I was recently training our new administrative assistant on how to use Shelby, a church management software the Army uses, when I came across something that troubled me.
We were creating a record for a family that had just transferred into our corps and there were two categories available for the husband and wife: Head of Household and Spouse. As we attempted to circumvent the choices, I faced a probing question: was the idea of “headship” represented in this outdated program at odds with the Army’s commitment to gender equity?
Headship and Hierarchy
In terms of women preachers and leaders, The Salvation Army has long held a unique and controversial view among the global church. According to the 1895 Orders and Regulations for Staff Officers of The Salvation Army, “no woman is to be kept back from any position of power or influence merely on account of her sex. Women must be treated as equal with men in all the intellectual and social relationships in life.”
Reading those words 125 years later, we may be somewhat perplexed as to why we are still grappling with gender equity in the Army today. Even though the majority in our congregations and officer force are women, when it comes to positions of authority, there remains an undetectable barrier preventing gender equity from being realized. Could that barrier be related to the theology of male headship, also known as complementarianism?
While its root word, “complement,” refers to the way in which difference is mutually beneficial in order to fulfil something, complementarianism has become synonymous with hierarchical authority and the leadership of men over women. Other terms used interchangeably with complementarianism are “biblical manhood and womanhood” and “patriarchy.”
There are two categories of complementarianism. Hard complementarianism is the most restrictive and does not allow for women to lead or exercise authority over men in any way. Women are prohibited from teaching or preaching to groups of mixed genders and are limited to leading and teaching women and children (excluding teenaged boys). Soft complementarianism is less hierarchical but prohibits women from being senior pastors or holding the highest levels of church authority. Both categories hold to a husband headship model in the home.
Complementarians believe men and women are created equal, but that God has created men and women to be different to fulfil distinct, complementary roles in the home and church. For women, these roles are all of a supporting nature. The underlying belief is that gender hierarchy is divinely ordained.
On the other side of the conversation is egalitarianism, otherwise known as “biblical equality” or “evangelical feminism.” It is the belief that gender in and of itself does not qualify or disqualify a person from leadership or authority. It holds that each person ought to use their God-given gifts to advance the kingdom and bring glory to God in any sphere of life. This view sees both sexes as created equal in essence, as well as function, and promotes freedom for both to serve and lead as the Spirit gives the opportunity and power to do so.
Interpreting Scripture
Both complementarians and egalitarians would say they hold to a faithful view of Scripture. Complementarians point to verses such as Ephesians 5:23, 1 Corinthians 11:3, 1 Corinthians 14:34 and 1 Timothy 2:12 in defending their view.
Admittedly, a simple reading of these texts makes complementarity difficult to argue against. Yet it is important to approach them with questions concerning context and culture. Were these instructions meant for all people and all time or just for that people in that time? After all, even Paul lists many women among church leaders in Romans 16, and Priscilla is consistently listed before her husband, Aquila, even though alphabetically and socially, she would have been considered secondary to him. There are other situations throughout Scripture—far more than can be captured here—where the patriarchy is upended to cast women in a leading role. How do we interpret and discern God’s eternal truth when it is not as clear as we would like it to be?
As Salvationists, ours is a Wesleyan model for interpreting Scripture. This model does not give equal weight to every text but recognizes that there is a grand redemptive story that sweeps across the entire Scripture and serves as a lens for understanding everything. We call it the gospel.
It begins with the story of God’s created cosmos, the subsequent Fall of humanity and then the liberation and recreation brought through Jesus’ life, death and Resurrection. It continues with us, in Christ and indwelt by the Spirit, becoming participants in the redemptive work of a healed creation. As redeemed people walking in step with the Spirit, we live the will of God here and now, bringing the kingdom into visibility all around us. In essence, we live God’s glorious future in the present, all the while praying (and working) to see God’s kingdom come.
The Original Design
What does gender equity have to do with this?
