Mike Winger video 1: Listen to the Bible with an Open Mind

I've had Mike Winger's name mentioned to me often enough as a kind of trump card that I've decided to submit myself to his 13 hour extraganza on the topic of women in ministry. 

These are my notes. In more than one place I have heard, "Say what you want, but Mike Winger." 

So bring it.

I listened to Hour #1, the Prologue. He has 7 pre-points and 3 more pre-points. Here's what I heard:

1. Don't make your decision on the basis of experience, make it on the Bible.

2. No, not everyone who is in favor of women in ministry has been duped by feminism.

3. We good complementarians aren't arguing for the bad old patriarchy either.

4. Equal valuing of women doesn't rule out God-designed role differences.

5. Complementarianism doesn't necessarily lead to women abuse (even if some complementarians are abusers). 

6. A person's individual story doesn't trump the Bible.

7. Don't just use one verse to trump the rest of the Bible.

Then three things he says he won't do in the videos:

1. He will not submit the Bible to cultural pressures.

2. He won't play games with "polemics" or moral pressure.

3. He doesn't need to defend God or be his PR agent.

______________________________

OK. Bring on the Bible. Let's go. 

Here are some thoughts on the subtext of video #1 -- what's going on below the surface. 

1. He seems sincere. He says he really wanted to switch to being an egalitarian, but the Bible just didn't turn out that way. He says he's done lots of research. He doesn't yell at his wife even though he's a complementarian. Great. 

He portrays himself as a truth-seeker. Just the facts of the Bible, ma'am. You can see where the style would be very appealing to the Jordan Peterson type. This is the "T" personality that thinks it's logical while everyone else lets their feelings get in the way. None of this emotional crap. I'm going to tell it like it is. Nothing but the real Bible here. 

Before we've really heard a word of the Bible, he's beaming out, "You wouldn't need to watch any more videos to know that complementarianism is right. I've done the homework. You're good to go on being the head of your home, guys. Just reference the 13 hours. Nobody's going to actually watch all that."

2. But he is giving off a clear vibe -- in fact, it's more than a vibe. His subtext is that egalitarians aren't true to the Bible. He's beaming that egalitarians aren't good thinkers -- women egalitarians especially.

3. He does a hit and run on several books. Some will no doubt think -- I don't have to worry about anything those books have to say. Winger quoted a paragraph from them and, BAM, that means the rest of the book is crap. 

I want to focus on two in particular. One is Philip Payne's 512 page book, Man and Woman in Christ. Winger complains that it's a long book. I sure hope Winger engages this book in the later videos because otherwise he's dismissing this guy's work by quoting less than a paragraph of it. (Payne has a PhD from Cambridge and was a missionary to Japan)

Again, many will subconsciously think, "That whole book is wrong because Winger read a paragraph from it and trashed it."

What I found most objectionable was the way he scoffed at Beth Allison Barr's book, The Making of Biblical Womanhood. I'm sure some men watching enjoyed that. Stupid woman, chuckle, chuckle. Touchy feely. I seriously wonder if he read beyond the first chapter. We'll see. Now I feel like I need to blog through her book to make it clear how smart she is after his, chuckle, chuckle, stupid woman.

His hit job here quotes a passage where a student in one of her classes at Baylor -- yes, she has a PhD in history -- would not shut up and stop being rude to her because she was a woman professor. The student should have been kicked out of her class. 

Here's a logical fallacy. Just because a book has some experiential elements or personal stories doesn't automatically mean that its argument isn't biblically based. Let's see if he engages it again when he gets to the actual Bible because she discusses the Bible throughout the book. Otherwise, he may have revealed his true heart.

For many men, this is pretty much an academic issue. It's not personal, says the hit man about to kill someone. But women who hear God calling them face this stuff all the time. It is personal for them. And it's serious. The issue costs most men nothing. 

But if he's putting a stumblingblock in front of women God has called, that's serious. If he's putting roadblocks in front of the Holy Spirit, that's VERY serious. Why not take a Gamaliel approach -- if they're not called by God, God will stop them?

On to the Bible...