There are specific verses and words used by both sides of the gender justice debate. I think you can pretty well prove anything you want if you pull verses out of their context, liberal or conservative. More than this verse or that verse, what has truly guided my belief in the importance of gender justice is the overall message of Christ.
I think one of the main messages of Christ is one of reconciliation-- the idea of Christ's sacrifice and salvation means that everyone is brought to the same level on the spiritual plane, if that makes sense. I am thinking about I Peter 2 talking about the priesthood of all believers, that we are all part of the royal priesthood, giving us all those gifts that once were restricted. I believe that we as the church all stand before Christ as his bride and he is the bridegroom, making us spiritual equals.
Christ's sacrifice, our baptism, and the incarnation of the Holy Spirit within each believer strips away what we are by birth. By birth we're of a nationality, we're of a family, a culture, a race, a socio-economic status, and a gender. When we are clothed with Christ, our worldly definitions fall away as we become co-heirs with Him. We receive gifts and talents with which we are to glorify God's name and bless the world.
Christ came to destroy barriers to God. I think of the temple curtain ripping as He gave up His spirit. If Christ died to destroy those barriers, then why do we insist on maintaining them? In our pure spiritual intities as we stand before God, does there exist a difference in male and female? I'm not talking about personality, familial roles, etc... just spiritual beings. Is there a difference?
I'm going out of town for the weekend, so I won't be able to respond to (or monitor) comments until Sunday night. In the words of St. Gabriel of Minnesota, "Be holy and be nice."
1 comment:
The book says that "male and female he created them." That's not an answer to your question about roles exactly, but I think it does point to inherent created differences, and I'd be surprised if the differences were just physical. That said, our tradition has historically pushed the priesthood of all believers while at the same time excluding at least half of them from most meaninful participation. It's an injustice to be sure, and easily pointed at, but at the same time, I don't know what a perfect expression of men's and women's roles would look like.
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