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CBE is just a phase. I've heard it said that the egalitarian stance is just another fad in church history. But while CBE is relatively new (growing in influence since its incorporation in 1988), functional egalitarians, such as deaconess Phoebe (Romans 16:1), Priscilla who taught Apollos "the way of God" (Acts 18:26), Corrie Ten Boom and Salvation Army cofounder Catherine Booth, to name a few, have always been admired for doing the work of the Lord. As the Dallas conference speaker Robin L. Smith has said, the equality of men and women is at the heart of the ongoing work of Christian reconciliation (Gal. 3:26-28). And that's never going away.

One must be a liberal to be an egalitarian. . Most of the people attending the conference were evangelicals with high regard for the Scriptures. They wouldn't be egalitarians if they didn't believe that the Bible, if "properly interpreted," espoused their view. CBE's site offers biblical interpretations of the "problem" complementarian passages, as well as the egalitarian verses.

Egalitarians affirm homosexuality. This statement is a cheap shot fired by the complementarian Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. A news release on its Web site attacks CBE by saying that "no significant middle ground exists"—"one must be in a denomination that affirms the biblical, complementarian view, or one must be in a denomination that makes concessions with homosexuality." This unfair rhetoric runs counter not just to what I saw at the conference, but also to CBE's history. Some CBE founders and its prominent members withdrew membership from the Evangelical Women's Caucus International (EWCI) and decided to form CBE after EWCI presented a resolution recognizing "the presence of the Lesbian minority" in EWCI. "We are accused by more liberal groups of being homophobic," one of CBE's founders, Alvera Mickelsen, told me recently. "You can't win."

Any group wishing to disagree with CBE in a productive, respectful manner (as I'm sure CBMW does), would do well to scrupulously search its polemic for false assumptions and weed them out. Reliance on truth does tend to strenghten any argument.

I'll take my own advice as I report on myths about CBMW that need dispelling after I attend their conference in September. You can hold me to it.

Agnieszka Tennant is assistant editor of Christianity Today.

Copyright © 2001 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, offering a different view, also has a Web site.

Earlier Christianity Today articles on gender roles include:

The Next Christian Men's Movement | Just because Promise Keepers no longer fills stadiums doesn't mean men's ministry is dead. Far from it. (Sept. 15, 2000)

What Has Gender Got to Do with It? | Wesleyan-Holiness churches were led by women long before the rise of the modern women's movement. (Sept. 12, 2000)

A Woman's Place | Women reaching women is key to the future of missions. (Aug. 4, 2000)

Integrating Mars and Venus | Gender-based ministries may be effective, but are they biblical? (July 12, 1999)

Finding Power in Submission | Two feminist scholars write about women you'll recognize. (Apr. 27,1998)

Will Episcopalians Step into the 'Radical Center'? | Homosexual ordination discussed, women's ordination mandated. (Sept. 1, 1997)

Presbyterian Groups Sever CRC Ties | Women's ordination splits two denominations. (Aug. 11, 1997)

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July (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45