An Obadiah Slope column
Diary Note: The year 2030 will mark 2,000 years since the traditional date of Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist, which took place in what is now Al-Maghtas, Jordan. And Jordan has started preparations for with the first meeting of their National Committee for the Preparation of the Celebration of the Second Millennium of the Baptism of Jesus Christ last month.
The Jordanian PM, Jafar Hassan August, chaired the meeting and announced plans including a village for Christian pilgrims and visitors, a museum dedicated to the Baptism of Jesus Christ, a green corridor and infrastructure upgrades at the site.
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A complement of argument: There’s a vigorous response to the newish book God’s Yes to Women: Why the Bible’s Vision of Partnership Is Good News for Us All, which argues that all ministry in the church is open to women. Well-known writers such as Ridley’s Michael Bird, and Moore College’s Lionel Windsor have engaged in decorous debate.
But one facet of the discussion has uncovered a fault line that Obadiah dimly suspected existed, but never felt game to report. In a back-and-forth with Windsor, Bird gives some examples of complementarianism, in a non-complimentary way. “In recent months, in the USA, the SBC has moved towards banning women as youth pastors and the PCA has maintained its prohibition of women from the diaconate. I’ve seen Al Mohler declare that a woman discussing church sermons on a podcast is off-limits and Doug Wilson has declared that women should not have voting rights. Mohler and Wilson can find a place in the TGC universe and yet egalitarians like myself are persona non grata. What kind of “Gospel” and what kind of “Coalition” has a place for Mohler and Wilson and yet regards me, egalitarian Mike, as a theological deviant?”
Albert Mohler is the influential President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Douglas Wilson is a conservative pastor who advocates for Christian Nationalism. Mohler successfully moved a motion to ban women from being pastors at a recent Southern Baptist Convention, while Wilson advocates household voting, which would remove the right to vote from women living in the same dwelling as a man. Mohler has written for the US TGC site, and there are many positive citations there of Wilson’s commentary and books.
[To be egalitarian in citation, here’s what Bird responded to: Windsor part one and part two.]
Bird asks, “But what I want to know is: where’s the TGC-A critique of the people who take that text in a more patriarchal direction?” For Obadiah’s poor reader, here’s a decode: TGC-A means the Gospel Coalition Australia website, which emanates from the US Gospel Coalition software hosting.
Murray Campbell’s Substack records the response of Dani Treweek: “As someone who has written two of the critiques of God’s Yes to Women….Hi!
“Granted, I haven’t approached TGC-A about publishing any of my (many) such critiques (because the patriarchal push is prevalent in US evangelicalism and not so much here in Australia, largely because of the long history of intentional ministry partnership between men and women down here), but maybe I will in the future.
“In the meantime, here are a sample of TGC-A articles from recent years by other authors who contend that authentic complementarianism will be gracious, generous and intentionally inclusive of women’s recruitment, training, equipping and contributions at many levels (ie. that it will NOT be patriarchal):
Murray Campbell – au.thegospelcoalition.o…
Veronica Hoyt: au.thegospelcoalition.o…
Jasmine Fisher – au.thegospelcoalition.o…
au.thegospelcoalition.o…
Sarah Balogh – au.thegospelcoalition.o…
Rory Shiner & Sara Kuswadi – au.thegospelcoalition.o…=
Jane Tooher & Graham Beynon – au.thegospelcoalition.o… “
Which is an argument, it seems to Obadiah, that Aussie TGC is different to US TGC. Obadiah is pleased to see his instinct in this instance was correct.
But in sheltering under the very large US TGC tree, is it any wonder readers have problems in not ascribing what is said in one of them to the other?
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British Christian publisher takes over US imprint: having swallowed the UK version of IVF and other publishers in their home turf, SPCK (the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge ) has announced acquired Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, a major Christian publisher in the US.
The combined group will have a combined backlist of 5,000 titles.
Obadiah thinks it is good to see someone taking on Rupert Murdoch who has an outsize hold over Christian publishing and owns Zondervan and Thomas Nelson.
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Which headline: When The Other Cheek reported on the impressive turnaround in Sydney Anglican church attendance, which now exceeds pre-covid numbers, Obadiah went for a modest heading “Sydney Anglican numbers have bounced back from Covid, now they face the challenge to grow.“
The Pastor’s Heart Podcast went for “20% attendance growth in three years – Craig Roberts“
Both are (kind of) accurate. But having been accused of clickbait, Obadiah is relieved to be – in this instance – The Sydney Morning Herald rather than the Daily Telegraph. Or ABC News Radio, rather than 2GB. Readers can add in their local masthead references.
Sydney Anglican numbers have bounced back from Covid, now they face the challenge to grow
Sydney Anglican numbers have bounced back from Covid, now they face the challenge to grow