http://www.christianegalitarians.org/archives/10 Evangelicals for Gender Equality Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:33:23 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=1.5.1.3 http://www.christianegalitarians.org/archives/10#comment-4 Wed, 24 Aug 2005 05:50:00 +0000 http://www.christianegalitarians.org/archives/10#comment-4 I'd like to add that I think churches need to pay a whole lot more attention to scientific studies of marriages and what makes them tick: what elements are important and work toward marital success, and what behaviors are stumbling blocks. Thanks to Dennis J. Preato, MDiv, for his insight into this in his article <A HREF="http://www.godswordtowomen.org/studies/articles/Preato3.htm" REL="nofollow">Empirical Data in Support of Egalitarian Marriages and a Fresh Perspective on Submission and Authority</A>. In it, he examines the results from several marriage and family therapy studies, e.g., from the Department of Pastoral Psychology and Counseling at the Claremont School of Theology, from the Department of Sociology at Penn State, from the Department of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota, from the School of Social Work and the Center for Family and Community Ministries at Baylor University, and from the Department of Sociology at the University of Washington. Basically, study after study show that equality in a marriage is good for the marriage, and that there are many times the amount of spouse abuse in traditional marriages than exist in egalitarian ones.<BR/><BR/>I think we need a lot more clarifying sociological studies like these; it certainly is a ripe area for further study. If modeling hierarchical behaviors in church oversight structures is bad for the body of Christ and bad for the marriage relationships within it, then we need to have the studies to prove it. I’d like to add that I think churches need to pay a whole lot more attention to scientific studies of marriages and what makes them tick: what elements are important and work toward marital success, and what behaviors are stumbling blocks. Thanks to Dennis J. Preato, MDiv, for his insight into this in his article Empirical Data in Support of Egalitarian Marriages and a Fresh Perspective on Submission and Authority. In it, he examines the results from several marriage and family therapy studies, e.g., from the Department of Pastoral Psychology and Counseling at the Claremont School of Theology, from the Department of Sociology at Penn State, from the Department of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota, from the School of Social Work and the Center for Family and Community Ministries at Baylor University, and from the Department of Sociology at the University of Washington. Basically, study after study show that equality in a marriage is good for the marriage, and that there are many times the amount of spouse abuse in traditional marriages than exist in egalitarian ones.

I think we need a lot more clarifying sociological studies like these; it certainly is a ripe area for further study. If modeling hierarchical behaviors in church oversight structures is bad for the body of Christ and bad for the marriage relationships within it, then we need to have the studies to prove it.

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