Complementarianism

Complementarianism is the domestic prescription for Christian families. It derives mainly from the post-Colossians encyclical usually termed "Ephesians" and ascribed to Saint Paul.

We just had a (liberal) evangelical Carnival on the heels of that SBL shindig down the 36. This points, as they do, to the Anxious Bench collaborative blog at Patheos. Beth Allison Barr has called out Complementarianism as so much patriarchy.

I don't like to bring this up too many times here, but wherever Christ is absent our lord is Thomas Hobbes. Absent an alpha male, the weaker members of society fall prey to any male. If Christians won't be alpha, someone else will. Maybe Muslims. Good luck arguing the finer points of Ephesians to a follower of the Surat al-Nisa'... and his switch. Allah is greater!

Also to be pointed out is that Barr does this rhetorical trick of gliding "authority" with "violence". The king makes a decision. The court won't carry it out. Then what? Yes, abusive kings exist. But most kings just want a harmonious kingdom. Barr isn't on the side of harmony. What shall Barr's husband do? Whatever Barr wants, apparently. That can be fun in the bedroom sometimes. But - to turn this around - what if hubby doesn't want to do it? Violence can happen domestically even without men (more often in fact - the lesbian statistics will shock you). Come to that, if there's a heated argument without violence and she calls the cops anyway, all that's happened is that the violence has been outsourced.

Complementarianism, best I can gather, would be the way most Christians have attempted to solve this problem. I remind my readers that even Marcion, for all his female-equality instincts, approved Ephesians, if not by that name.

But then, if you think the traditional family became traditional for good reason, you don't get to blog on Patheos.