Lipstick on a pig: when you take something stinky, gross, even harmful, and try to repackage it as beautiful, desirable, and helpful. That’s complementarianianism — the religious belief that women were created to be ruled over, to fulfill only certain roles, and made inherently less than the men, who have a god-given right to be their mini-lords. Gender roles contribute to emotional abuse in the home and church. The underlying belief system is anything but biblical. It’s ugly, and the root of incalculable harm in many women’s lives. Lipstick on a pig…and we’re calling it out.

In this episode we talk about:

The origins of our modern day church perspective on gender roles How egalitarianism is NOT a rejection of the Christian faith or gender differences How that perspective contributes to emotional and spiritual abuse in churches/Christian homes What you can do about it

This episode stems as an answer to a listener question:

“I am confused about the difference between egalitarian vs complementarian theories. I have always believed that God created men and women differently and that we have different roles we should play in marriage and the church, but I believe that the power over structure that I have always believed in greatly contributed to the emotional abuse I suffered in both my marriages.”