“mutual submission” within the Trinity. They deny that there are any
gender-based role differences in marriage.^54 Within marriage, an egal-
itarian view tends toward abolishing differences and advocates
“mutual submission,” which often results in the husband acting as a
“wimp” and the wife as a “usurper.” Because there is a deep-seated
opposition to most authority, the drive toward “sameness” will often
result in children being raised with too little discipline and too little
respect for authority. Within the family, there will be a tendency
toward sharing all responsibilities equally between husband and wife,
or to dividing responsibilities according to gifts and interests, not
according to roles as specified by Scripture. Within the realm of
human sexuality, tendencies to deny the differences between men and
women will often result in men becoming unmasculine and unattrac-
tive to women and women becoming unfeminine and unattractive to
men. There will often be ambivalence toward sex.
The chart goes on to show how, within the realm of religion, the
egalitarian view tends toward removing or denying many differences
between men and women, and supports the idea that no governing or
teaching roles within the church should be reserved for men. Within
sports, this view would tend to be opposed to competition and think
of it as evil rather than good. With respect to crime, the criminal would
be seen as a victim to be helped and not punished, and punishment
would be long delayed. As far as private property is concerned, because
there are tendencies to abolish differences, no one would be allowed
to be very rich, and there would be large-scale dependence on the wel-
fare state and on government. Within education, there would be sys-
tematic pressure to make boys and girls participate equally and do
equally well in all subjects and all activities, forcibly attempting to
eradicate any patterns of natural preferences and aptitudes for some
kinds of activities by boys and some kinds by girls. All of this would
tend toward a denial of differences between men and women.
The Far Right Column: No Equality.But there are opposite errors as
well. The opponent on the far right side of the chart is “No Equality,”
and the dominant idea from this perspective is that there is no equal-
ity between persons who are different. Rather, the stronger person is
The Key Issues in the Manhood-Womanhood Controversy 73