Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood by Aimee Byrd

Author:Aimee Byrd [Byrd, Aimee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2020-03-02T00:00:00+00:00

WHO PICKS UP THE TAB WHEN WE FAIL TO RETRIEVE, REFORM, AND RENEW?

The above concept of man and woman is far more robust than I have seen in either complementarian or egalitarian teaching. And if we compare it to the definitions of femininity and masculinity provided for us to pursue “biblical manhood and womanhood,” we find that teaching to be fractional, reducing our personhood and hindering the dynamic fruition of our telos. Frankly speaking, my reasons for writing this book are not academic. And they are not to target certain organizations or people. I have the opportunity to speak in many churches. I get to speak at women’s retreats and coed conferences, as well as at universities and seminaries. I do this as a laywoman. And I see the toll that the yellow wallpaper is taking on my friends from countless churches, my loved ones, and all those I meet through these engagements and who seek me out online.

You see, it doesn’t hurt many of the top names in certain evangelical circles to endorse these books teaching ESS or ERAS, to affirm the orthodoxy of errant teaching on the Trinity, complementarianism, and gender roles, and to continue to headline together at conferences. But I see who picks up the tab for this irresponsibility—the regular churchgoing people who are trying to honor God in their singleness or as wives and husbands.

I have seen the cost in my own experiences, and I am seeing it in all the emails I am getting from women who can’t use a word like career, lest it sound too ambitious; women who have no voice in their churches because the men are the leaders who have all the valuable input; women who are stuck in ministries that teach “true womanhood” and are considered divisive if they point out heretical teaching on the Trinity in their book study104; women who are frustrated because they do not fit into the “biblical womanhood” box of nursery duty and potlucks and feel marginalized in their own church; women who have expressed their conflict of desiring to be “good complementarians” while wanting to cry when they read some of the material marketed to them by so-called trusted Christian resources; and women who are encouraged to go to seminary for a master of arts degree but then discover doors closed for most paying jobs for which they are qualified. Worse, I hear from women who are in and who have come out of abusive situations under this kind of irresponsible teaching. When this so-called complementarian teaching, advocating such poor theology and environment for women, is presented as our design from creation and part of the gospel structure, I’m not surprised that some end up questioning their faith.

I am writing because we need to recover a better way. We need to peel off this yellow wallpaper and reveal our true biblical aim. We are not directed to biblical manhood nor biblical womanhood; we are directed to Christ. Our aim is to behold Christ, as his bride, as fellow sons in the Son.

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