Thursday Excerpt - Jocelyn Andersen

Today's excerpt comes from an author who has triumphed over domestic violence! Heading up Hungry Hearts Ministries, Jocelyn Andersen is an incredible testimony to the power of the human spirit - and the power of God. She's full of life and energy and just an incredible woman.

The excerpt comes from her upcoming book, “Woman this is WAR! Gender, Slavery, & the Evangelical Caste System”

While tracing the relatively parallel courses of emancipation for the slave and emancipation for the woman, Woman this is WAR! Gender, Slavery, & the Evangelical Caste System, addresses the caste system imposed upon fundamentalist and evangelical Christians through the doctrine of headship and submission as taught from the Complementarian theological position. Although leaders of the Complementarian view attempt to distance themselves from old school, traditional, views concerning men and women, with the exception of a few “loophole pluggers,” their doctrine is virtually identical to that which has historically been taught among evangelicals and fundamentalists regarding sex roles within the church, family, and society.

This doctrine is not only false but directly responsible for much of the suffering taking place within contemporary Christian homes, including the sin and trauma of domestic abuse and domestic violence. Complementary doctrine, although it claims to be the salvation of the contemporary church and family, is not only unscriptural but dangerously divisive, pitting fellow Christians against one another, husbands against wives, and wives against husbands. It binds Christian men and women into a rigid, implacable, caste system while at the same time embroiling them in a vicious gender war.

“Woman this is WAR...,” takes a new look at old scriptural arguments traditionally used to keep men and women enslaved in illegitimate bondage based on sex. Just as the Bible did not condone the sin of slavery based on skin color, it also does not condone a slavery-like caste system based on gender. The scriptures do not teach a Divine order of Creation or a Divine Mandate placing males in authority over females in either the church or the home.

In addition, Christians have been seriously misled by respected leaders and authors concerning Christian history in regards to women and women’s rights. This book will set the record straight.

Jesus said we would know the truth and the truth would set us FREE.

Let us allow His Light and Truth to bring an end to the evangelical gender war while challenging Christian men and women to embrace and appreciate our God-given gender distinctions without giving place to haughty spirits of superiority, degrading feelings of inferiority, hatred, prejudice, fear of one another’s differences, or the sinful need to either be in charge or to submit in an idolatrous manner. Let us break the bonds of a cruel, unbiblical, caste system by applying the healing salve of repentance, forgiveness, love and truth to the deep wounds inflicted on both the men and women of God by the relentless “slaveholding spirit” present in evangelical thought and practice regarding women.


Jocelyn Andersen, author of several books including, "Woman Submit! Christians & Domestic Violence," advocates for gender equality within the evangelical Christian community. For more information on Jocelyn Andersen’s books and sites visit: Woman Submit! & Jocelyn Andersen

Jocelyn also contributed a chapter of "Woman Submit!" to my book "Overoming Obstacles with SPUNK!" and is one of my co-authors! We've not had the opportunity to meet yet, but I certainly hope to one day soon!