The fundamental assumption of the symposium is that the role distinctions of male headship and female submission were not divinely ordained at creation but were introduced after the Fall and are limited to the governance of the home, not to the community of faith. Thus, Christians are called to return to the creation ideal of "perfect equality," understood as obliteration of gender-based role distinctions.

Before we examine the specific arguments used to construct this position, some general observations are in order regarding Women in Ministry’s perception of the problem and the moral implications of the position adopted by the contributors to the symposium.

First, we have already noted that the symposium sets out to examine "perceived impediments to women in ministry," among which it lists "the concept of the headship of all males over all females." Yet I have never seen this concept expressed in the Seventh-day Adventist church. It is certainly not the view of opponents of women’s ordination known to me. Women in Ministry offered no references to books by Adventist authors which set forth such a view. By framing the issue in this extreme way and arguing against it, the book imputes to its opponents a view which they do not hold while failing to deal adequately with the views they do hold.

Further, by listing this view of headship as a "perceived impediment to women in ministry," the book implies that those who do not share its views are opposed to women in ministry. In fact, the opposite is true, as I shall observe in more detail below. The authors of the book you are now reading believe that there is a significant place for women in ministry and a genuine need for their services. They believe that respect for the biblical view of roles and headship in the home and church does not prevent women from ministering, but channels their ministry into the areas where it may be most effective.

To turn next to the moral implications, Women in Ministry’s assumption that male headship and female submission reflect "God’s plan for fallen human beings rather than an original mandate for the sinless world"² implies that functional role distinctions are intrinsically evil. But we must ask, Is this true? The answer is, Absolutely not! The most compelling proof is the fact that functional role distinctions exist within the Trinity itself! The Bible tells us that "the head of Christ is God" (1 Cor 11:3) and that the Son Himself "will be subjected to him [the Father]" for all eternity (1 Cor 14:28). If there is nothing morally wrong with functional distinctions within the Trinity, why is it morally wrong for functional distinctions to exist within male-female relationships?

This leads us to another observation, examining the assumption that male headship entails superiority and female submission inferiority–a subtle and deceptive assumption that underlies the whole symposium. We ask, do functional male-female role distinctions imply superiority and inferiority? Absolutely not! This is true in the Trinity and is also true in male-female relationships. In the Trinity the headship of the Father does not make the Son inferior. Christ Himself affirmed, "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30). In human relationships, male headship does not make women inferior because of their submissive roles. We "are all one in Christ," and consequently there is no male superiority or female inferiority (Gal 3:28-29).

The fact that I am a man called by God to serve as the head of my family does not make me superior to my wife. In a certain sense she is "the boss," because she has constantly reminded me through the years of my God-given responsibility to serve as the spiritual head of our home. Functional role distinctions have nothing to do with superiority or inferiority but only with the different–and complementary–roles God has called men and women to fulfill in the home and in the church.