A fully human, rational, and moral perspective will draw men and women more closely together in the common enterprise of finding and articulating the human voice rather than driving them into respective corners and the contentious stance of adversaries.

We make a mistake when we exaggerate the differences between the sexes, resorting to rhetoric increasingly polarizing and divisive, tendentious and demeaning.

Personally, I was disappointed that theophile didn't spell out the obviously sinister implications of the number 19 in the 19th amendment's passage in 1919. Oh, wait, it passed in 1920?! Never mind, it was submitted in 1919. So is it the number of "overthrow"? What does it MEAN? ;) I am a charismatic and even adhere to some of the charismatic hermeneutics less frequently embraced by evangelicals. But, wow. Thanks for the article, I heartily agree.

Thanks for the comments, or at least most of the comments. A few of the replies really do seem objectionably anti-women, which I find a bit appalling. That anyone would accuse this piece of being rabidly and problematically feminist when it in fact rejected gender stereotypes rather than embacing them and pointed out the lack of empirical justification to think that women apprehended ethics better than men is dumbfounding to me. It makes me think that some folks read half the article before launching a diatribe; not exactly the sort of thing Christians need to do to show their judiciousness, perspicacity, and intellectual honesty. At any rate, to most of you, thanks!

I wondered when the "we hate women" comments were going to start.

It is travesty that this magazine masquerades as "Christian" is nothing but a cloke for a magazine set on a feminist agenda. It is dispicable.

And yet, women rationalize endlessly about why maternal bias in custody decisions is best, despite the fact that the majority of children killed every year in the US are killed by their mothers, not their fathers, and fatherlessness puts children at risk for a host of problems. Female child molestation of young boys seems to be a source of amusement, ignoring the very real damage such predatory behavior inflicts on boys - no comment from the women's gallery. Despite boys committing suicide at 5 times the rate of girls and suffering a host of academic problems, women's groups continue to pretend there is nothing wrong with more entitlements for female students in an increasingly zero-sum environment. During one of the greatest financial crises of this century, Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy after a host of highly risky transactions which is could not recover from. During that time, the Chief Risk Officer, Madelyn Antoncic and the CFO, Erin Callan, were both female - facts not ever mentioned in the sexist blamefest that women engage in looking for fault for the financial crisis. There are many other issues which highlight the coldbloodedness of females in the US - how come these are never addressed, and the "debate" is a data-free recitation of men's shortfalls with implicit praise for the women they are being compared to.

I like your perspective very much. "Men are from Earth. Women are from Earth. Deal with it." Absolutely! Our common humanity is far more important than our differences, whatever they may actually be, and a "whole marriage" that reconciles the sexes in faithfulness and love is one of God's most beautiful creations. I guess (b/c of the title) I was hoping to hear more about your marriage... but that's OK, I know writers on here don't pick their own titles. The question kind of interested me though, because I feel that my marriage has been very enlightening for me. Sometimes in the early days it felt like a cross-cultural encounter, each of us telling the secrets of our tribe... I remember explaining to him that there's a feminine tradition whereby if I've spent some time listening to your troubles, I get to take a turn, should I feel the need, and tell you mine. He didn't seem familiar with that particular ritual! I'm not saying this to confirm stereotypes. I wasn't quite being tongue-in-cheek about cultural rituals: I think a great deal of it is cultural. Although I do think there are a few natural differences, or tendencies... one I was remembering tonight: I found in my husband a profound, sincere longing to protect (me, or whoever he loved), that was deeper than any such longing I was familiar with in myself. (Though, I don't yet have children.) Now *there's* a stereotype that could help boys rather than hinder them. Not that I really feel we should categorize at all, but if a person's going to, I'd say that a description that praises, or offers an ideal to strive for, would be a lot more helpful Oh and BTW, Theophile, I wonder if you realize how unrelated to the article your comment sounds... do you usually do this? If you're only interested in having somewhere to post your own, original thoughts, there are several good sites like Blogger and Wordpress where you can set up a blog for free.

I (a male) have been in the secular business world for more than 30 years, in some very competitive industries. In all that time I've not found anything to support the stereotypes that men are more aggressive/unethical and women more caring/ethical, etc. Instead, my conclusion has been that ethics and competency (or the lack thereof) are equal opportunity "employers." I've had great managers and incompetent/unethical managers, and gender doesn't tell you anything about which attributes a person will possess.

Ha, Jane, I have the same questions! Back in college I once had a crush on a young woman and we were hanging out one time when she let out a really good belch. Stuck in my stereotyped thinking, I said something that I thought would save her from embarassment but she just laughed. "Yeah, I burp, I fart, I do all kinds of things!" she said. My crush, thought never reciprocated, might have deepened at that point.