Michael Horton on Masculine Christianity

I see something that disturbs me. I see complementarians conflate complementarianism with cultural definitions of masculinity and femininity. This bloating of complementarianism does not bolster the position, but weakens it. Such conflation pollutes dialogue, produces unnecessary quarrels, and distracts us from the central issues.

Because of these concerns, I am thankful for the recent article Michael Horton wrote. In it, he offers some helpful, corrective comments. Here are a couple of my favorites.

“In Christ,” not “in manhood” or “in womanhood,” is our ultimate location. One Lord, one faith, one baptism.

And…

“My point is that the larger goal here shouldn’t be to trot out more gender stereotypes from our culture, whether feminist or neo-Victorian, but rather to rediscover the ministry that Christ has ordained for making disciples of all nations, all generations, and both genders. We need less niche marketing and more meat-and-potatoes service to the whole body of Christ. There, men and women, the young and the old and the middle aged, black, white, Latino, Asian, rich and poor hear God’s Word together, pray and sing God’s Word together, and are made one body by receiving Christ’s body and blood together: “one Lord, one faith, one baptism.” In that place, at least, there are no women’s Bible studies and men’s Bible studies, distracted youth groups and child-free golden oldies clubs, but brothers and sisters on pilgrimage to a better homeland than those that have been fashioned for us by this passing evil age.”

Please consider reading the whole article here.