Today is Inter­na­tional Woman’s Day Syn­chroblog. Here’s my two cents worth about the insid­i­ous nature of a bib­li­cal per­spec­tive called com­ple­men­tar­i­an­ism. And, I’ve done the leg­work for you and col­lected some quotes and rants from some other women syn­cro blog­gers today.

This is why com­ple­men­tar­i­an­ism sucks:

Com­ple­men­tar­i­an­ism is a term to describe a the­o­log­i­cal view held by some Chris­tians that dif­fer­ing, non-​​overlapping roles between men and women , man­i­fested in mar­riage, church and lead­er­ship , and else­where, is bib­li­cally required.
The term Com­ple­men­tar­ian was coined in recent years and largely replaces today what pre­vi­ously was known as the Tra­di­tion­al­ist or Hier­ar­chi­cal view of gen­der rela­tion­ships. (Wikipedia)

I like this def­i­n­i­tion from blog­ger, Mad Rev­erend:

Com­ple­men­tar­i­an­ism is a com­pli­cated series of intel­lec­tual gym­nas­tics jus­ti­fy­ing the assign­ment of author­ity to men on the grounds that author­ity is but one among many roles played by human beings

Grace tells why it mat­ters what the beliefs and prac­tices of Chris­t­ian com­mu­ni­ties are:

It mat­ters that we not limit the com­plete work of redemp­tion. The elim­i­na­tion of divi­sion of every kind is a part of God’s rec­on­cil­i­a­tion and restoration.

It mat­ters that we under­stand the nature of mutual love and all of the mutu­al­ity that entails. Hier­ar­chy will never allow us to real­ize the full­ness of mutual sub­mis­sion, mutual sac­ri­fice, mutual giv­ing, and mutual honor.

It mat­ters that we give place for the full expres­sion of every person’s unique gifts within the body of Christ. Power struc­tures limit the poten­tial of so many peo­ple, but par­tic­u­larly women.

Makee­sha, that fire­ball of a voice in the blo­gos­phere who refuses to soften her stance against com­ple­men­tar­i­an­ism recently sounded off:

We as Chris­tians should be the loud­est voice for jus­tice and mercy, we should be the loud­est voice in ensur­ing that women around the world give their voices wings, we can­not do this when our churches are run by elder boards that are 100% male, when the per­son “up front” is always male and when 99% of what goes on in the church is ulti­mate deter­mined by those “lucky” enough to be born with repro­duc­tive organs on the out­side. In the best case sce­nario, those men will at least pay atten­tion to the women in their con­gre­ga­tions, the Sun­day School teach­ers, the wives of the lead­ers, the singers, etc. But more often than not, churches are crip­pled by los­ing the input, lead­er­ship and gifts of half of their population.

Julie Claw­son blogs why she can­not be a mem­ber of a com­ple­men­tar­ian church:

If a church sees women as infe­rior and denies them their voice, I hon­estly could not join as a mem­ber of that com­mu­nity. I could not wor­ship week after week along­side those that denied my full humanity.

My new friend and blog­ger, Kathy Esco­bar smoked up the key­board with this chal­leng­ing con­fronta­tion for those who favor complementarianism:

Charles degaulle said “silence is the ulti­mate weapon of power.” i believe that men and women have been silent on this issue for far too long. allow­ing our­selves to give time, money, heart to a sys­tem that does not value a woman’s voice means we are unknow­ingly sup­port­ing oppres­sion. i believe it is time for men to begin to say “hey, this isn’t right. i am not going to stand by and let my sisters/​daughters/​spouses/​friends be silenced.” i believe it is time for peo­ple to start ask­ing good ques­tions about the lack of women’s voices in their com­mu­ni­ties beyond the typ­i­cal sup­port roles. i think it is impor­tant that we learn to vote with our feet. i am so dis­tressed by the num­ber of peo­ple will­ing to stay in sys­tems that con­tin­u­ally per­pet­u­ate boy-​​power because it looks and sounds cool, and they don’t real­ize the sub­tle the­o­log­i­cal mes­sage that is being sent.

So this is why com­ple­men­tar­i­an­ism sucks. It’s a fancy word that hides an ugly real­ity. Much like the rhetoric of the 19^th cen­tury that used terms like “poly­ge­n­e­sis” to defend human slav­ery. For real. Google it.

I know a woman who told her lead­er­ship when she was a teenager that she wanted to be a youth pas­tor. She was told, “You can­not. You’re a girl.”

I know a woman whose pub­lished bible study was pulled off of shelves when it was dis­cov­ered that she was a (gasp!) pas­tor. For real. I’m not mak­ing this up.

I know about a woman who served faith­fully in cross-​​cultural mis­sions in a for­eign land as the leader in charge until her mis­sions board could finally find man will­ing to go over and lead. When asked if she thought this was unfair, her reply, “No. It doesn’t matter.”

I once lis­tened to a woman explain to a room full of churched women why women ought not to pray pub­licly when men are present and should do all the pray­ing instead.

I lis­tened to a youth pas­tor explain at a parent’s meet­ing to a dis­tressed mother that no, she did not need to worry about him allow­ing women to usurp the author­ity of men in the youth min­istry by allow­ing women staff, or female stu­dents, teach bible studies.

I know of a woman who was will­ing to go over­seas and serve God in Asia but was told she could not because she was a young sin­gle woman. I know of another woman whose church nearly did not send her out because she was an older unmar­ried woman.

A churched woman once gave me a copy of a book that she said would help me in my mar­riage. The title: Wives Sub­mit to Your Husbands.

The same woman from time to time refers to her hus­band as “sir.” I’m not mak­ing this up!

This is why I say,

Com­ple­men­tar­i­an­ism Sucks!!!