A Matter of Integrity
Jeanette Randolph Rollins
October 1, 1995
Few subjects in contemporary Western academy, culture, and church pack the explosive potential of issues of maleness and femaleness. One false step can damage, if not derail, career and credibility. This can be as true in conservative Christian culture as in mainline denominational structures: from the Southern Baptist Convention to the Episcopal Church. No wonder many of us studiously avoid the issues and keep our thoughts to ourselves.
Consequently, in many contexts graceful conversation has simply ground to a halt. The loudest voices and most effective lobbyists win-or seem to. Some who find themselves thus muted mm to other traditions; others hunker down into ghettos within their denominations or traditions, reassured in their isolation by the mutual exchange of knowing glances.
Two incompatible assumptions complicate discussions of gender, sexuality, and social roles of men and women. One set of debates assumes that maleness and femaleness matter to God and are essential to human being. That is, as one preacher puts it, matter matters. From this premise spring issues of how maleness and femaleness matter to God and should affect human life. The Promise Keepers movement, which Rudy Carrasco takes up in this issue, begins with this assumption in addressing the question of what it means to be "godly men" in our time. Elizabeth Fox-Genovese challenges Christians to consider ways of viewing women's vocations that honor the integrity and consequences of women's created nature, particularly their ability to bear children.
The conflicting assumption, spawning another constellation of debates, is that matter doesn't matter. Maleness and femaleness are thus incidental rather than essential to human personhood. Dale O'Leary critiques ...
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