Complementarian Men Symbolically Urinate on Women
Successful leaders understand that movements with clearly defined opposition are the most successful
This is a reprint and an update of an article I wrote in March of 2012
Last week, men were symbolically urinating on women at the complementarian “Men of God 2012” conference held at Calvary Baptist Church in Bellefontaine, Ohio.
Complementarianism assigns strict gender roles to women and men with women being subordinate to men in all things.
Since there were no women in attendance, the women’s restroom was opened for use by the men. In an article describing his experience at the conference, Paul Dohse, editor of “Paul’s Passing Thoughts” at WordPress.com, wrote that while using the women’s restroom, he found the toilets and floor in every stall sprayed with urine. He wrote that this was the case throughout the entirety of the conference. This was not the case with the men’s restroom.
In an email interview with me, Dohse’ would not go so far as to say that he believed men at the conference were demonstrating hatred and contempt for women by symbolically urinating on them, but what he did say was, “it's hard for me to believe what I saw wasn't deliberate.”
He then confirmed to me that he was standing by his words. Update: Under immediate pressure from complementarian leaders, he deleted his account of the conference from his blog on the same day he posted it, which was the same day he and I corresponded.
In his blog report and in our email interview, Dohse blamed the condition of the women’s restroom, in part, on the anti-woman messages preached at the conference by Dr. Voddie Baucham.
Baucham sometimes speaks at conferences with Dr. R. C. Sproul, who is a prominent leader within the complementarian movement. He presented three keynote messages at the Bellefontaine conference, all of which were saturated with anti-feminist rhetoric and an “us” against “them” attitude. In part two of his three part “Culture War” presentation, he even labeled women as being just a notch above the serpent on the “food chain,” of which males were at the top of course. From the urine-sprayed condition of the women’s restroom at Calvary Baptist, it seems clear that Baucham was successful in whipping the men into an anti-feminist frenzy.
Successful leaders understand that movements with clearly defined opposition are the most successful. In her book, Out of the Cults and into the Church, Janis Hutchinson quoted Hoffer when she wrote, “Mass movements can rise and succeed without a belief in God . . . but never without a belief in a devil. This is because the strength of a mass movement is proportionate to the vividness and tangibility of its devil. When Hitler was asked whether he thought the Jew should be completely destroyed, he answered, ‘No . . . We have then to reinvent him.’ Hitler further explained that ‘It is essential to have a tangible enemy, not merely an abstract one.’”
The devil of the complementarian movement is the feminist, and by complementarian standards, any woman who does not accept a subordinate position to males is a feminist.
In his blog post, before he deleted it (I read his blog post and listened to Baucham’s speeches before writing my article), Dohse asked, “Will New Calvinism Become a Christian Woman’s Worst Nightmare?” In the email interview, he added, “I would look hard at the fact that the patriarchy movement is teaming up with New Calvinism. That's some seriously bad news for women.”
One study found that a belief in strict gender roles was “associated with less perceived seriousness of scenarios depicting interpersonal aggression.” In plain English, that means that those who held to the belief of female subordination did not feel that violence against women was all that serious. This cannot be divorced from the almost wholesale acceptance by Christians of complementarianism, which dates its official beginning from 1987 with the issuance of the Danvers Statement. When equality is trashed, as recently demonstrated in Bellefontaine, contemptuous attitudes and actions can follow.
Domestic abuse and violence is more frequent among professing Christians than is commonly believed. That is why it has become such a popular conference and discussion topic within the mainstream Christian community. Some family counselors, such as, Barrington H. Brennen, boldly assert that complementarian teaching is directly responsible for accelerating abusive and violent behavior in husbands.
In 2012, anonymous men at the Bellefontaine conference expressed contempt for women by symbolically urinating on them. Statistics show what misogynistic men have been doing in the privacy of their homes for decades. How many of the men who urinated all over the women’s restroom at Calvary Baptist Church in Bellefontaine went home and mistreated or even beat their wives?
The outrageous behavior of its followers should expose the unbiblical roots of complementarianism for what it is. Jesus is the one who said, “you shall know them by their fruits.”
With the complementarian position becoming more and more extreme, one can only hope adherents will recognize it for the evil that it is, withdraw their support, and allow it to implode upon itself and self-destruct.
Christians need to stop supporting this garbage and expend our physical and financial resources on worthy endeavors in the advancement of the gospel. Let us seek to set the captives free rather than supporting those who seek to enslave. Stand up and walk out on them. Leave complementarian leaders to preach to empty pews and mop up the stinking mess of their own shame.
Jocelyn Andersen is a Bible teacher, author, and blogger. She writes and speaks about a variety of topics with an emphasis on the subject of God and Women. She is the author of several non-fiction books including, "Woman Submit! Christians & Domestic Violence" and "Woman this is WAR! Gender, Slavery, and the Evangelical Caste System." She is currently working on her first novel. Jocelyn is a member of AWSA (Advanced Writers & Speakers Association), and her work has been featured in magazines, newspapers, radio, and television. She is open to requests for writing assignments, anthology contributions, and conference speaker.