THE PROSPERITY GOSPEL OF DECISION MAKING

'One of the things I am always telling my children is that doing the right thing often comes with painful consequences. We like to believe in a sort of prosperity gospel of decision making: if you do the right thing, blessings follow. Life will be the way you think you deserve. However, doing the right thing often comes with the pain of self-discipline, as well as consequences such as being left out, rejected, or as we see with the early church, persecuted.'

Aimee Byrd, Recovering from Biblical Manhood & Womanhood, p.201. 

JESUS VALUES WOMEN

'Jesus values women. Women will travel with him, provide for him and his ministry, be healed by him, turn a whole town of enemies to him, and witness the gospel accounts of the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. Women will be the first to share the gospel to the apostles and enter the upper room with them to pray. They will prophecy, plant the first churches with the apostles, help correct evangelists, co labor with the men in gospel work, host churches, and hand-deliver Scripture.'

Aimee Byrd, Recovering from Biblical Manhood & Womanhood, p.187.

CHRISTIAN FRIENDSHIPS BETWEEN THE SEXES

'Our call to Christian love and fellowship as brothers and sisters doesn't call us to the "false modesty of the prude" but to a "humble sincerity." Of course we promote one another's holiness, take sin seriously, and realise that we can easily fall into it. We don't think of a bunch of reasons to be alone with the other sex, we don't naively assume that everyone is safe, and we don't overestimate our own virtue. But, rather than creating extrabiblical rules, we are to do the hard work of rightly orientating our affections and exercising wisdom and discernment with others. We live before God in every situation. And in this manner, we will be able to perform ordinary acts of kindness and business without scandal.' 

Aimee Byrd, Why Can't We Be Friends? p.77. 

WHAT WERE WE CREATED FOR?

'We are created for communion with the Triune God and with one another...Our sexuaility is expressed in more places than the bedroom.' 

Aimee Byrd, Why Can't We Be Friends? p.49. 

HOW HOLLYWOOD HAS TAUGHT THE CHURCH

'...over time I learned that much of the conservative church believes the "Billy Crystal rule" taught by Burns. In a complete contradiction of our fight to uphold a biblical standard of sexuality, Hollywood became our teacher on relationships and gender after all. The church sent messages that a woman's attractiveness serves the purpose of landing a husband, then becomes a threat to all other men. My sexuality became a barrier to friendship. This has been quite a challenge in my adult years.' 

Aimee Byrd, Why Can't We Be Friends: Aviodance is not purity, p.23.