complementatianism

I don't know why John Piper thought it helpful to announce that Christianity has a masculine feel. I think it does but I'm not sure why that would come up in conversation or why I would make a public statement to that effect. That aside, he did ... and the usual suspects pounced; concluding he spoke in a hurtful way about women. They demonstrate the shallowness of their thinking by arguing around his point but not to it.

First, regarding the hurtful speaking about women, here's their quote of Piper - find the hurtful speaking. [And here are the conference videos - I didn't take time to try to find the ugliness - let me know if you find anything worse than the below.]

"God revealed Himself in the Bible pervasively as king not queen; father not mother," Piper said. "The second person of the Trinity is revealed as the eternal Son not daughter; the Father and the Son create man and woman in His image and give them the name man, the name of the male...God appoints all the priests in the Old Testament to be men; the Son of God came into the world to be a man; He chose 12 men to be His apostles; the apostles appointed that the overseers of the Church be men; and when it came to marriage they taught that the husband should be the head."

"Now, from all of that I conclude that God has given Christianity a masculine feel,” Piper continued. “And being God, a God of love, He has done that for our maximum flourishing both male and female... He does not intend for women to languish or be frustrated or in any way suffer or fall short of full and lasting joy in this masculine Christianity. From which I infer that the fullest flourishing of women and men takes place in churches and families that have this masculine feel.”

I missed it, where is the sting? Now one may argue his conclusion is incorrect or as I that it is unhelpful, but I don't see the hurt toward women.

Then they cite Scripture where God attributes to Himself feminine attributes - as though Piper is unaware. God does this. And Piper knows. But I love their money quote ... John Calvin [use the words of a reformer to attack a reformer even when you don't agree with the former], "God has chosen to liken Himself to a female and we are the fruit of His womb." So? Tony Reinke outlines a longer list along with an excellent discussion on the point in Our Mother Who Art In Heaven. And the whole thing further demonstrates that this group lacks understanding. 

In that same article, Reinke also addresses the major miss from the detractors by high-lighting the difference between masculinity vs. femininity and male vs. female - something liberals cannot seem to get right. In fact, they work overtime to confuse the two in their quest for gender neutrality and sexual perversion.

Now I don't think all egalitarians are of that camp but I do think all in that camp are egalitarians because  to understand complementarianism would be to see the beauty in God our King, we as unworthy lovers made clean by His work, and married to Him forever. Since they are bent on all being acceptable, sin being brokenness, rejecting the atonement, etc..., this just doesn't fit. Rebellion is their nature. Again, not true of all egalitarians but true of this group of haters.

Speaking of complementarianism, here's a great post by Mary Kassian - Complementarianism for Dummies.