Thread by @geekyguyjay

Going to retweet some of the New Yorker article with parts that stuck out to me as it illustrates why I started questioning complementarianism and eventually decided this whole debate is fit only for the trash can.

This will be a thread, and probably a long one. 01/?

https://twitter.com/kkdumez/status/1419285190636040197

"For a time, Barr fell under the sway of an abusive boyfriend, who, while menacing her, spat Scripture demanding her submission. The fact that she couldn’t question him made it harder to see the abuse for what it was."

02/?

The first time I ever felt called on to use counseling training was when a young woman I worked with confided in me that her then-boyfriend was mentally, verbally, and socially cruel to her. Neither were saved, but I realized "complementarianism" had no category for this. 03/?

I assured her that she was not fat or ugly and gently prodded her to leave him, but they were moving away; I don't know where she is now. I hope she's not in a grave.

04/?

I could talk more at length about the number of times women have confided about their husband's addiction to porn or being coerced into making voyeuristic videos for their husband, particularly because of the call to 'submit' to his perversity.

I hate porn in general. 05/?

The biblical call for 'submission' is often warped by perverts with no understanding of the love of Christ or the call to serve (Mark 10, Phil 2, Eph. 5). Wives become tools to satisfy their selfishness, and that 99% of the time, the church will side w/ him.

06/?

"...Barr and Du Mez noted that they received letters and e-mails almost every day from abuse survivors..."

I don't get them every day, but this happens to almost all the believing women I know. 07/?

"and from pastors who are troubled by their role in perpetuating damaging practices."

It me, except I'm not a pastor. I'm just a layman. 08/?

"For too many years, she said, she had stayed silent about the fact that women were taught that they mattered less to God than men did. “I am complicit in causing women harm,” she said. “I was afraid for too long to say what I already knew to be true."

09/?

Quick question - what is the first word you think of when you hear a verse that applies to women?

It's "submit", isn't it?

You don't have to answer - I already know.

10/?

That's the problem - if women are designed simply to submit, we're not teaching the Bible correctly, we're training an army of Kaminoan clones. Do women submit? Yes, just like men do. Is it the totality of their being? Absolutely not.

Obligatory GIF

11/?

"As the event ended, women lined up before the authors to get their books signed. The signing, however, evolved into a sort of therapy session, as, one by one, women approached Barr and Du Mez for guidance...

12/?

"How were they to speak out in churches that supported the worst abuses against women by Donald Trump?"

#exvangelical / #deconstruction.

Evangelicals, our flagrant and public hypocrisy has been showing since at least the 2015-2016 primaries.

13/?

"The struggle over complementarianism is one of the primary fissures emerging among evangelical Christians."

@SBCExecComm
#churchtoo
#SBCtoo
#SBC2021
#SBC21

14/?

People are all confused because they don't understand why their churches are empty, their kids are gone and want nothing to do with the faith, why our Evangelical marriages are generally in shambles, why women are so frazzled and burned out.

I don't know. Why is that?

15/?

"They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. The stalk has no head; it will produce no flour. Were it to yield grain, foreigners would swallow it up. Israel is swallowed up; now she is among the nations like something no one wants." -Hosea 8:7-8

16/?

“Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting & weeping & mourning.” Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love...

17/?

...and he relents from sending calamity.

Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave behind a blessing - grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God." - Joel 2:12-14

18/?

"Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm...

19/?

You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.” -Haggai 1:5-6

You study manhood and have raised a generation of pugnacious, divisive, heretical brawlers, perhaps? Is that a little too on the nose?

20/?

"If I speak in the tongues a of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains...

21/?

...but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing." - 1 Cor 13:1-3

But I've attained True Christic Manhood, so I guess there's that at least.

"Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them." - Col. 3:19

21/21

Special addendum - We DO know the story of Hosea, right?

“Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children...

The more priests there were, the more they sinned against me; they exchanged their glorious God for something disgraceful. They feed on the sins of my people and relish their wickedness...

And it will be: Like people, like priests. I will punish both of them for their ways and repay them for their deeds."

-Hosea 4:6-9

"For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear."

-2 Timothy 4:3

NOW I'm finished.

Shout out to @RevKevDeYoung for weaponizing Barr’s background against her in his review this week. Make sure you buy his new book!