Gene Edwards & Who Is Your Covering by Frank Viola.

If complimentarians would be honest, they could not present one growing church anywhere that practices “silence” for it guarantees spiritual death. This can never edify women or the church for it suppresses the testimony of Jesus (which is prophesying) by half of the members.

Pretence & games played all because of conventional wisdom. Never mind that in Col 2:21 -- "IN CHRIST" a believer -- male or female -- is complete, lacking nothing.

Percolate in your thinking. IF YOU BE IN CHRIST!

The doctrine of the priesthood of the believer destroys the complimentarian position. Interestingly, it was a "veil" that was rent in the temple. Yet, that very veil is still trying to be imposed upon women to this day.

[Jeannie Babb Taylor]

CT: Also, unfortunately, it is difficult to imagine what a middle ground in this issue would look like.

Egalitarianism is the middle ground.... between male domination and female domination.

CT: And what about Genesis 3:16? Is it descriptive of the results of the Fall, or is it prescriptive, that God has ordained that husbands are supposed to rule over wives? And the middle position would be -- ?

Your question rests on a premise (God has ordained that husbands are supposed to rule) which is itself an extra-biblical interpretation. Genesis 3:16 never tells us what is "supposed" to be or what God "ordains", but rather what WILL be as the result of sin. If you'd like to know what is/was "supposed" to be, you must look back at the original perfect creation. There you will observe male and female created in God's image, serving and exercising dominion together. There you will see Adam hailing Eve as "Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh!"

[C.T.]

I too believe there are usually various middle ground positions, some that make sense and some that don't in a great many issues of life, religious, political or otherwise. Unfortunately, America, and perhaps a great deal of western culture, has grown increasingly polarized, and the issue of gender equality has grown increasingly strident and irrational in just the last decade.

Also, unfortunately, it is difficult to imagine what a middle ground in this issue would look like. Husbands in charge three-quarters of the time? Only hermaphrodites can be pastors? The androgynous? The neutered? And what about Genesis 3:16? Is it descriptive of the results of the Fall, or is it prescriptive, that God has ordained that husbands are supposed to rule over wives? And the middle position would be -- ?