Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 24:3 (Summer 2010)
Article: Creating A Culture Of Equality As Witness To The Truth: A Philosophical Response To Gender Difference
Author: David C. Cramer

PP 24:3 (Summer 2010) p. 18

Creating A Culture Of Equality As Witness To The Truth: A Philosophical Response To Gender Difference

David C. Cramer

David C. Cramer is a licensed minister in the Missionary Church. He teaches religion and philosophy at Bethel College, Mishawaka, and serves at Keller Park Church in South Bend, Indiana, where he lives with his wife, Andrea, and their son, Wesley. He has published articles and reviews in Philosophia Christi, Ethics and Medicine, Mennonite Quarterly Review, and elsewhere.

Introduction: Some Personal Confessions

I have a confession to make: I am as convinced of egalitarian practices in the church and home as they come. However, I have another confession that is perhaps more startling for us Christians for Biblical Equality:1 I believe that it is quite possible—indeed, quite likely—that the raw biblical material underdetermines an answer to many of the questions raised in contemporary gender debates. Specifically, I am thinking of debates over how church polity should be structured regarding gender as well as how the Christian husband/wife relationship should be structured.2

What I mean by stating that the raw biblical material underdetermines an answer to these questions is simply this: There are no strictly exegetical arguments that could persuade a committed hierarchist to become egalitarian, and, conversely, there are no strictly exegetical arguments that could convince a committed egalitarian to become a hierarchist. This is not to claim that there are no good exegetical arguments for these respective views. Indeed, as an egalitarian, I find many of the exegetical arguments for egalitarianism to be quite strong and many of the exegetical arguments for hierarchism to be quite weak.3 But, I suppose that my hierarchist sisters and brothers maintain equal confidence in the strength of their opposing exegetical arguments. So, exegetically speaking, it appears to me as though these rival camps are at a stalemate.4 Consider, for example, the words of one prominent hierarchy proponent and Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) president on the current state of the debate:

I think the debate between egalitarians and complementarians at ETS has, for the most part over the past couple of decades, . . . been amicable. There has been no rancor or hostility, for the most part, yet there are strong convictions on both sides. Yet it appears to me that neither side is backing down as it were. Both sides in this debate continue to be quite convinced they are right and the other view is wrong. I don’t anticipate that to ...