In a recent Desiring God podcast Q&A, John Piper outrageously said that egalitarianism is to blame for sexual abuse in the church.
As a leading complementarian voice in Evangelicalism (he co-founded the Center for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood), Piper has influenced millions of Christians to follow patriarchal hierarchy in the church and home, with men holding all authority and power, leaving women on the margins to submit and follow. Egalitarianism, by comparison, teaches that leadership roles and gifts are designated by the Holy Spirit without regard to gender, age, ethnicity, income, or any other qualifier. All persons are equal in the Kingdom of God, and in the home, egalitarians teach mutual submission between spouses.
Implying that sexual abuse is a new development in the past five decades with the rise of egalitarianism is absurd, as we can see that sexual abuse is a timeless result of sin.
https://twitter.com/tim_fall/status/974668234686218240
I would recommend reading these three responses to Piper’s analysis. First, Mimi Haddad, president of Christians for Biblical Equality, Int., wrote, “Do Gender Roles Keep Women Safe? A Response to John Piper” —
It’s confusing that Piper, who has spent his life preaching the gospel, links human flourishing to male and female roles instead of intimacy with Christ. However, Scripture does not associate male/female roles with holiness/godliness. According to the New Testament, godliness is inseparable from our spiritual rebirth and flourishes through relationship with Christ.
The dividing line that separates spiritual death from human flourishing has nothing to do with gender roles and everything to do with spiritual rebirth through the Holy Spirit. It’s Christ in you—the hope of glory—that imparts holiness, as demonstrated by fruit of the Spirit (Col. 1:21-27, Gal. 5:16-25). Here is where complementarians make a catastrophic error.
By insisting that maleness qualifies men to lead and care for women, complementarians give men responsibilities that rightly belong only to those who have demonstrated a capacity for leadership. Maleness isnot morality. Maleness is not a character quality. Maleness can tell us nothing about a person’s intimacy with Christ, their character, or their commitment to holiness.
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God intended humanity to flourish through male-female co-dominion, which sadly, does not endure. Adam’s sin and first failure was disobedience to God, not failure to protect and lead Eve. God did not tell Adam “protect and hold authority over Eve,” but “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat,” (Gen. 2:17). When they disobey God, their shared rule deteriorates into the “he will rule over you” of Genesis 3:16. Male rule, authority, and dominance is a consequence of sin. It is a distortion of God’s ideal for humanity. It wrecks the thriving that God intended.
According to Prepare/Enrich—the largest group studying marriage in the world—domestic violence and abuse are statistically linked with dominance. Theories that advance dominance can only fuel abuse. For this reason, humanitarian organizations “marble” gender equality into their goals for successful impact. Gender equality neutralizes the power imbalances that allow for abuse, which explains why adding women as middle managers and on boards lowers the rate of unethical practices.
Let’s turn our attention to the church. According to Kathryn A. Flynn, clergy-perpetuated sexual abuse (CPSA) is “not an issue of sexuality but rather one of a power imbalance that negates any possibility of ‘consensual’ mutuality. This distorted power dynamic has been accentuated by some clergy abusers through the misuse of significant social, cultural and even supernatural power ascribed to religious representatives as being derived from God.”[1] Further, the World Health Organization found that “traditional gender and social norms [are] related to male superiority.”[2]
The Sinnergists wrote, “No John Piper, Egalitarianism is not to Blame for Sexual Abuse” —
Egalitarianism, by its very definition, is the belief that all people are equal and that there is no inherent difference of power, authority, worth, or status between men and women.
Sexual abuse, by its very nature, is about the exertion and the assertion of power. As experts have long noted, sexual abuse is not about lust or desire or even sex; it is about power and it is about control.
Egalitarianism and sexual abuse therefore, by their very natures and definitions, are mutually exclusive. A person who is truly egalitarian would never sexually abuse another person, because a person would never sexually abuse another person whom he or she truly viewed as an equal. To state it another way, a person who sexually abuses another has, by their own actions, demonstrated that they are not actually egalitarian because, as stated above, true egalitarianism is inherently and fundamentally incompatible with sexual abuse.
And Rachel Held Evans’ post, “Patriarchy doesn’t “protect” women: A Response to John Piper” is a must read! —
The #MeToo movement does not reflect some sudden increase in the abuse of women; rather, it reflects a growing awareness of those abuses, and a mounting, collective fervor to confront them. It’s a movement led by and for women, women who aren’t asking for some sort of paternalistic “protection” because they are fragile females, but rather to be treated with the dignity and respect they deserve simply because they are human beings.
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But what’s most dangerous about this posture is that Piper seems to assume that because evangelicals aren’t confronting sexual assault and abuse the way that Hollywood is, then those things must not be happening in their churches, that abuse only occurs in egalitarian communities where women have more power and influence. I would posit that, based on the many stories I hear from women who have left evangelical churches, it’s far more likely that abuse is flourishing in patriarchal homes and churches where women are given little voice and little recourse; it’s just getting swept under the rug rather than named and confronted. After all, Piper has said in the past that a woman in an abusive relationship should “endure verbal abuse for a season” and “perhaps being smacked one night,” before seeking help—not from authorities, but from her (male-led) church. As we have seen in the unfolding story of Sovereign Grace Ministries, in highly patriarchal churches where women have no power and where abuse claims are typically handled “in house” by the men in leadership, abuse runs rampant.
