Evangelicals: A Woman as President?

Lately some folks have been talking about how contemporary evangelicals view women in political leadership. While evangelicals find common ground on views of biblical inerrancy, they hold a wide range of views about how to interpret the Bible. Nowhere is this more true than on "the woman question." Traditionalists are in the minority, but they receive the most press. Unaware of the Church’s involvement in proto-feminism and first-wave feminism, they say that discussions about women in leadership originated with the Modern Women’s Movement and the church’s capitulation to culture. They would argue that a woman leading in church, home, or society goes against a created order of male preeminence. For them a woman as president is a big n-o. Next on the spectrum are “complementarians.” They see men and women as having complementary roles that are equal but different. Complementarians hold to a male-leadership model in the church, pointing to male pronouns in the New Testament that generally occur in connection with the word “elder.” But when it comes to general society, a typical complementarian might point to Queen Esther or to Deborah as examples of women who led with God’s blessing in secular settings. Think Maggie Thatcher.At the other end of the spectrum among evangelicals are those who self-label as “egalitarians.” Egalitarians do not believe in gender hierarchy of any kind. Most would see the apostle Paul as establishing a foundational philosophy of race, class, and gender equality that includes role and function (see Gal. 3:23). In terms of evangelicals’ views of marriage, the traditionalist sees the husband as the final authority. Complementarians see the husband as “head,” but views vary about what that “headship” means. Most would say that husband/wife decisions should be made mutually unless the couple reaches an impasse—in which case, the husband considers his wife’s input, but he has the final say. Others believe that the goal is oneness, so if the couple reaches an impasse, they should communicate more, pray, and wait until they can reach a mutual decision Egalitarians see the language of marital “submission” as being mutual to both husband and wife (Eph. 5:21), not just the wife to the husband. They emphasize that the husband is commanded not to lead his wife, but to love her. And the word for “love” is the Greek word connected with sacrifice and service. For an egalitarian, marital submission is synonymous with mutual submission. Depending on where Michelle Bachmann lands, her view of how a wife functions under (or not) her husband's authority could affect how she would operate as president.