Danvers Statement

{{Short description|A statement of the complementarian Christian view of gender roles}}

The Danvers Statement is a statement of the complementarian Christian view of gender roles.{{cite book|author=Randall Herbert Balmer|title=Encyclopædia of Evangelicalism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=syUupeVJOz4C&q=Danvers+Statement&pg=PA170|date=2002|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|isbn=9780664224097 |quote=The Danvers Statement affirmed that "distinctions in masculine and feminine roles are ordained by God as part of the created order, and should find an echo in every human heart."}}{{cite book |first=Craig Thompson |last=Friend |title=Southern Masculinity: Perspectives on Manhood in the South Since Reconstruction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=laagEB2InacC&q=Danvers+Statement&pg=PA258 |date=2009 |publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=9780820336749|quote=In 1987, complementarians codified their beliefs in a document called the Danvers Statement.}} It is not the product of any particular Christian denomination, but has been cited by the Southwestern Baptist Seminary,{{cite web |url=http://swbts.edu/about/affirmed-statements/the-danvers-statement/ |title=The Danvers Statement on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood |publisher=Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary |accessdate=2015-03-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150306034344/http://swbts.edu/about/affirmed-statements/the-danvers-statement/ |archive-date=2015-03-06 |url-status=dead }} the Presbyterian Church in America,{{cite web |url=http://byfaithonline.com/page/pca-news/overtures-committee-rejects-danvers-statement-on-gender-issues-2 |title=Overtures Committee Rejects Danvers Statement on Gender Issues |work=byFaith Magazine |publisher=Presbyterian Church in America |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100920084034/http://byfaithonline.com/page/pca-news/overtures-committee-rejects-danvers-statement-on-gender-issues-2 |archivedate=2010-09-20 |accessdate=2015-03-03 }} and the International Council for Gender Studies.{{cite web |url=http://www.fiveaspects.org/index.php/about/affirmations-of-the-danvers-statement.html |title=Affirmations of the Danvers Statement |website=FiveAspects.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111005000724/http://www.fiveaspects.org/index.php/about/affirmations-of-the-danvers-statement.html |archive-date=2011-10-05}} It was first published by the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW) in Wheaton, Illinois in November 1988. Work on the statement began with "several evangelical leaders" at a CBMW meeting in Danvers, Massachusetts in December 1987.Introduction to the Danvers Statement at the official CBMW site. In 1989, a paid advertisement center-spread appeared in the January 13 issue of Christianity Today accompanied with the Danvers Statement.{{cite journal | title = A response to the Danvers Statement | author = R.K. McGregor Wright | journal = The Journal of Biblical Equality | publisher = Lakewood, CO: Front Range Chapter of Christians for Biblical Equality |date=July 1992 }}{{cite book | title=Discovering Biblical Equality: Complementarity Without Hierarchy |first1=Ronald W. |last1=Pierce |first2=Rebecca Merrill |last2=Groothuis |first3=Gordon D. |last3=Fee | pages=66 |date=2005 | isbn=0830828346 | publisher=InterVarsity Press | location=Downers Grove, Illinois }}

In February 1989, R.K. McGregor Wright put out "Response to the Danvers Statement," an unpublished paper delivered to the Christians for Biblical Equality Conference, St. Paul, which was later revised and republished. In 1990 Christians for Biblical Equality published a statement "Men, Women & Biblical Equality," in Christianity Today.{{cite journal | title = Men, Women & Biblical Equality | journal = Christianity Today | author = Christians for Biblical Equality | author-link = Christians for Biblical Equality | date = April 9, 1990 | pages = 36–37 }}{{cite book | title = A Woman's Place? Leadership in the Church | isbn = 0-83411-464-X | author = C.S. Cowles | chapter = Texts Prohibiting the Public Ministry of Women |date= 1993 | publisher = Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City |location=Kansas City }}

Randall Balmer says that the Statement was an attempt to "staunch the spread of biblical feminism in evangelical circles."{{cite book|last=Balmer|first=Randall|title=Encyclopedia of evangelicalism|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaevan00balm|url-access=limited|date=2004|publisher=Baylor University Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaevan00balm/page/n178 170]|chapter=Danvers Statement|isbn=9781932792041}} Seth Dowland suggests that the authors of the statement "framed their position as a clear and accessible reading of scripture.{{cite book|editor-last=Friend|editor-first=Craig Thompson |title=Southern masculinity: perspectives on manhood in the South since Reconstruction |date=2009 |publisher=University of Georgia Press |page=258 |last=Dowland |first=Seth |chapter=A New Kind of Patriarchy: Inerrancy and Masculinity in the Southern Baptist Convention, 1979–2000 }}

The Danvers Statement is included in readers such as Evangelicalism and Fundamentalism: A Documentary Reader (NYU Press, 2008) and Eve and Adam: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim readings on Genesis and gender (Indiana University Press, 2009).