Tried With Fire

One of the questions that comes up regarding ethnicity/race is "Aren't we supposed to be colorblind?" I think the  following exposition of Galatians 3:28 by Michelle Lee-Barnewall may help answer that question. This passage focuses on the complementarian vs. egalitarian debate, but gender isn't the only distinction the Apostle Paul mentions. [W]hile Jesus's treatment of women was indeed groundbreaking, the notion of "equality" may not be the most accurate lens through which to try to understand the importance of his actions... Instead it may be more important to understand the issue according to the idea of "inclusion." 1 In this new community, distinctions are not eliminated as much as they have become irrelevant for determining who can be "in Christ" because now believers are children of God through faith rather than the law. 2 The three pairings in Gal. 3:28, which also include male and female and slave and free, represente...

The following quote is by Alan Jon Hauser - Genesis 2-3: The Theme of Intimacy and Alienation .  Michelle Lee-Barnewell refers to Dr. Hauser's paper in Neither Complementarian Nor Egalitarian in the section where she proposes that unity is the primary theme of Adam and Eve's relationship in Genesis 2 rather than authority/submission or even equality. 1 As I read Dr. Lee-Barnewell's argument and then Dr. Hauser's analysis, I think they have both honed in on something that has been missing from the gender debate. (I would add that Lee-Barnewell's position does not necessarily negate male elders nor any application of Ephesians 5.) If unity/oneness is indeed the hallmark of Adam and Eve's pre-fall state, then sin brought in alienation between men and women and between mankind and God. In Hauser's examination of the text, he notes that the Hebrew verb tenses are plural even when the serpent is addressing Eve, thus emphasizing the oneness of Adam and Eve. But ...