Hyper-gendered theology is bad theology
I grew up in the Christian homeschooling movement. The movement has some dappled shadows; there are good aspects, and there are really bad aspects, and which aspects you experience depends on which area you grow up in. While my family didn't take it on, I grew up on the border of one particularly harmful shadow: belief in hyper-distinct masculine and feminine roles. For homeschoolers, this belief was popularized by figures like Bill Gothard and Doug Phillips. The same beliefs show up in lots of manifestations of religious fundamentalism, from Islam to some of the Independent Fundamental Baptist movement. In the Christian homeschool context, that hyper-gendering (HG) takes the form of theology about what it means to be a man or a woman. HG theology leans heavily on the KJV translation of Gen. 2:18—thus the term “help meet”: And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. (Gen 2:18 KJV) HG theology proponents interpret the phr