The patriarchical subjugation of women is an evil that needs repenting of in all its forms

The simple core approach to life that sustains my activism and theology is the embrace of an incarnational hermeneutic. Or put it another way, my faith in and commitment to the gospel Jesus is the deep source of my relationship with the divine, the human and the cosmos. Those of you familiar with my work will know that I find this to have a decisively political outworking which I and a whole network of thinkers and activists with whom I collaborate configure as a politics of love or kenarchy. We express this in terms of seven foci, the first of which is the instatement of women. Given that the nature of divinity and humanity seen in this way is an all embracing life-laying down cruciform gift of love, its outworking is decisively positive and others-affirming, even and particularly enemy-loving! For this reason I have hesitated to assess theological and cultural opionions and traditions different to mine as wicked or evil or in need of repudiation or repentance. But theology and knowledge are progressive and eventually there are boundaries which love must draw.

So, I believe that it’s time to say that beliefs, mindsets and practices which oppress, subjugate or displace women in preference to or domination by men are unequivocally wrong, whatever their source in religion, ideology or culture. They are contrary both to the divine nature and to humanity in the image of God. As such they are an evil that needs repenting of, or put in Christian terms are unequivocally sinful. It is my considered view that they can no longer be excused and any arguments from biblical and other religious texts and writings that purport to substantiate such oppressions of women are in so doing exposed as misapplied and misguided. I’m aware that for many of us this has all been obvious for a long time, but I have been shocked in recent years that men across a wide spectrum of church, work place, politics, economics, culture, and religion have continued to excuse, espouse, and practice forms of patriarchal entitlement. It’s time to stop and draw the line. Those who subjugate women to men are guilty of an evil that needs repenting of. They are enemies of love and overall wellbeing. Enemies of course need to be loved, but that does not mean that they can be justified or supported in their beliefs and practices.