Lots of blog space has recently been devoted to John Piper’s comments the nature of Christianity. You can read his words firsthand here. He attempts to make the case that since God is spoken of as masculine, since the priesthood included only males, since Jesus was a male, and since the apostles were males, Christianity must be primarily masculine in nature. His expands on this premise in the following paragraph:
“Theology and church and mission are marked by overarching godly male leadership in the spirit of Christ, with an ethos of tender-hearted strength, and contrite courage, and risk-taking decisiveness, and readiness to sacrifice for the sake of leading, protecting, and providing for the community—all of which is possible only through the death and resurrection of Jesus. It’s the feel of a great, majestic God, who by his redeeming work in Jesus Christ, inclines men to take humble, Christ-exalting initiative, and inclines women to come alongside the men with joyful support, intelligent helpfulness, and fruitful partnership in the work.”
Wow! I see that as a most unfortunate paragraph. First, Piper ignores all of the women who appear throughout the Bible in his arguments leading to this conclusion. In cultures in which women were often ignored and subjugated, it is remarkable that the Bible includes so many women as heroes. One needs to look no further than two women who have books named for them: Ruth and Esther. But the list does go on: Sarah, Hannah, Deborah, Jael, Mary, Mary Magdalene, Priscilla, Lois, Eunice, Philip’s daughters, Junia, and many others. It seems very difficult for me to say that Christianity has an exclusively masculine or feminine nature or even that one strongly outweighs the other.
Second, the conclusion once again identifies the roles for women as supporting male ministry roles. When can the church move past this? Women can minister effectively in vitally important roles to the church. They need not always “support” men. Why can men never “support” women in their roles?
The case can certainly be made that certain leadership roles were filled by men in the New Testament. That is not my concern here. I am more bothered by the fact that the church can’t see the value of having the female voice present. It need not be muffled by men who demand that the women support them in what they do.
