Evangelical Futures: Women - abused, mistreated, belittled and ignored

The topic of women, their value and their roles has never been more furiously debated. In the media the message is clear, too many women have been wounded at the hands of men. The time has come for women to be seen and treated as equals.

Sadly, within the church we haven’t always demonstrated the better story we have regarding men and women. The recent scandals in Evangelicalism have only served to highlight the ways women have been abused, mistreated, belittled, and ignored. A failure to recognise and deal with our blind spots regarding how we value and treat women has led to women feeling hurt, excluded, and not heard.

With each subsequent scandal there has been temptation to move away from traditional conservative evangelical teaching on men and women. The reasoning goes that women have been badly treated because the teaching we hold to about men and women is flawed. Change this teaching and women will be better treated. However, sadly, the scandals we have seen recently are not restricted to complementarian circles. Throwing out complementarian teaching will not bring the resolution for women that we are seeking.

How can we move toward a future where we better reflect what the Bible has to say about men and women and how they relate to one another? A future where we honour the image of God in women and declare their worthiness at being co-labourers in the gospel? May I suggest two ways.

Hold to complementarianism as good. Complementarianism is God’s good plan for men and women. Let’s teach it with confidence as well as demonstrating and celebrating the equality and differences between men and women. This will mean making sure the voices of women are equally heard in our churches. This will mean men and women appreciate and enjoy all the roles open to them within our churches. This will mean investing in women by giving them opportunities to grow in their ability to handle and pass on God’s word. Let’s help the younger generation understand why complementarianism is not restrictive, but actually leads to both men and women flourishing when modelled well.

Seek to prize Christlike character in our leaders. We follow a Saviour who knew the value of women and modelled that in His ministry. When Jesus met the bleeding woman in Mark 5, Jesus didn’t rebuke her for getting in His way, slowing Him down or for being a trivial unimportant woman. Far from ignoring her, Jesus offered her comfort and healing.

This was a woman who had suffered a lot. She had endured pain and weakness from blood loss for 12 years. She had sought help from the doctors, the respected men within her society, but this didn’t bring any relief, in fact it only made her condition worse. As her condition made her ceremonially unclean, she was constantly on the outside, feeling the shame of people avoiding her due to fear of contamination. Separated from society, from her family, her situation was hopeless. Jesus offered a way back into her community and family. He gave her back her worth and significance. He called her ‘daughter’ and addressed her with familiarity, intimacy, and kindness. She was no longer a woman who had been ostracised and marginalised. She was now part of His family, made clean by the touch of her Saviour. Jesus brought hope to her hopeless situation.

This interaction is not unusual in the life of Jesus. Throughout the gospels Jesus valued women, He engaged with them, He taught them, He listened to them. He offered them freedom, equality, and life. Theologian Dorothy Sayers wrote: ‘Perhaps it is no wonder that the women were the first at the cradle and the last at the cross. They had never known a man like this Man – there never had been such another. A prophet and teacher who never nagged at them, never flattered, or coaxed or patronised; who never made arch jokes about them … who took their questions and arguments seriously; who never mapped out their sphere for them, never urged them to be feminine or jeered at them for being female; who had no axe to grind and no uneasy male dignity to defend; who took them as He found them and was completely unselfconscious.’

As we reflect upon those who have been involved in recently scandals, these ‘charismatic, intelligent, high-achieving, powerful’ leaders were prized for the characteristics which led to their failures. How different could our future look if the prized characteristics were humility, gentleness, familial love, and care towards women?

As we consider our future in evangelicalism, let us move towards one which passionately holds to the goodness of what the Bible teaches about men and women. Where we desire to see men and women working together, side by side, fulfilling our God-given roles, modelling Jesus in how we interact with one another, for the sake of the gospel, and to see God glorified.