Evangelical Feminism: A New Path to Liberalism?

INTRODUCTION 155

writing about? I could argue that the Ephesian Christians would have
known about that and they would have understood that Paul was not
talking about all children, but only these violent ones. Then I would say
the verse really means this:

You violent children who travel in gangs, obey your parents in the

Lord, for this is right (Eph. 6:1).

Then I could say, “The Bible nowhere tells all children to obey their
parents. In fact, that could damage the child’s self-esteem! This verse was
only a corrective measure Paul imposed for a special circumstance. For
today, the verse just means that violent children who are traveling in
gangs should go home and be obedient to their parents.”
By saying there was a special background situation, I have limited
the general application of the verse. I have changed the meaning of “chil-
dren” so that it is restricted to only a narrow group of children. So the
word “children” no longer means what it used to mean. And the Bible
no longer tells children today to obey their parents.
But what if my scholarly article is wrong? What if there were no vio-
lent children in gangs in Ephesus, and what if that wasn’t what Paul
meant? Then again, by wrongly narrowing the meaning of the words to
a special group at that time, I have taken away some of the words of
Scripture and replaced them with words that God did not say.
In fact, this is exactly what is done by people who argue that the
Bible does not condemn homosexual conduct. For example, Paul speaks
about homosexuality in Romans 1:26-27:

For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their

women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to

nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women

and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing

shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty

for their error.

Some homosexual rights advocates say that Paul was speaking to a
special situation. They say that, in the ancient world, only abusive
homosexual relationships and homosexual prostitution were con-