Journal: Eikon
Volume: EIKON 04:1 (Spring 2022)
Article: Do Men Owe Women A Special Kind Of Care?
Author: John Piper

Eikon 4.1 (Spring 2022) p. 80

Do Men Owe Women A Special Kind Of Care?

John Piper

John Piper (Ph.D.) is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist and most recently Providence.

Eikon 4.1 (Spring 2022) p. 81

Do Men Owe Women A Special Kind Of Care?

Egalitarianism tends to obscure the deeper differences between manhood and womanhood.1 This has not served us well in the last fifty years. It has instead confused millions and muted a crucial summons for a distinctly masculine care.

Unanswered Question

What average man or woman today could answer a little boy’s question: Daddy, what does it mean to grow up and be a man and not a woman? Or a little girl’s question: Mommy, what does it mean to grow up and be a woman and not a man?

Who could answer these questions without diminishing manhood and womanhood into anatomical structures and biological functions? Who could articulate the profound meanings of manhood and womanhood woven differently into a common personhood created differently and equally in the image of God?

How many articles have been written about the meaning of being a “real woman” or “real man” that leave us saying, “But all of those wonderful things apply just as well to the other sex — maturity, wisdom, courage, sacrifice, humility, patience, kindness, strength, self-control, purity, faith, hope, love, etc.”? By all means, these mark true womanhood. And they mark true manhood. So, they do not answer the little boy’s question: What does it mean to grow up and be a man and not a woman? Or the little girl’s question: What does it mean to grow up and be a woman and not a man?

For decades, Christian and non-Christian egalitarians have argued, assumed, and modeled that roles among men and women in the home, in the church, and in the wider culture should emerge solely from competencies rather than deeper realities rooted in how we differ as men and women. This means that, from the side of egalitarianism, very little attention has been given to the questions of our little girl and boy. Apart from physiological and anatomical

Eikon 4.1 (Spring 2022) p. 82

features, the questions seem to have no answers. And today, even those features are pliable.

When Nature Won’t Yield

Way back in 1975, Paul Jewett, who taught me systematic theology at Fuller Seminary, conceded as an egalitar...