30: DENIAL OF ANYTHING UNIQUELY MASCULINE 225The male-oriented words “King,” “Him,” and “He” are removed. The
new hymnal also eliminates references to God as “Father” and changes
this word to expressions like “Holy Eternal Majesty.” God the “Son” is
now called the “Incarnate Word.”^7
A writer in the egalitarian publication Mutuality suggested (humor-
ously) that a better title for John Gray’s book Men Are from Mars,
Women Are from Venus would be
Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, But Some Men Are
from Venus and Some Women Are from Mars, and All of God’s
Children Have Both Mars and Venus Qualities Within Them So Why
Not Just Say that Men and Women Are from the Earth, and Let’s Get
about the Business of Developing the Unique God-Given Mars/Venus
Qualities that God Has Given All of Us for the Sake of the Kingdom^8When I read that, I realized that egalitarians seem to feel compelled
to oppose any kinds of differences between men and women other than
those that are purely physical. Even when egalitarian author Rebecca
Groothuis tried to answer the charge that egalitarians think that men
and women are the same, the only clear differences she could point to
were the sexually based physical differences between men and women
and abilities that flow directly from those physical differences.^9
Once evangelical feminism gains control of a church or a denomi-
nation, the teaching will tend increasingly toward a denial of anything
that is uniquely masculine other than obvious physical differences. The
church will be embarrassed by any emphasis on strong and true “man-
hood,” and will suppress it. This is predictable. It is the next stage on
the path toward liberalism.
(^7) Jim Brown, “ELCA Pastor: ‘Gender-Neutral Hymnal Concession to Culture,’” at the online
Christian news site Crosswalk.com (www.crosswalk.com/news/religiontoday/1347915.html,
accessed 8-30-05).
(^8) Jim Banks, untitled article, Mutuality, May 1998, 3.
(^9) Groothuis, Good News for Women, 47-49.