I’ve been thinking a great deal about Rachel Held Evan’s death since it happened. I’ve waited to write anything because I wanted to synthesize all of it rather than immediately writing something in the heat of the moment. The aftermath was a true circus in so many ways and I was loathe to be a part of it. But I have a post in my head about the deaths of Warren Wiersbe and Rachel Held Evans just a few days apart.
I think Wendy Alsup has summed up many of my feelings about Evan’s impact on the church. There is still more I want to say, but I truly appreciated this post. This is an extended quote, but I encourage you to read the entire thing to understand Wendy’s context for what she wrote.
But as Rachel began pointing out legitimate problems with the Neo-Reformed figurehead that was Mark Driscoll at the time, she used these problems to justify questioning the authority of Scripture. Because so many folks misused Scripture, and other well meaning folks disagreed on how to live it out in practice, the bottom line must be simply to love God and love your neighbor. Instead of other laws and instructions in Scripture hanging on that foundation, laws and instructions in Rachel’s paradigm lost their binding quality. In particular, explicit instructions concerning biological sex and sex in marriage were not binding today if they did not seem “loving” by a modern definition of love, one that often doesn’t involve self sacrifice. While Rachel gave me courage to voice my questions and concerns, she also inadvertently gave me clarity that the answer to these concerns was IN Scripture, not opposed to it. The answer was found by BETTER understanding how Scripture presents its Laws and instructions, not by writing them off as no longer relevant.
I wrote Is the Bible Good for Women? Seeking Clarity and Confidence through a Jesus-centered Understanding of Scripture specifically because of Rachel Held Evans. Rachel asked the questions that needed answering. She was right to question. I am in her debt that she led the way. But her answers (or lack of answers) taught many that Scripture was unknowable, without clear or binding instructions. And I remain deeply troubled by that outcome of her ministry.
Read the article: RHE and Women Who Question from Practical Theology for Women (now in Wayback Machine)
UPDATE: This is the post I wrote: Life Lessons From Warren Wiersbe’s Faith and Rachel Held Evans’ Deconstructing
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