Equally Created

The Danvers Statement states that “both Adam and Eve were created in God’s image, equal before God as persons and and distinct in their manhood and womanhood.” Note that this heirarchical/complementarian basic statement of belief does not say that men and women were equally created in the image of God, but are only equal in the area of personhood. What’s missing is the woman’s authority, and without that, there is no equality — a full side-by-side authoritative equality which is more than evident in Genesis 1:27: “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” What’s more authoritative than the very image of God?

Actually, “personhood” without the possibility of having any type of authority that other persons have is certainly a warped, shriveled, offensive sort of personhood. Then pile on top of that man-made rules that create the restrictions on elements of the physical body like skin color or the shape of genitals, and you’ll have quite the growing horror. But as if that weren’t enough, theologians come along and blame this shriveled personhood on God. A God who in Christ seeks freedom for all who believe and a full expression of the spiritual gifts He bestows, is hardly a God who could agree with such horrors. Such a shrunken view of personhood strikes at the very core nature of what it means to be a woman, and surely Christians everywhere should join those who object to it.