Gender issues at the heart of culture war, Mohler tells ETS dinner attendees

The issue of gender sits at the epicenter of the postmodern tremor that is shaking contemporary culture, R. Albert Mohler Jr. told attendees of the second annual Evangelical Theological Society Authors Dinner held Nov. 17 and sponsored by the Council on B

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – The issue of gender sits at the epicenter of the postmodern tremor that is shaking contemporary culture, R. Albert Mohler Jr. told attendees of the second annual Evangelical Theological Society Authors Dinner held Nov. 17 and sponsored by the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW).

Mohler, a CBMW council member and president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said Postmodernism has bequeathed to our culture wholesale redefinitions of marriage and family as well as the very idea of gender itself.

“The issue of gender, in my estimation, is at the very center of the target of our secular age and postmodern world,” Mohler said. “It is also at the very center of the target of where we see theological accommodation is taking us, not only in the body of divinity, but also in the complex of the comprehensive truthfulness of God’s Word. What we are looking at here is an assault upon God’s glory.”

Mohler said that such confusion makes the ministry of groups such as CBMW all the more important. In the wake of the recent presidential election, Mohler pointed out that one pundit attributed George W. Bush’s reelection to the fact that he was able to articulate issues in terms of “binaries” such as good and evil, conservative and liberal, darkness and light.

Mohler said CBMW and its complementarian authors and teachers have crystallized the gender debate in the same way, Mohler said.

“That is exactly what CBMW forces because that is exactly what the biblical text requires,” Mohler said. “That is, there are some wonderfully demonstrated binaries in Scripture and in creation by a Sovereign Creator’s decree and design…to His own glory. There are people who just don’t want to live in a binary world.”

Numerous publishers, media leaders, scholars, and students who articulate and advance the biblical view of gender were among the 63 persons who attended the dinner. Mohler praised them for having the courage to “put much on the line” in uncompromisingly proclaiming biblical teaching on gender.

He also challenged attendees, telling them that new gender issues presented by transgender ideologies and gender-inclusive biblical translations require continued labors in research, writing and publishing.

“We need ongoing scholarship to address the issues that are being presented to the church right now,” Mohler said.

“I want to suggest to you that one of the most acute pastoral and theological issues facing the church in the next generation is going to be the transgender crisis…This issue of gender is no longer just a matter of male headship in marriage and the church or who is ordained to the ministry. It has gone well beyond that … and we must be prepared to meet the challenges for the glory of God.”

Alicia Wong, Women’s Studies Coordinator at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, said she was pleased to see a high number of female scholars, teachers and students attending the CBMW event. The dinner was held in conjunction with the 56^th Annual Meeting of ETS.

“The dinner was a great forum for us to get to know one another and to support CBMW,” Wong said. “It was also encouraging to see the rise in [the number of] women who were attending and are supporting.

“I think that we need publish on these issues and we need to encourage one another [to do so] because our (the complementarian) voice will speak the loudest when it comes from women to women.”

Monica Rose, Womens Studies Coordinator at Liberty University, said Mohler’s address spurred her on to further research and writing on gender issues from a complementarian woman’s point of view.

“What really spoke to me in Dr. Mohler’s address was the spirit of obligation,” Rose said.

“As he was talking I was really compelled to spend a lot of time writing and doing research that needs to be done. It was compelling in that sense and also encouraging to meet other complementarians. I praise the Lord for CBMW and the work it is doing in serving as an advocate for the biblical point of view on gender issues.”