27.10.08

who will be canute?

i wonder if you can guess which magazine these following excerpts comes from?

'Warts and all, men have played their part in God's story...All [these men] reveal the multifaceted purposes of our God, who chose primarily to make himself and his ways known through men within a historic culture of a patriarchal society...For better or worse, men still hold privileged positions of decision-making authority within areas of global influence such as banking, politics, science and the military forces...the Lord continues to reveal himself through all his people, but still maintains a place for man within his continuous story for earth.'

'When God decided to reveal his story, he began with man: Adam. When he decided to redeem history he chose his Son: the new Adam. No wonder the governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate, said of Jesus, 'Here is the man!' (John 19:5). Such was the revelation of Jesus. If Jesus is the image of the Father, and he is, and we are the body of Christ, it poses the question: does the world see the divine in men, as Pilate saw the divine in Jesus.'


according to this article, the privileged status of men in society is not something to be judged as institutionalised sin in our world. a world where women are continually privatised as men continue to be at home in the public sphere. rather this is the way that God chooses to reveal himself. Of course God can still use people even when they have been put in a privileged position which might not reflect God's eternal plan for humanity - but this is not the flavour of this particular article, it rather seems to say that God maintains this state of affairs as the place of 'man' in his continuing story ('man' i think means 'males' as opposed to humankind - to be honest the article is a bit confusing throughout in the language, but i think that whenever the writer uses 'man' it is deliberately exclusive because of the subject being discussed)

the first paragraph however is nowhere near as offensive as the second para which builds offense on offense when it completely removes women from the significance of God's creation of human beings and from the particularity of Jesus' humanity.

so, where did this come from?

new wine magazine

*sigh*

a couple of comments - recently i had a chat with a good friend who is a vicar of a large evangelical church in london, he said that if you are not actively standing against sexism and misogyny then it overwhelms. it is not possible to pretend that it is not an issue and simply 'get on with the job'. he was clear that if you don't stand against it then you end up colluding with it by default.

secondly, on speaking to a friend whose husband is training for ordination, i asked her how she felt about women at new wine because she was on the prayer ministry team and she obviously felt very positive about new wine generally. she said that it was a problem but that the reality was that she turned a blind eye to it because she feels at home with the general ethos. she was very frank with me about it, it was just the way it was.

why do i care? probably because i know that new wine is so influential and is so loved by so many (how many other will be prepared to turn a blind eye?) that the particular type of 'gender-blindness' that it purports to have might filter through to those who consider themselves 'new-winers', and what it will really mean is that those who for reasons of integrity simply want to 'get on with the job' will end up colluding with the prevailing sexism instead of being the pioneers that they could be.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sometimes it almost feels like we're fighting a losing battle. Other times it just feels like it is just a matter of time and we'll all be able to laugh and say, 'remember when men thought that women shouldn't lead?'

Jody Stowell said...

yes it is a matter of time - one day in God's Kingdom it will be different. but for now it is our privilege to be building the kingdom together with him, and this is part of it.

dennisthemennis.co.uk said...

Hey Girls don't give up! Your fighting a battle that is already won and you are the winners. NEVER give up because without you girls we are stuffed.

Anonymous said...

aww, thanks dennis!!! You are an encouraging person!