Rebranding Hierarchy
Once upon a time, I was involved in the Monash University branch of AFES/Intervarsity called “The Evangelical Union”. This was the early 1980s, and young men and women alike were leading everything. The term Complementarian wasn't yet a twinkle in Wayne Grudem's eye.* In this period, egalitarian theologians were arguing that men and women were designed to complement one another; that we needed both women and men in leadership. In society more broadly, the ideal of a gender hierarchy was being profoundly challenged. The idea was normalised that women should have equal legal and workplace rights to men - in theory if not in practice. By the late 1980s, Christian conservatives who believed in a gender hierarchy found themselves with an image problem. They were becoming theologically marginalised, as well as out of step with society at large. It was time for a rebranding exercise. To quote Scot McKnight: 'Grudem tells us that he and John Piper,