Christians saying women should always be submissive to male leaders

Last updated 9/16/2024

Christian misogyny and sexism

Note that because much of Christian theology is deeply cissexist, womanhood is often equated with body parts.

1. Gender roles are frequently emphasized in conservative churches, as is male headship and wifely submission. Some Christians who push this also have the audacity to claim a culture of making women submit to men is good for women rather than making them vulnerable to abusive men.

Uncritical examples

The Danvers Statement | Council For Biblical Manhood and Womanhood

Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive

Does a wife have to submit to her husband? | Air Voice's Blog (October 2016)

Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive

Submitting to Your Husband: The Basics | Becoming His Crown (July 2016)

Archived on Wayback Machine

Kirk Cameron: God's Word Instructs Wives to Respect, Follow Their Husband's Lead by Samuel Smith | The Christian Post (April 2016)

Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive

10 Rules of Sex For Wives | Biblical Sexology (May 2021)

Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive

Submission | The Marriage Bed (There are two versions of this, and the second one is even worse)

First post on Wayback Machine by Lori Byerly (earliest archive is from November 2005)

Second post by Scott Means; archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive (earliest archive is from August 2020)

Lionhearted and Lamblike: What Does It Mean to Lead? Part 2 by John Piper | Desiring God (March 2007)

Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive

The Future of Masculinity by Greg Morse | Desiring God (December 2020)

Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive

A Feminized Faith by P. Andrew Sandlin | Chalecon Foundation (February 1998)

Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive

Commentary

'Submit to your husbands': Women told to endure domestic violence in the name of God by Julia Baird with Hayley Gleeson | ABC News (July 2017)

Cognitive dissonance and complementarianism | Are Women Human? (November 2010)

New Patriarch, Same Patriarchy: Despite Glowing Praise For New SBC President, There's Just One Problem by Caroline Matas | Religion Dispatches (June 2021)

About that ”not degrading” submission thing . . . | Are Women Human? (September 2010)

Some Humans Are More Equal Than Others: Joshua Harris on Male Authority and Female Submission | Sarah Over The Moon (January 2013)

Now that I'm engaged, I'm all like ”hell no” on the whole ”wifely submission” thing | Tell me why the world is weird (May 2016)

2. Some New Testament passages are often brought up to deny women roles in church leadership. To this day, there are Christians who believe letting women teach or lead men is ungodly./p>

Uncritical examples

Ordain a Lady?? | The Museum Of Idolatry (January 2013)

Archived on Wayback Machine

Complementarianism as a Second Order Doctrine | Denny Burk (January 2022)

Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive

On the question of women's ordination... | fatherangel (December 2015)

Archived on Wayback Machine

Follow up to the issue of women's ordination... | fatherangel (December 2015)

Archived on Wayback Machine

Divine Order In A Chaotic Age: On Women Preaching by Owen Strachan | Thought Life (May 2019)

Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive

Why the SBC Should Say ”No More” to Beth Moore by Josh Buice | Delivered By Grace (May 2019)

Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive

How To Turn Complementarians into Egalitarians | Denny Burk (May 2021)

Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive

Women Pastors, Women Preachers, and the Looming Test of the Southern Baptist Convention | Albert Mohler (May 2021)

Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive

Chuck Kelley, Richard Land, and I offer this statement about the Baptist Faith & Message in hope it will be both clarifying and helpful to Southern Baptists. by Albert Mohler | Twitter (July 2022)

Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive

Why Ministers Must Be Men | Blog & Mablog (September 2015)

Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive

Women Pastors by Fritz Chery | Bible Reasons (May 2023)

Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive

A Feminized Faith by P. Andrew Sandlin | Chalecon Foundation (February 1998)

Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive

The Feminization (And Decline) Of Religion by Rod Dreher | The American Conservative (April 2018)

Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive

Commentary

What early Christians knew that modern Christians don't: Women make great leaders by Gracy Olmstead | The Washington Post (May 2018)

Accusing SBC of 'caving,' John MacArthur says of Beth Moore: 'Go home' by Bob Smietana | Religion News Service (October 2019)

You're right, Al Mohler, a downpour is coming by Beth Allison Barr | Religion Dispatches (May 2021)

The Feminist Reformation, Episcopal Style by Virginia Ramey Mollenkott | Christian Feminism Today (published in 2014)

Rick Warren, BFM2K Article 6, Women In Ministry, And The Future Of The Southern Baptist Convention | Wm. Dwight McKissic, Sr. (July 2022)

Correction: The SBC Does NOT Oppose Women's Ordination... Just Women Pastors by Caroline Matas | Religion Dispatches (March 2023)

More about Christians wanting women to always be submissive

The Blasphemy of Complementarian Dogma | Revolutionary Faith (May 2018)

Complementarianism is a scam. | Sarah Over The Moon (November 2013)

Biblical Inerrancy's Long History as an Evangelical Activist for White Patriarchy by Stephen Young | Religion Dispatches (February 2022)

The Daughters' Great Escape by Sarah Stankorb | Marie Claire (June 2018)

You Are Not Your Own: Benevolent Sexism as the Solution to Hostile Sexism | Sarah Over The Moon (June 2013)

Elisabeth Elliot, Flawed Queen of Purity Culture, and Her Disturbing Third Marriage by Liz Charlotte Grant | The Revealer (February 2024)

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