Gender Work

Recently I've heard and/or read lots of people attempting to confront socially constructed gender roles. In some cases they completely deny all gender distinctions. I'm wont to agree with some caveats. What I've been reading usually centers greatly around Galatians 3:28 though there are definitely secular sources for this discourse in feminist and queer studies.

It would seem in Galatians Paul is saying that in our baptism we lose our social identity as well as all the trappings that come along with that identity. This little discussion comes right after Paul rails against the Galatians for attempting to live by the law and not by the Spirit of the Lord. "Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law." It seems all Paul does in the follow verses is to take the freedom from the law to its faithful conclusion. It is not only that we are no longer under the "supervision of the law" but we are also free from the trappings of societal norms/laws. In Christ and in our faith in Christ we are no longer bound by nationality, class (cast), and gender. This is a liberating theology for everyone especially all of those in our community who do not naturally tend to a specific gender. How liberating it must be for a hermaphrodite or transgendered to hear these words of oneness and acceptance. Even a female or male oppressed by society's patriarchy can feel the freedom the comes from these words. Further, the queer community whom some would say are the antithesis of gender norms in our society today can claim (and have) these words as their own. Feminist theologians speaking to gender issues and patriarchy also have used this liberating theology to claim community when it is being denied to them. We are being called to live life without division or hierarchy!

Unfortunately, this liberating theology in some understandings has been taken to a binding theology. In what I find to more of a silencing of voice than a liberating of spirit, some have begun to claim we need what amounts to removing all diversity from our midst. Not only are we to remove our social gender but we are not to claim experiencing God in our sexual gender. This is more of an argument of whether we can have unity without uniformity. Diversity without division. I say we can! Our personal experiences of Gender do not need to be denied to obtain the oneness in faith of which Paul was speaking. The feminist does not need to deny his struggle with social structures that identify him as female and lowly. Neither does the queer need to deny her experiences as a gay male to obtain the community in Christ of which Paul speaks.

All of our experiences of God are valid and need not be denied in vain attempts at human effort (read the law) to bring about equality. If our focus is on Christ, all of our experiences will inform our faith and we will grow ever closer to Christ and in doing so we will draw closer in oneness . So claim your oppression under patriarchy and call upon us to focus on the equality inherent in creation, claim your oppression under social norms and call upon us to focus on loving kindness, claim your oppression under national/ethnic dividing lines and call upon us to focus on the dignity of every human being, claim your oppression under poverty and call upon us to free our hearts from want and greed for in all of this 'there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.'