Believers in Gender Equality Gain Key Ally : Evangelicals: A leader in the movement that thinks the Bible is literally true said Scripture asserts that men and women have the same rights.

Evangelicals who believe that men and women should share equal roles in leading churches, homes and society still face an uphill battle for acceptance, but they gained an influential ally last weekend at the second biennial conference of Christians for Biblical Equality.

Kenneth Kantzer, former editor of Christianity Today magazine and a leader in the movement that believes the Bible is literally true, told about 300 members that Scripture asserts that men and women have equal rights.

Although Kantzer earlier signed a statement published by the group asserting the equality of men and women, his agreement to publicly endorse its work was seen as a boon to a group seeking credibility in the evangelical world. The organization’s president, Catherine Croeger, a professor at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, introduced Kantzer as “someone of such stature in the evangelical world” who “has come in person to celebrate the truth that the inerrant Word is egalitarian.”

But there apparently is still wide resistance to the egalitarian notion, and interviews with a number of conference participants showed that some have paid a price professionally for holding such convictions.

Kantzer said men and women were created equal in God’s image, they fell equally into sin, they were equally redeemed by Jesus Christ, and have been equally given gifts to lead the home, church and society. “When God gives a gift, Scripture says race and gender are not to be used to deny it.”

Those few passages in the Bible that appear to indicate female submission should be interpreted in light of the larger biblical themes of creation and redemption, Kantzer said.

When Christianity spread across the globe, he said, it initially was a countercultural movement that fought for justice for women.

As it evolved into the dominant religion in many areas, it became institutional and often adopted what is now considered the traditionalist view, that God assigned men leading roles in the home, church and society, Kantzer said.

That thinking is unbiblical and must be overturned, said Kantzer, director of the doctoral program at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and chancellor of Trinity College in Deerfield, Ill.

In an interview, Kantzer said liberal Protestantism has advocated women’s rights for years, with most mainline denominations ordaining women and placing them in leadership positions. But Kantzer said Christians for Biblical Equality members loathe liberal theology because it detracts from a necessary personal commitment to Jesus Christ.

One branch of evangelicalism that historically has been open to women in leadership positions is Pentecostalism. Daisy Osborn and her evangelist husband, Tommy Lee, say they have been able to gain a wide audience for women’s rights to exercise spiritual gifts. “If God confirms her, who are we to disallow what God affirms?” Osborn asked.

Other egalitarians at the conference have not fared as well.

* Prof. Alvin Schmidt was fired from the Missouri Synod-Lutheran Church’s Concordia Seminary in St. Louis for disagreeing with the denomination’s view of male dominance. He sued and the denomination settled out of court in 1990. He recently wrote “Veiled and Silenced: How Culture Shaped Sexist Theology.”

* George and Emily Walther, co-founders of Christian Marriage Enhancement, saw their Colorado Springs-based international organization dwindle in the early 1980s when they declared that marriage should be a mutual partnership, and supporters then withheld financial support. The Walthers now live and work in Temple, Tex.

* The Rev. Lorraine Anderson, the first ordained woman in the Conservative Baptist Assn. of America, is contending with hostility from people in the denomination, she said. “They align biblical feminism with heresy,” said Anderson, an administrator for the evangelical Center for Urban Ministerial Education in Boston.