Men & Women? Vive la difference! (HT: CCEF.org)

– “Most of what women and men deal with is generically the same. Both male and female sin in the same basic ways. Complaining, worry, resentment, unbelief, and self-righteousness are genderblind. And both male and female suffer life’s pains and hardships. So Christ’s mercies come to both. Faith works through love in both. Both sexes apply psalms, most proverbs, the Sermon on the Mount, John, and most of Ephesians 4-6 in the same ways.”

-“Often idiosyncratic differences between individuals have more cash value than supposed gender differences. Some men come from Venus and some women from Mars. Some women are natural initiators, while some men are instinctive responders. Some men are nurturers and some women are achievers. Some women love to balance the checkbook and watch sports on TV; some men love to cook and to talk with friends over coffee. Some men weep at sad movies; some women pack firearms. And vice versa, of course. The bell curves of gender traits might slide a little one way, or the other, but generalizations don’t work as absolutes.”

– “Even problems supposed to be typically male or typically female aren’t set in stone. Troubles with body image, depression, and being abused were once distinctively female. But disorderly eating, obsession with physical appearance, pervading hopelessness, and the experience of violation are increasingly male. On the other side, pornography, aggressive lewdness, violent behavior, and foul language were once characteristically male evils. They are increasingly female.”

-“So what makes this our women’s issue? Though the most significant things about people are universal, your sex and gender (biology’s female/male and culture’s feminine/masculine) always give things a particular spin, a slant. Something of that different feel is what I hope these articles communicate. When what’s deeply the same comes from a woman’s sensibility, it’s just a bit different. A significant bit. This is analogous to the issues raised in any cross-cultural or cross-situational ministry.”