That’s because contrary to Piper’s argument, patriarchy isn’t about protecting women; it’s about protecting men. It’s about preserving male rule over the home, church, and society, often at the expense of women.
In addition to mishandling his analysis of the #MeToo movement by blaming sexual assault on egalitarianism, Piper grossly mishandles Scripture in an attempt to proof-text his claims. For example, he points to the story of Adam and Eve from Genesis to suggest that an order of authority was established at creation wherein men are designed to lead and protect women, and women are designed to defer to and follow men. The Fall, as Christians sometimes like to call it, was the result of Adam’s failure to live into the masculine role of leading and protecting his wife. This is an…innovative….reading of the text for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that the Hebrew word used in Genesis 2 to describe Eve, (typically translated “helper”), is formed from the Hebrew word ezer. Far from connoting helplessness or subordination, the word ezer is employed elsewhere in Scripture to describe God, the consummate intervener—the helper of the fatherless (Psalm 10:14), King David’s strong defender and deliverer (Psalm 70:5), Israel’s shield and helper (Deuteronomy 33:29). Ironically, in Genesis, the woman is literally the “strong protector” of the man!
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In conclusion—
Banning women from the pulpit and silencing their voices in the church doesn’t protect women; it harms them.
Instructing women to submit to their husbands by “enduring abuse” doesn’t protect women; it harms them.
Handling abuse and assault allegations “in house” by reporting them to the male elders of a church instead of to the police doesn’t protect women; it harms them.
Misusing Scripture to reinforce gender stereotypes based more on white, American, post-World War II cultural ideals than biblical truth doesn’t protect women; it harms them.
Calling for a return to patriarchy doesn’t protect women; it harms them.
I particularly appreciated C. Allen’s responses to Piper’s tweet (posted above):
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The Beautiful Kingdom Builders 
It’s Okay to Walk Away
I’m a nail biter and drink my coffee sans foam art, but otherwise this is totally me.
I made a rash decision yesterday to comment on a Desiring God post by John Piper about the decline of male headship theology. He was saying that “Christlike headship will endure because it is true to God’s word,” and in explaining its decline, he said that those who are becoming egalitarians are being influenced by secularism or are bitter.
This was my comment:
I regretted this comment pretty quickly, after receiving the first two comments:
I sat on these comments for an hour, telling myself, “You don’t have to reply. You can walk away,” then I replied,
At what point do you walk away? I should have trusted my instinct. I was in an unsafe place. When complementarians comment on posts on The Beautiful Kingdom Warriors FB page, I always treat them with respect, kindness, and hospitality. It is rare that I am treated well on complementarian playgrounds. They assume that I am worldly and bitter, so they gift me with “tough love.” Like this man who emerged next…
I took the bait.
Then Steve started in. He stuck around until he told me to get lost, pretty much. But here’s how he began:
To which I replied,
Then got this gem, which I ignored:
And this,
I liked that one. Then got this,
I didn’t have to sit around deciding whether or not to reply to this comment. Outright misinformation needs correction, for the sake of silent observers. I said,
Jason Warner commented again, and he seems to be a super nice complementarian. Very kind and gracious.
And then Steve got back to me.
Does Steve run the Desiring God page? Did he even open the link? Marg Mowzcko’s blog is a highly rated Bible scholarship website.
Got these lovely comments next:
And these not-so-nice comments:
Steve likes Joye’s comments.
Had the conversation with myself again, “What are you doing here? Walk away!”
Didn’t listen. Things went downhill quickly from here.
Since I was making Steve nauseous with my argumentativeness, I let him have the last word and will leave things at that. I realize that I don’t have to attend every argument I am invited to, but it is a fine line figuring out when you are having a fruitful conversation and when things are becoming toxic. It’s not every day that I get compared to Mohamed and John Smith, get called entitled, bitter, grasping. I reject those words.
This comment thread was also a good reminder to me to watch my words so that I do not do this to others. It is tough to oppose a doctrine that I believe is inherently abusive without demeaning those who hold to it. How else can you describe a system that subjugates some under the authority of others due to one factor alone: gender? Not spiritual maturity, callings or gifts. Gender. GENITALIA.
Hierarchy in the Church sidelines the majority and celebrates the ministry of the few, the John Pipers. Their words have authority and power while others, who also have a relationship with God and have the power of the Holy Spirit within them, are powerless in the Church. It is not just women but also most men who find their God-given authority and gifts unused and unvalued in hierarchical churches.
We must also consider the epidemic of domestic violence and emotional abuse in the Church. Or the epidemic of gender violence, rape culture, sexism, FGM and femicide, financial inequality, objectification and sex slavery, etc., in our world. Let the Church be a force for the empowerment and honoring of women and girls! Let us heal the brokenness that patriarchy has brought to the world since the Fall!
Typing conversations is hard. It is easy to misunderstand and hear unintended tones. The moral of this story should be, love one another, give one another the benefit of the doubt, and if your gut is telling you to walk away, listen! 😉
Here’s a link to the comment thread on FB if you’d like to see how it has devolved since I posted this article.
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Posted in Ruth's Posts
Tagged be kind, comment thread, complementarian, Desiring God, Egalitarian, hierarchy, John Piper, male headship, theology, trolling