To discern God’s will for male and female relatedness, we go back to the original design. In the first creation story in Genesis 1, men and women equally represent the image of God and both are given authority and responsibility as co-leaders and co-stewards of the created world. In the second creation account in Genesis 2, woman is introduced as the ezer neged to Adam—helper parallel or counterpart. Lest anyone dismiss “helper” as somehow weaker than the man, this Hebrew word is used elsewhere to describe God saving Israel in battle.
After Adam and Eve disobey God, everything is significantly fractured. As part of that, Genesis 3 outlines the curse on the woman: the disharmony and struggle of the will between the genders, as well as the resultant power imbalance of man over woman. These entered the world as a result of the Fall, which inevitably leads us to conclude that patriarchy is in fact a sin and a distortion of God’s divine will and original design for humankind.
Approaching Scripture faithfully can include acknowledging that gender-specific roles in church and domestic life reflect the patriarchal culture that existed in biblical times, and do not reflect the eternal and ultimate ethic of God. Contemporary biblical scholars, such as Dr. William Webb, have helped us to see that even though the biblical writers were not aware of it, God was both speaking into their context in a way that they could understand while pointing redemptively forward to reveal the ultimate ethic of the eternal kingdom. Just as the church developed a fuller theology around issues such as slavery and the Trinity, long after the New Testament canon had been finalized, we can apply the same interpretative technique when it comes to the church’s view of women.
If we are still struggling to discern the supreme will of God, then we ought to look no further than Jesus, God Incarnate, and how he viewed and treated women. In the Gospels, he consistently violated the religious and social laws and customs of his time concerning male-female relatedness to value, honour and lift up women. Not to mention, it was Jesus who commissioned a woman to be the first witness and apostle of the Resurrection.
Restoration
The Salvation Army is both scripturally faithful and unapologetically egalitarian. Its 2019 Positional Statement on Sexism states: “We reject any view that subordinates women to men, or men to women.” Over the years, male headship has been touted loudly within the evangelical world. Has it seeped into our theology and how we function in our homes, churches and the organization at large? Could this be why we still have not achieved the gender equity so long discussed and dreamed about? True equality does not exist when homes and organizations hold to a hierarchical headship model that subordinates women.
Restoration of the co-leadership model described in the creation account can be brought to bear on all aspects of life and ministry. This happens as we join in the work of the Spirit in restoring harmony (shalom) to humanity. Indeed, if ever there were a sphere in which the values of equity, justice and freedom should reign, it ought to be the church, where we bear witness to God’s glorious future by living the will of God on earth as it is in heaven.
Our positional statement guides us forward: “The Salvation Army seeks to challenge and overcome sexism wherever it exists, promoting egalitarian values in all expressions of Salvation Army life.” That includes shaking off the theological trappings of “headship.” Shelby is but one indication that there is more work to be done.
Major Pamela Pinksen is the advocate for gender equity in the Canada and Bermuda Territory. She is also corps officer, along with her husband, Major Cory Pinksen, at Kitchener Community Church, Ont.
Illustration: Lisa Suroso
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Many of our churches in Canada were opened by young women in their late teens and early twenties, who were then forced to take a back seat to men once they were married or the corps became established. The problem is not a new one, regardless of William Booth stating that women should not be denied leadership because of their gender. The regulations on female leadership were often quite different from the reality.
I wonder if some of the blame lies with us male officers who may feel threatened by having women in positions of divisional or territorial authority due to frail egos and outdated attitudes towards masculinity. I have heard some unpleasant stories from women who held divisional and territorial leadership when it came to their male counterparts. If those rare instances when women were given these positions, they were often overwhelmingly single.
In issues of gender and racial equality we have to remain vigilant. I worry that sometimes we rely too much on the image instead of the reality when it comes to how we govern and organize our movement. Content on a good headline or a policy decision that looks good on paper, but not willing to address the difficult issues that will empower the Army by giving all its members the ability to reach their full potential in leadership.