When progressive egalitarian Christians start to talk about how God accommodates us, I’m old school and affirm that God hasn’t accommodated this yet. But if he should, I’ll listen. I’m expecting a major shift in meaning of gender when he returns, but until then my feet are planted in the Word of God and am willing to read it as bent over backwards as I am able. But not in such a way that mutual submission looks the same in both directions between parents and children, or husband and wife.
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I’d say the latter case should look more similar than than the former case. If a husband is truly trying to live up to the standard set in Ephesians 5:25, I can’t imagine there being any real issue.
My wife and I are a team and help one another so much. Being “the head” never comes up and really only would if I thought she was doing something I deemed unsafe. I still view the male as the protector of the family in that regard but the idea of house headship to me is more of an intellectual issue than something practiced regularly.
Someone does have to make a choice if a husband and wife are at an impasse. None of the issues we ever faced in our time together aren’t worth someone not compromising over. We wouldn’t be married if our views were that different!
A silly example. I like long hair, my wife wants short hair (and even a partially shaved head) . I am not going to flex authority and make her sport the Rapunzel look. I am sure some “well meaning” Christian men have done that because they thought short hair was immodest and inappropriate for a woman. She can choose her own hair style. But she knows I don’t like short hair so she gets it cut about shoulder length and has part of the back neck shaved lightly. It’s all about compromise.
I think the headship of men thing is a problem when Christian men use it to control their wives. This has been done ad nauseum throughout history They are our partners, our better halves in most cases, not our trophies.
Vinnie
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Absolutely agree! It’s a very subjective application. Like what does it mean to dress immodestly. Or when does long hair become short.
Another way to look at it, if a wife doesn’t follow her husband’s leading in an area, does he take it personally or give it to the Lord. This is a real tell inwardly.
Hi,
(and @Christy )
It’s not a “recent” redefinition. I wrote a scientific paper in biology (on birds) in 1989 and recall being told by the journal editor always to word things as as “the sex of offspring” and to avoid using the word “gender” which was a social construct. The editor gave almost the exact definitions of sex and gender that Christy gave above. So, it seems distinguishing the terms has been in general use in academia, at least, for quite awhile, probably the public just has used the words interchangeably. often because the word “gender” seems less scandalous than “sex”?
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I suspect there were a few “progressives” in the 1980s trying to make this change — after all, 1989 was later than 1984.
Sure, if you want to label all the publishing biologists since the 1970s as “progressives”, feel free… 
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Science does value precision and clarity in its publications, so that makes sense.
All?
Citation please
I’ll leave it to you to contact the editors of the academic journals if you are really curious.
I have other things to do with my time.
cheers
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As someone who would have blushed at the very idea of mentioning the term “sex” around my parents or siblings or anyone associated with a church for most of my life … this is definitely true for me! Learning about the distinction has been very helpful.
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Remind me where you stand on the idea that the Bible contains ancient cosmology? If you are at least someone open to the idea, why couldn’t it be that other biblical descriptions of the physical world and state of things reflects an ancient understanding?
I’m also curious what you mean by God hasn’t accommodated this yet. Do you mean something like the general consensus amongst theologians isn’t that God accommodated to an ancient perspective of sex or gender? Or do you mean something else by this comment?
It’s a work in progress. Longman was a big help for me in his book Confronting Old Testament Controversies.
Another example, drawing from Longman’s excellent chapter on sexuality, God has not accommodated homosexuality and neither will he. As far as gender roles in marriage, this is something that will obviously change.
In case you’re worried I envisage some grand post-mil theonomy, I completely reject it because reasonable people can disagree about the inerrancy and authority of Scripture.
Ok, I shall not waste time trying to find a citation for your hyperbole.
By asking for a citation you demonstrate that you don’t understand my point. So better yet, why don’t you prove my “hyperbole” wrong! I’d be happy to be enlightened! All you need to do is provide me with a letter from the editor of one prominent peer-reviewed zoological journal stating that it is journal policy to happily allow scientists to use the terms “gender” and “sex” interchangeably as opposed to defining their terms.
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We disagree.
I understand your point; I don’t know why you would make the false claim of “all.” I have a guess as to why you wanted to claim unanimous agreement.
Well, if you don’t want to believe my claim, that’s your prerogative, of course. But for context, lets just say that every biological paper I’ve published in dozens peer-reviewed journals over the years to date (that’s over 140 papers), and every single scientific conference I’ve attended over a span of 30 years has always insisted that the scientific presenters distinguish a proper definition of “sex” vs. “gender” in their work. So are all swans white? Well, after quite a bit of searching in my lifetime experience, my own experience W.R.T. the use of these definitions in a proper scientific context is unanimous. Of course, if you find that proverbial “black swan” journal editor exception out there, please let me know…
I do agree that “lay people” not in the field do frequently interchange terms.
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How is gender used in a zoological journal?
In most of the journals I publish in (those that deal with non-human animals), any reference to “gender” is simply edited out. Because it is assumed we can’t get into the minds of animals and know what their social constructs about “gender” might be (doubtful they even have any…). A few of the journals I publish in–those general journals that deal in “animal behaviour” may also accept papers on humans—I’ve noticed the word “gender” appear in a few of those articles, in the context of social roles etc. But humans are not my main subject of research (I’m all for the birds), so I tend to be rather uninterested in debates over “gender”, personally…
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Thank you. That was my suspicion. The debate is one I’m not really prepared to engage in, and yet ironically, seeing the transgender issue playout in schools has brothered me. And I have been deeply troubled by the fact that we are really talking about taking away parental rights, if parents do not affirm their child’s chosen gender.
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