Christian Masculinity

 This is My reply to an excerpt of an article written by complementarian Michael Witcoff and shared to thousands by Andrew Torba, the CEO of the social media platform, Gab.

Witcoff writes: With every passing generation, men become weaker and more confused. This is not only because of dropping testosterone levels across the board, but also because men have few – if any – strong role models in modern America.

My reply: If men are becoming weaker and more confused with every generation, I propose it is because they never knew who they were to begin with. When our identities are solidly anchored to the Rock of Ages, we do not flounder. We don't complain about how weak are. We do not whine about how confused we are about our identities. Nor do we feel threatened by others who do not hold to our convictions. 

On the other hand, if a man's identity is anchored CBMW'S false doctrine of male supremacy (complementarianism), that man will feel threatened by any other men or women who disagree with him. That man will experience an identity crisis and struggle with who he has been falsely led to believe he is when his patriarchal paradigm fails.

When it does, that man will lose his compass because he never knew where he was supposed to be going in the first place.

Witcoff writes: More and more young boys are raised by single mothers or in female-dominant homes, and then they go off to public school … where their instruction and discipline is performed almost entirely by women. What’s a young boy to do?

My reply: What does this “female-dominant” rhetoric mean, that a male dominant environment would be ideal? Does it mean that being raised and educated by women is a fate worse than death or the next thing to it? Really!?

“What’s a young boy to do?” 

I’ll tell you what a young boy is supposed to do. If the single mother raising him--along with his mostly women teachers--are godly women, he should follow them as they follow Christ. If he does this, he will do well. He will grow into a godly man, strong in the LORD and in the power of HIS might.

And who says that boys raised by single mothers grow up with no strong male role-models? Prove it. That is a patently false statement.

The real issue is not whether a home is female or male dominant. God forbid either parent should be dominant in any home with two parents. In a perfect world, both parents are needed. Beyond that, what is at stake is whether children, regardless of sex, are being raised in loving homes and in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. 

Rhetoric like that of Michael Witcoff, created and fueled by the unscriptural Council of Bible Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW) is harmful, not only to women and girls but to boys and men as well.

The scriptures command us to honor our mothers as well as our fathers, and to honor all who are worthy of honor. There is nothing in the bible about boys and men honoring only male role-models.  

Witcoff’s parroting of CBMW’s anti-woman narrative dishonors all mothers. It is rhetoric like theirs that confuse and weakens the men who buy into it.

If the subject of God and women interests you, subscribe to Jocelyn's column dedicated to the topic, HERE. 

Author and speaker, Jocelyn Andersen, is an eclectic Christian writer. She is a Bible teacher who writes about many subjects including Bible prophecy and equality of the sexes. She is best known for her advocacy in domestic violence awareness. Her book, Woman Submit! Christians & Domestic Violence, has been a staple in the library of resources on that subject.  

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To Contact Jocelyn: Use the form in the sidebar of this blog to reach Jocelyn with questions or to invite her to speak to your church or group.

Q & A with Jocelyn About Gender, Slavery, and the Evangelical Caste System

 What is Woman this is War! about? My book is about change. In many churches and homes, women are treated as second class citizens. This is not only unchristian and unbiblical, but it is unhealthy. It is emotionally and spiritually detrimental to all involved—including men and boys—and sometimes physically dangerous to women and girls.

Can you elaborate on that statement? Yes. How can it be healthy and beneficial when Christian leaders call men wimps who love their families but have no desire to rule over their wives? How can it be healthy when prejudice against women is encouraged as Christians are taught that the underlying motive in the heart of every woman is to dominate men? This is taught by the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood [CBMW] and is posted on their website.

Read the full Q & A HERE

Do you have a question for Jocelyn about biblical equality and autonomy for women? Leave it in the comment section below.

 Author and speaker, Jocelyn Andersen, is an eclectic Christian writer. She is a Bible teacher who writes about many subjects including Bible prophecy and equality of the sexes. She is best known for her advocacy in domestic violence awareness. Her book, Woman Submit! Christians & Domestic Violence, has been a staple in the library of resources on that subject.  

If the topic of God and Women interests you, join the conversation HERE.

To receive an announcement from Amazon whenever a new book is released by Jocelyn Andersen, subscribe to Her Amazon author's page.

To Contact Jocelyn: Use the contact form in the sidebar of her blog at www.jocelynandersen.com to leave comments on her books, to reach her with questions, or to request for her to come and speak at your group.

Complementarianism Defined

 Traditional role religion has always held that the first man and the first woman were created with an equal mandate to rule over all non-human creation together, with no semblance of female subjection to male dominance until the balance of power was shifted to favor the male by the introduction of sin into the world. 

   In 1987, a new doctrine of men and women, called “complementarianism,” challenged traditional role religion by claiming the first couple was originally created equal in essence only—but never in function. 

  Many Christians claim they have never heard the term “complementarian,” but whether they have heard the term or not, they have likely experienced effects of the doctrine within their homes and church fellowships. 

    The term “complementarian” was coined, in 1987, by a group of evangelical leaders that met in Danvers, Massachusetts and drafted a document defining strict “roles” for men and women. That document is known as the Danvers Statement. 

   Within a year, that same group created a non-profit organization called, the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, (CBMW) whose sole purpose is to promote female subordination to male leadership in all areas of life—church, home, and workplace. 

