Equality, like so many things, is easy to talk about and a lot more difficult to practise. On the whole the world has taken huge strides in racial, disability and gender justice over the course of the last half-century, but there’s no doubt we still have a long way to go. And in the awkward place we still find ourselves, still improving and not all quite agreeing on what justice and equality quite look like, it’s far easier to use nice, positive, inclusive-sounding language than to actually modify our behaviours and lifestyles.
Since inequality comes in so many forms, let’s zero in on one pertinent example for Christian Today readers: the church’s treatment, theology and empowerment (or otherwise) of women. Broadly, Christians fall into two familiar camps: the egalitarians, who believe men and women are equally able, can be equally called and gifted, and can essentially perform roles interchangeably, and the complementarians, who believe that men and women are, while equally valuable, different and called to do different things.
The second group – many of whom have arrived at their position through prayer and the careful study of Scripture – would typically want ultimate authority in a church to be held by a man, and would probably only have male leaders (apart from in women’s and children’s ministries) and perhaps also only male preachers. This is not an attempt to defend or deconstruct this position; in fact, this article isn’t really for these people at all.
But the first group is where I believe we see that strange conflict opening up between actions and words. Perhaps because of unresolved inner tensions, perhaps because in a culture of Social Justice Warriors they feel they have to, it seems to me that there are a large number of men – and indeed institutions – who claim to hold to an egalitarian position, but don’t back that up with their behaviour. They say they believe in and advocate for equality, but saying is about as far as it seems to go.
For example, despite great work from campaigners, the lineups of many Christian conferences and events are still male-dominated, as are the bookshelves in the serious section of the last remaining Christian bookshops. The key leaders in the UK, not just in the adult church but in youth ministry too, are still mostly men, and yet all of this is happening in a church culture which is largely, if informally, egalitarian in its theology. You could call this ‘plastic egalitarianism’: a slightly fake, slightly makeshift version of the real thing, a theory that’s easily agreed to but more costly to put into practice.
Plastic Egalitarianism manifests itself in a range of subtle and not so subtle ways. The speaking line-ups at conferences are an easy target, but there are much more deep-seated examples which are potentially just as influential. When women are invited to speak or write in public forums for instance, they’re often automatically restricted to a handful of subject areas: more classically things like self-esteem and parenting, and more fashionably, justice, feminism and being a woman in leadership. But how often do we really hear women speaking about deep theology, the centrality of Scripture, or spiritual formation? Even as we invite women to take up the speaking platform, if we’re not careful we can subtly reinforce traditional gender values; we might as well be handing them a pink microphone.
I’m not suggesting this is always intentional. So often we’re completely unaware of the privileges and gender norms that so many of us have grown up with; it’s ‘natural’ to us that most Christian leaders, speakers and writers tend to be men; we have to train ourselves to notice when inequality is right under our noses. Some people do this really well – one male speaker quietly donates his speaking fee to gender equality organisations whenever he appears on an all-male line up; others refuse to speak in such a situation, and instead proactively suggest women who could do a better job.
It’s not just about what happens on platforms. Many of us talk about equality, even when we’re reinforcing those traditional, less-than-equal models in our own lifestyles. It’s still much easier for the average man to respond to a sense of ‘calling’ than it is for the average woman, especially when they become parents. Over the summer, I watched my wife trying to balance being a full-time mum with delivering an incredible children’s holiday club, and it struck me how much easier it would have been for me to do something similar simply because of the assumptions we hold around how easy it is for one or other of us to be ‘released’ from our responsibilities with the home and children. I’m coming to realise just how much privilege culture affords me as a family man which I might not have as a family woman. Women who do pursue their calling in church are often made to feel guilty about doing so. They’re asked ‘who’s looking after the children?’ when a man would simply never face the same question.
These are issues that I think all men need to consider and work through, regardless of their theology of equality. And for those of us who truly do believe that women are equally able, gifted and called, must get to a point where we are advocating for our female counterparts, and not just where they get to serve as part of a husband-and-wife team. In the mean time, perhaps we should boast about our commitment to equality a little less, and get on with the actual committing. Because where Plastic Egalitarianism is most apparent, and most painful, is in the boasting of men who seem to believe they’re improving their own image by appearing Right-on. “Humbled to be among so many great women leaders”, tweets the man spending yet another Saturday away from home at another profile-enhancing speaking appearance.
The key to progress is for men to listen a bit more to women on the question of what true egalitarianism would look like in practice. What are the blind spots that we naturally miss because we’re men? Where do we take our wives, daughters, and female friends, peers and counterparts for granted, and fail to see where they’re missing out on because of their gender? As men, it’s not even our role to answer that question, but we must be committed to creating space for women to do so, and to listening to their possibly uncomfortable answers.
Martin Saunders is a Contributing Editor for Christian Today and the Deputy CEO of Youthscape. Follow him on Twitter @martinsaunders.
