The World According to Complementarians

I’m trying to get my head around what Complementarians believe, and I think it goes something like this:

Complementarians think there is a “headship” hierarchy in the universe. God the Father has always been “head” of the God the Son. When Paul wrote about Jesus being very nature God, and emptying himself in the incarnation, that was a pretty suspect idea… definitely not Paul’s finest hour. The Trinity is a chain of command, not some quaint idea of perichoresis of three Persons equally God.

The man is “head” of the woman: this is why women can’t do church leadership, or speak in church. It seems that you can teach “down” in the hierarchy of the universe, but you can’t teach “up”. Therefore men can teach men about the bible, women can teach women (equal in the "headship" hierarchy), while men and women can both teach children (who are a bit lower in the hierarchy). However, I have heard that something magical happens to boys when they turn 16 (or 18), and God suddenly gets upset if women teach them the bible. The age when boys are endowed with “headship” and are promoted in the hierarchy is an important theological issue: I think in Jewish thought this happens around age 12 or 13 at Bar Mitzvah. (God needs to be a bit clearer on the “magic age” in my opinion).

Strangely, it does seem many Complementarians commend single women missionaries who go out to fields where the gospel is unknown, preach the gospel, plant a church, and teach the new church in the Christian faith.

Because these Complementarians seem to approve of single women missionaries overseas, I assume that darker-skinned people are lower in the hierarchy than white women, who are allowed to teach the darker-skinned. The "headship" hierarchy of the universe therefore must go like this: God, Jesus, white man, white woman, darker skinned man, darker skinned woman. (I'm not quite sure where white children fit, but I'm pretty sure dark-skinned children are at the bottom of the chain.)* 

We need to be clear that all of these people are equally IMPORTANT to God, but it's just that God doesn't want to give them equal power, because unequal power after all reflects the nature of God. God the Father is the boss of Jesus and all human relationships work this way. Actually, they work this way in the church, but in the WORLD God doesn't mind the fact Australia has a female Head of State, Governor-General, and Prime Minister, nor prominent women in academia, leading schools and universities, and CEO's of businesses. These are "special" realms where God relaxes the hierarchy of the Universe. In the WORLD teaching positions in universities, schools, etc. should be based on academic qualifications, competence, and experience. However, if women try to lead anything or speak in a church building God gets VERY UPSET. Church settings are a different realm, where it is better for an illiterate man to speak about faith (even if his opinions are nonsense) than to have a woman with a doctorate in theology teach the people.

This issue is CENTRAL to faith, not some namby-pamby issue of conscience. I believe the Complementarians have found the key creed of the early church, and it goes like this:

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth;
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord: Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.
I believe men must lead everything in the church, and anyone who teaches women can lead or speak should be SHUNNED.
Amen.

Complementarians really like two verses in the epistles, but they do not like a lot of other parts of the bible... like Deborah being a prophet, judge and leader of Israel. Or Miriam, Huldah, the daughters of Phillip, etc. being called prophets. Or Junia being called an apostle. However, apparently all of these things have very good explanations. Junia was either not really an apostle, or not really a woman, depending on your interpretation. God personally asked something like a million Israelite men to act as judge of Israel, and they ALL said no. Desperate times require that even God must bend the rules.

It may be the prophetesses named would whisper their prophesies into a man's ear, who would relay the word of the Lord, without the women having to actually verbalise anything to a group of men. One-on-one prophesy is apparently ok with Complementarians. It's groups of people that have "magical" properties. In a mixed-gender group in a church building the Lord gets VERY upset when a woman speaks, although apparently it doesn't disturb the hierarchy of the universe when women speak in other settings, such as parliament, board meetings, parties and the like In SECULAR buildings or settings, the "headship" hierarchy of the universe and the Godhead becomes irrelevant. Just because.

Now it should be noted this discussion is only in relation to leading churches, biblical preaching, prophesy, church planting, etc. In terms of being PRIESTS (for those denominations that ordain specialist priests), we need to turn to the guidelines of the Old Testament. These guidelines clearly show that priests must be male, Jewish, circumcised, physically without defect, and descended from Aaron. Having noted all this, clever theologians have shown that in the New Testament era none of that matters. In Christ all such rules and regulations have been swept away except for one: the priest must of course still be MALE. God has relaxed all the other rules except the "male" rule, because of "headship". The principle of male "headship" is critical, even though the word "headship" is not found in the bible.


So folks, for those of you who know Complementarians a bit better than I do... do I have this right? Or have I missed some of their more important tenets?

* I realise this is very confronting: what inspired this post was hearing about a Complementarian group training female missionaries to lead bible studies because they would "need to do this on the mission field". The implied racism of this horrified me and triggered me to write this post. Many other Complementarians won't even allow women to teach on the mission field; this stance is only sexist not racist also.