Journal: Eikon
Volume: EIKON 05:1 (Spring 2023)
Article: The Unstable Logic Of Egalitarianism: A Response To Ronald W. Pierce, “Biblical Equality And Same-Sex Marriage”
Author: Jonathan E. Swan

Eikon 5.1 (Spring 2023) p. 84

The Unstable Logic Of Egalitarianism: A Response To Ronald W. Pierce, “Biblical Equality And Same-Sex Marriage”

Jonathan E. Swan

Jonathan E. Swan is Managing Editor of Eikon.

Introduction

Ronald Pierce has been engaged in the gender debates for decades.1 As a contributor to this ongoing discussion, he has served as an editor to all three editions of Discovering Biblical Equality (DBE). His essay addressing same-sex marriage in the latest edition of DBE replaces William Webb’s chapter, “Gender Equality and Homosexuality,” in the previous two editions.2

While Pierce’s essay serves as a replacement to Webb’s, his goal is to answer the same question: how can one be egalitarian without approving homosexuality? Pierce, after disclosing his own change of conviction to affirm egalitarianism, states his position and the goal of his essay: “Nevertheless, my ongoing studies continue to lead me to a welcoming, yet non-affirming position. Yes, I have changed my mind on one ‘gender question,’ so why have I not done so on the other? This essay is my answer to that lingering question” (491–492). The restatement of this question in the form of a new essay confirms that a connection between the affirmation of egalitarianism and homosexuality continues to linger in the minds of many — and for good reason, as this essay hopes to demonstrate.

Eikon 5.1 (Spring 2023) p. 85

Both Webb and Pierce begin their essays by stating the question, albeit somewhat differently, in order to frame their response. Webb puts it this way:

When Christians discuss the issue of gender equality, often someone will ask, “Doesn’t acceptance of egalitarianism logically lead to acceptance of homosexuality?” Lying behind this question in part is a concern for consistency in how one interprets and applies the Bible. How is it, some argue, that egalitarians do not directly apply some very clear New Testament statements about women’s submission yet still accept the Bible’s prohibitions of same-sex relationships?3

Webb frames the question in terms of hermeneutics, and utilizes his novel and complex “redemptive-movement” method to argue that “the hermeneutic by which egalitarians reject female subordination to male rule as transculturally normative is the same hermeneutic by which egalitarians affirm the Bible’s prohibition of homosexual behavior as a universal norm.”4

Pierce, however, sidesteps the her...