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In 2019, I attempted to have a civil public conversation about gender issues & the Bible on a stage with total strangers with whom I had not even exchanged emails, handshakes, or talking points ahead of time. Folks, if you value your mental or physical health, never do this.
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It was a terrible experience for me. But afterwards, I had a constructive exchange with the conference organizers. They apologized & ended up paying me well for my time. I have no ax to grind there. But one thing has stuck with me all this time, & it's more significant than.../2
...specific points of disagreement over what the Bible teaches about gender, or whether it supports complementarianism or egalitarianism. It has to do with the way we imagine "the other," whether it's the theological other or the racial other or the gendered other. /3
One of my fellow panelists came right out at the beginning of the first session and suggested (not very subtly) that the source of differing views on the issue was Satan himself, and that the debate itself represented spiritual warfare. It was a very "evangelicalist" moment. /4
Among evangelicals, you'll witness this type of approach to disagreement on just about anything, whether political, theological, or philosophical. It's a form of moral-spiritual authoritarianism that not even Paul exhibited when addressing the pagan people of Athens (Acts 17). /5
Where does it come from? In his commentary on Acts, Willie Jennings wrote about the "tragic Christian history of poor mapping of the demonic in the world," how it "taught Christians to approach the unknown w/suspicion & what they perceived as strange [to be] demon-imprinted..."/6
"...or at least completely vulnerable to demonic attack and possession." (p.78) It's part of the legacy of sandwiching the missionary between the military and the merchant--a phenomenon that linked the work of evangelism w/the atrocities of conquest and the goals of commerce. /7
That spirit of moral-spiritual authoritarianism is what enabled, baptized, and justified conquest, enslavement, genocide, and violent assimilation. There wasn't much imagination for the democratic exchange of ideas. Today, a good bit of evangelicalism is still haunted by... /8
the dynamics created through the ungodly partnering of missional, commercial, and colonial energy. We have a lot of work to do to undo it. /9
After the 1st session, a friend who leads a large non-profit told me about an incident that took place in the middle of that session. She & one of her female interns were sitting near the back having a private conversation about seminary (her intern was in an M. Div. program)./10
A male pastor sitting nearby overheard and interrupted their private conversation by saying that women who choose to become pastors are committing a sin as serious as adultery. /11
The extremism inherent in moral-spiritual authoritarianism is disturbing enough, but the fact that it tries to pass itself off as a policing form of orthodoxy threatens the health and unity of the body of Christ. /12
And good heavens, it’s just downright unloving. We simply cannot treat fellow image bearers as abstractions to be defeated/crushed. /13
