Equal Yet Wonderfully Different

Evangelical Christians need to break away from the world's confused ideas about gender and sexuality, and dig deeper into God's plan for man and woman.

Survival of the Fittest
Is it just me, or is there a subtle, but very real gender schism in our society today? I don't know of any other time in our history when men and women were so pitted against each other on both the individual and societal level. And who knows where it all started? Feminist literature, perhaps, or the chronic failure of men to lead their families responsibly? Maybe Darwinian pop-psychology is responsible (the evolution of men versus women). It's probably a little of all of these, and some other things I don't even know of. Either way, our society has bought into it, and the "us versus you" kind of thinking has become a familiar companion to many gender-related discussions.

Disconnection
Then there's the flipside to this schism. Sometimes instead of competing, men and women behave without regard for the consequences their actions may have on members of the opposite sex. The welfare of the other is irrelevant, or at best, incidental, to how a man or woman chooses to think, speak, act, dress, etc. Men may excuse immaturity, unfaithfulness, and irresponsibility simply by saying "that's what men do." In a similar way, women can justify gossip, vanity, and pride. Of course, it doesn't matter how such actions may influence others, because life is really about the self, and meaning is found solely in experience, with just enough morality packed in to keep life from collapsing in on itself.

Biblical Complements

Filipino Evangelicals have to put an end to all this nonsense within the body of Christ. God has clearly revealed his design for sex and gender. It isn't tyranny of one sex over another (like what happened in Christianized societies in the past), nor competition, nor egalitarianism. God's plan is complementarity. Men and women have different roles and responsibilities. We are wired differently, and yet both are "created in the image of God," and "fearfully and wonderfully made." We have different needs, but all these needs meet in our need for God. We do things differently, but are empowered by the same Spirit.

Evangelical Christians need to break away from the world's confused paradigms about gender and sexuality, and dig deeper into God's plan for man and woman. This is only one aspect, but an essential one, in preparing the Church for the return of her Bridegroom.

Helpful Resources:

1. Joshua Harris. I Kissed Dating Goodbye and Boy Meets Girl.
2. Mark Chansky. Manly Dominion.
3. Desiring God National Conference 2004. Sex and the Supremacy of Christ.