   With vast financial resources at their disposal, The Council (CBMW) was able to flood the Christian world with their new doctrine to such an extent and with such an impact that by 1993, the Church of the Nazarene felt compelled to put into writing what they had always practiced, and added the following statement to their official Manual of doctrine and polity: “904.6. Women in Ministry: We support the right of women to use their God-given spiritual gifts within the church. We affirm the historic right of women to be elected and appointed to places of leadership within the Church of the Nazarene,” (1993, From the Manual, the official statements of doctrine and polity of the Church of the Nazarene).

   Complementarians of all denominations staunchly defend the oxymoronic claim that although men and women are created equal in their beings and personhood, they are created to complement one another via unequal “roles” in life and in the church, with men always in the leader role and women always in the follower role.

   Complementarianism further states that women will be subordinate to men, not only in their earthly lives but all through eternity, in Heaven as well. That's what makes complementarianism religious role-religion on steroids.

 Owen Strachan, past president of the CBMW,  admitted that complementarianism is nothing less than old fashioned patriarchy. Rachel Held Evans linked to Strachan's amazingly honest assessment of complementarianism in her article, It's not Complementarianism; it's Patriarchy: "For those who think I mean "patriarchy" as an insult rather than a description of reality, consider this: In the current issue of The Journal of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, Owen Strachan wrote, "For millennia, followers of God have practiced what used to be called patriarchy and is now called complementarianism.”"

  Complementarians diverge from traditional role religion in that while traditionalists agree with them that women are subject to male leadership during their lives, traditional-role-religionists teach that this is due to a temporary curse, because of the Fall of humanity in the Garden of Eden, and that women will one day be freed from the curse altogether and then, in every way, will enjoy absolute equality with men.  
  Complementarians view this teaching as a traditionalist loophole offering women full equality with men at some point in the misty eternal future. Even the expectation of such is unacceptable to complementarian leaders. So, they conveniently plugged the traditionalist loophole by teaching that the imbalance of power, favoring men over women, is a permanent eternal fact due to a  teaching created by the creators of the Danvers Statement, which they aptly named the “Divine Order of Creation.” This trumped-up doctrine, states that female inferiority was intentional and eternal as part of the creation and not a consequential temporary curse because of original sin. 

   Knowing this teaching cannot be substantiated by scripture, they attempt to shore up shoddy theology by further claiming the pattern for authority and submission between the sexes is based on an alleged hierarchal structure of authority and submission found within the Triune Godhead itself. 

   This doctrine finds its genesis in the Arian doctrine of the Eternal Generation of Christ (Eternal Sonship). Renewed acceptance of this doctrine by evangelicals—who have historically rejected it as heresy—has spawned another, relatively new, doctrine called “Trinitarian [or Trinity] Marriage.”

   To accept the doctrine of the Eternal Sonship of Christ, one must accept that a strict hierarchy of authority and submission exists within the Eternal Godhead itself. 
   Complementarians claim that inequality exists within the Godhead by assigning complementarian "roles" to God himself. They claim the Triune Godhead is complementarian, with Jesus, who is Immanuel [THE God with us] taking second place in the pecking order and the Holy Spirit following along in last place.

  One prominent complementarian leader, Bruce Ware, wrote an entire book dealing with what he believes to be hierarchical roles within the Godhead, that serve as examples for implementing the same type of hierarchy into the marriage relationships of women and men. 

   Another complementarian leader, Charles Stanley, wrote that if no hierarchy could be found within the Godhead, then no basis at all could be found for assigning hierarchical roles, based solely on sex, to human beings. 

  It is crucial to understand that on this one point (that an authority/submission structure exists within the Eternal Godhead) hinges the entire doctrine of female submission to male headship. 
   Many reputable scholars down through the ages (including, of recent times, the late Dr. Walter Martin) have contended for the faith against the heretical Arian doctrine of the Eternal Sonship of Christ.
   Despite the fact that complementarianism has basically overthrown sound doctrine within the Christian community, many individuals, individual churches within complementarian denominations, as well as entire denominations such as the *Church of the Nazarene, the Methodist Churches, and the Society of Friends (the Quakers) hold that all Christians are freed from the curse of sin and are equal and autonomous between themselves, before God, and in Christ, and that all people have equal responsibility to use their gifts and obey their callings to the glory of God, and that God freely calls believers to roles and ministries without regard to class, gender, or race.

*At the time of this writing, complementarianism has already made alarming inroads into individual congregations within The Church of the Nazarene, The Church of God, the Assemblies of God, and other denominations that have traditionally supported equality and autonomy of the sexes. 

Woman this is WAR! Gender, Slavery & the Evangelical Caste System: Andersen, Jocelyn: 9780979429323: Amazon.com: Books

Woman this is WAR! Gender Slavery and the Evangelical Caste System,  This work provides valuable historical insight into Christian initiatives in the movements for women’s rights, that are rarely included in Christian literature.

 Author and speaker, Jocelyn Andersen, is an eclectic Christian writer. She is a Bible teacher who writes about many subjects including Bible prophecy and equality of the sexes. She is best known for her advocacy in domestic violence awareness. Her book, Woman Submit! Christians & Domestic Violence, has been a staple in the library of resources on that subject.  

If the topic of God and Women interests you, join the conversation HERE.

To receive an announcement from Amazon whenever a new book is released by Jocelyn Andersen, subscribe to Her Amazon author's page.

To Contact Jocelyn: Use the contact form in the sidebar of her blog at www.jocelynandersen.com to leave comments on her books, to reach her with questions, or to request for her to come and speak at your group.