Get to Know Young Complementarian Leaders: Andrew Walker

From Executive Director Owen Strachan: As CBMW is seeking support for our $30,000 matching campaign, we thought we would take this opportunity to introduce our readership to some evangelical leaders who support complementarianism and CBMW. Today, we interview Andrew Walker, a policy analyst with the Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC and an up-and-coming evangelical voice in the public square. Thanks for reading, and please join us in our campaign!

Andrew T. Walker is a policy analyst in The Heritage Foundation’s DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society. A native of Jacksonville, Illinois, Walker graduated summa cum laude from Southwest Baptist University with a bachelor’s degree in religion. In 2010, he earned a Master of Divinity degree in theology from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and is pursuing a Master of Theology degree in ethics there. Walker currently resides with his wife and daughter in Virginia. Follow him on Twitter: @AndrewWalkerDC.

1. When did you become a complementarian, and what did that look like? 

First, biblically, I’ve always seen a complementarian “arc” in Scripture in particular, and the world, in general. One of my favorite quotes is from Doug Wilson who brilliantly noted that “Men don’t carry things because they happen to have broad shoulders. They have broad shoulders because God created them to carry things.” That’s my theology of complementarianism in two sentences. Right now, my work on marriage has re-affirmed that complementarity lies at the heart of our existence. In marriage, the two halves of humanity unite; and this unity only comes from a metaphysical distinctiveness, rooted in creation.

2. What role, if any, has CBMW played in your life and ministry?

I’m particularly indebted to the exegetical work that scholars affiliated with CBMW put out. Though I want to be respectful in saying this, much of the push for egalitarianism is rooted in prior assumptions that the text can’t actually mean what the text says, so individuals and movements impose external lenses or grids on Scripture. We can call this theological accommodation; I also call it wrong and misleading. Secondly, the men affiliated with CBMW are men that lead, provide, and care for their families. The buck stops with them as serious fathers and husbands. This isn’t a call for Eisenhower Era Puritanism, but a demonstrable reality that homes where men are involved in the lives of their spouse and children are far more likely, from a public policy perspective, to produce children that flourish.

3. Why do you support CBMW, and encourage others to do the same?

CBMW is on the front edge of the Sexual Revolution. By that, they’re revolting against the sexual status quo that enables men to be immature, sexual predators. CBMW calls for men to be responsible, active, sacrificial, present fathers–this runs counter to the cultural narrative expected of men today. I want to play on the team that sees not just Christian families thrive, but all families thrive by calling our men to something higher than an XBOX addiction.

4. What have you written of late that would be of interest to CBMW readers? 

I have a feature essay in the summer issue of The City titled  “A Defense of Christian Partisanship.” In it, I argue that accusations of partisanship made against religious conservatives reveal a shallow and artificial understanding of the Christian political-ethical task. I then argue what a properly-ordered Christian “partisanship” is and looks like. Secondly, Ryan Anderson and I have the June/July feature story for Focus on the Family’s The Citizen titled “Refusing to Stay Silent: The Millennial Case for Marriage.” Our goal is to encourage Millennials to think through the importance of marriage and why it’s worth defending as the union of one man and one woman.

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If you want to support CBMW’s $30,000 “GO BIG” matching campaign, we’d love to partner with you. Thanks for reading!