Patti,

Thanks for visiting!  And thank you for your kind words.

I’m sorry to hear of the torment your daughter had to face at the hands of this kind of mysticism.  Really, it is a terrible shame, and thank you, yes, I will do everything I can to protect my own girls from this kind of subjective teaching.  Though they are only very young, I have already started to introduce the idea that “not all Christian’s think this way or that”.  I have made it clear that they are equally human in all respects in the eyes of God, that they are free to pursue whatever likes or interests or fields of study they choose, up to and including ministry; and that God’s intention for ALL humans is that they “have life more abundantly”.

Now, that abundant life can never occur within the confines of someone’s subjective idea of what constitutes a proper “role”.  Hence, the inherent oppression and exploitation of “complementarianism”.  People were not created nor meant nor designed to fill abstract “laws” or “roles”, and that is why the fall was so egregious.  People were designed to be fully THEMSELVES; not to redefine themselves according to what amounts to purely theoretical “standards”.  Christ is truly “good news” precisely because He set people free from the bondage of absolute ideas (like “roles”) that are mutually exclusive to THEIR INDIVIDUAL reality.

This has been a difficult idea for me to get across; mostly people think I’m a heretic or that I’m for moral relativism.  Even people who share my disgust and disdain for Calvinism do not yet likewise confirm this point; and unfortunately, some of the best I know still concede that the root of man’s metaphysical truth is found somewhere outside of himself; that is, is wholly exclusive to man, which is an impossible contradiction.

Anyway, I may be a heretic (I CRAVE being a heretic in the eyes of Calvinist’s…for their gospel is truly false), but I am no moral relativist.  I merely submit that morality is not EXTERNAL to the INDIVIDUAL.  That is, it is not some sort of external abstraction, which is nothing more than the Law we were freed from by Christ.

My point is that morality is always and inexorably bound in the fullness of the INDIVIDUAL human; meaning that violations of human freedom to own their bodies, minds, and property is THE crux of morality (or IMmorality, as it were).  LIFE is God’s purpose; and all the “Law” can do, or other theoretical absolutes, is enslave man to a wholly mutually exclusive reality, which will always lead to human destruction.  People are free to be who they are and do what they do without fear of condemnation from God as long as they do not violate the life of another or God or even their OWN body (why Paul commands us not to seek the company of prostitutes…it is a violation of our own self; which is as great a sin as a violation of another).  Again, like God, man’s perfect morality was “himself” as a direct descendant of God; and he violated this when he sold his birthright for a false moral standard of “good and evil” which he could never, ever keep because it was utterly theoretical; exclusive to his own physical reality.

This is not easy to explain, but the point is that NO human is bound to follow a law which is external to THEIR OWN WILL; because there can be no separation between a human and their will; they are wholly, categorically, and inexorably bound; and any violation of man’s will is a violation of man’s SELF, and this makes God a hypocrite…which He is not, which is why determinism in ANY form is a lie…man can NEVER be determined apart from himself, not even in “election” or “predestination”; if man’s will is not considered in ALL that makes up his life, then man HIMSELF cannot exist.  There is NO condemnation for being who one is and who one choose to be, again as long as this does not violate the same “right” to life as another person.

There are no “roles” for people any more.  There is no moral “standard” outside of perfection in Christ that people who accept Christ must conform to (justified apart from the Law).  There is no abstract construct which defines them.  People are defined by themselves.  Not the the cultures or historical contexts to which the HUMAN authors of scripture belonged, not the “sound doctrine” of the neo-Cals or anyone else for that matter, no political affiliation, not age, not color or race or sex, or what they like to wear or eat or how they color their hair..but THEY are GOOD.  Period.

Any other message always leads to exploitation and tyranny.  It is the tyranny of absolutes (and this is why I’m currently railing against the implicit idea of “collective” found in the neo-reformed ideology of the “local” church; this is nothing but Marxism with a spiritual costume).  We would do best to realize that all reality and morality is driven by what is actually REAL.  And what is real is HUMANITY.