Two things happened in the past two weeks that made my heart sink.
The first thing was at my church the other day. One of the associate pastors, who happens to be a woman, preached on the book of Colossians. It was, by any standard, expository, biblically rooted, theologically orthodox, insightful, and well-presented. I learned something and was impressed. And then a wave of sadness came over me knowing that a certain set of men whose theology largely mirrors mine in terms of what you might call the essentials of the gospel if delineated in a statement of faith, would have likely gotten up and left the room if they saw that she was preaching.
Particularly among the younger set, these men are called “theobros” who are resolutely opposed to women preaching or being pastors. They are convinced that this belief is underpinned by Scripture and they are fighting in various denominations, especially the SBC, to make sure that women do not preach on Sunday and do not serve in the office of pastor. They believe that women are primarily causing the problems in the church and that if they are allowed to serve in those capacities, it will pave the way to embracing the sexual chaos represented in the ever-morphing rainbow flag.
There are other reasons they oppose this but the big one is that they see women as the main culprits in the LGBT-ification the church, which is to destroy it. It doesn’t matter to these men if the women preaching and pastoring are as theologically orthodox as they are, they are fully persuaded that a woman preaching means an eventual and relatively speedy embrace of many kinds of sexual perversion. It also wouldn’t matter to them that I happen to know that my female associate pastor is fully opposed to the rainbow madness and actively supports ministries that help people exit that way of life to follow Jesus and steward their sexuality in keeping with historic Christian ethics.
The second thing that happened that I found so devastating that transpired recently was on X (formerly Twitter). The account LibsofTikTok tweeted a photo of a the medical abomination that is a radial forearm phalloplasty, where sociopathic surgeons harvest skin and tissue from the arm of young women in order to make a crude, non-functional penis to attach to their crotch.
It’s a punch to the gut every time I see one. The gruesome photo received millions of views and retweets. It’s a scandal that even one of these surgeries happens under the banner of medical care but today, when you include those with all the other kinds of operations such as double mastectomies and facial shave surgeries, and other mutilations of the body, tens of thousands of young people, including girls as young as 13, are being disfigured in this grotesque fashion. We are currently living through one of the most nightmarish child abuse and medical scandals in history.
And yet those with large platforms who often push for women to be able to lead in churches are tight-lipped about this widespread problem even when personally invited to weigh in. I’m left wondering, what gives? Because do you know who IS bold about this ongoing horror? The rightwing theobros opposed to women preaching. They are unafraid to decry this awful abuse for what it is and they do so admirably and unequivocally. It is not an easy thing to oppose the current dogma of the day that represents the spirit of the age, which is all things LGBTQ+. I mean, have you noticed how decked out every city is in rainbows every June? The perverts and ideologues behind that movement have colonized all of culture and that’s not hyperbole.
A few years ago I would have allowed for the excuse that the trans-medical scourge was a topic that was so obscure and bizarre and treated so misleadingly by the purportedly mainstream press that many people legitimately did not know about what’s going on in hospitals and gender clinics around the country. I can no longer allow that because the evidence has been laid bare too many times. The horrific photographs, footage of gender clinicians explaining what they do, and statistics have been reported too many times to dismiss. Moreover, in 2023 alone, 17 states enacted laws prohibiting this madness from being carried out on minors. Ohio and South Carolina are likely to do the same soon. This is a big, unignorable deal and it’s already shaping the national discourse with the 2024 election cycle underway. You cannot claim to be ignorant anymore.
But the relative silence from what you might call theological egalitarians on this horrific problem is deafening. And even worse, it is solidifying the idea in the minds of the theobros that those who believe God blesses women to teach, preach, and serve in leadership offices in the church are supportive of it even if they don’t. This is already a challenge because a cursory glance at most mainline churches that have blessed women’s ordination shows that they have indeed traveled down the road of false teaching and are awash in sexual apostasy. It is right to resist such teaching. Any church that flies the rainbow flag is a church that has turned its back on Jesus and has embraced antichrist dogma; they have exchanged the truth and God’s righteous ways for a lie.
Meanwhile, theobros watch Beth Moore edit out biblically accurate passages on homosexuality from one of her books. They see Sheila Wray Gregoire heaping praise on and retweeting heretics like the late Rachel Held Evans and Diana Butler Bass, both of whom effusively champion sexual sin. They watch with palpable disgust as Kristen Kobes Du Mez sports a wry smile while insidiously manipulating the issue and platform herself next to perverts and apostates while winking and nodding at all things LGBT. And Du Mez never misses an opportunity to ascribe the worst possible motives to earnest Christians contending for the truth about marriage and human sexuality as though that represents some kind of blasphemously idolatrous Christian nationalism. And they also know that, at this point, all of these women have either read about or seen a phalloplasty-skinned forearm and breastless teen girls, and they don’t say a doggone word. Talk about hideous misogyny! And yet they either say nothing or are tacitly supportive. It’s brain-breaking cognitive dissonance. What’s more, I know atheist and lefty LGB people who are actively resisting this monstrosity more than these egalitarian Christian women!
And you know what? As distasteful as I find the theobros, they are right to spurn this double standard. They are going after what they see as the root of the problem, and in some cases, they might not be entirely wrong.
My female associate pastor is going to continue to be faithful to do what God has called her to do. I’ll continue to champion and defend her. And I’ll resist the cruel ways of those who hurl chauvinistic insults at godly women.
But the current vicious gender wars in the church are not going to be resolved anytime soon as long as women keep giving the theobros ammo that serves to confirm all their suspicions. And some of them are doing that in spades.
As Kaeley might say, honest to goodness, please cut the crap.
I was worried when I saw that title (one of my cousins is called to the ministry and she would never stand up for this horrible stuff), but having read the article, I agree. Women with a large platform and name recognition, such as those you mentioned, need to have more backbone in standing up for truth. (And even those of us who do not have nationwide fame should stand up for truth wherever we are)
Just because a woman with a large platform like Sheila Wray Gregoire shares a quote from someone, doesn’t mean they agee with every thing that person stands for and has ever said. If that’s the standard, then no one would ever be able to quote another person. Shelia Wray Gregoire is an enemy of the Theobros, because of her message, that has nothing to do with the LGBT movement. She champions healthy sexuality in hetro sexual marriages, true intimacy, and NO PORN. She is also an outspoken proponent of dealing with abusive men in marriages properly. She’s egalitarian and that is in opposition with most complimentarian theobro’s. I highly encourage all women to read her content .