It’s just, even as long as I’ve been aware of this debate, I can still get blindsided by the hatred some men have for women. I get blindsided and then I get a gut reaction that isn’t nice. And I want to hate back. Forturnately, the older I get, the time period of that temptation to hate back gets shorter.

Still hurts, sometimes, though. Just have to keep short accounts.

Just got back from the comments over there, Eric, and the guy that posted under you just makes me mad.

Made me want to go through the Bible and list all the sins of all the men as proof positive of something awful about men. Because that’s what he does with women, listing every evil thing done by a woman and all the traditional assumptions on creation order and who was deceived and who wasn’t (but sinned willfully thereby abdicting their God-ordained preeminence…yet somehow not losing the preeminence because… gosh I don’t know… because the commentor doesn’t want men to lose it…..) and using that as proof the Ben is preaching blasphamy (which I probably can’t spell any better than the poster under you.)

Anyway, the temptation came to start compiling that list of the evils of men. But it went away quickly. I cannot, in my heart, condemn all men because of the evil poster under Eric nor because of all the evil men have done in the Bible.

But posters, like that man who call Ben’s words blasphemy (is that with an ‘e’ or an ‘a’) sometimes they really get my goat and I want to retaliate soooo bad. Give them a taste of their own medicine.

And I don’t like the way that makes me feel. So just as I won’t go back to BB any time soon, I may not read many more comments under Ben’s post.

Sorry for my rant, Eric.
But you are the one that sent me over there to read the comments.

http://blog.beliefnet.com/bibleandculture/2009/10/why-arguments-against-women-in-ministry-arent-biblical.html

continues to get some good comments. I just posted one as Comment #70.

As (the other) Bonnie’s comments imply, the matter also gets sticky and complicated when trying to sort out husbands vs. other men as receptors of women’s authority or leadership.

I meet with a Pentecostal congregation (not AoG), and I’m not 100% sure what we teach on marriage, either.

For example, the elder who kept insisting in one message that he was sorry to inform the men that the responsibility to be the priest of the home was on their shoulders was the same elder who told the men that the “my way or the highway” mentality didn’t work. For the most part, we get that the woman submits to her husband and the husband loves his wife. We don’t often get any nitty gritty on what that entails. I did dare to broach the subject with the pastor of the terminology “priest of the home.” The conversation seemed frustrating, but we both agreed we would continue to search the scriptures (and we were probably each secretly vowing to pray that God would enlighten the other).

So what to do if you do not agree with the elders’ interpretation of some Scripture? One can go privately to discuss concerns, and if one’s concerns are important enough decide to go elsewhere.

Their example is the restriction on using the gift of tongues only where there is an interpreter.

We do not deny to women the right to use the gifts God has given them. If they have gifts of teaching or administration or evangelism, God does want those gifts used, and He will honor the commitment to use them within the guidelines given in Scripture.

(Above quotes from CBMW.)

Of course this raises the sticky question (which I’ve never seen satisfactorily answered) of whether it is more important for a woman to obey the Great Commission or to avoid teaching a man even if there are no men around to witness in her place. The loophole for the (hyper-)reformed is that God will take care of the man’s salvation.

So for comps, the (supposed) verses on women not teaching men have more weight than the gifting and witnessing verses.

So basically they affirm women’s gifting but say they are limited by other verses outside of 1 Cor 12.

http://www.cbmw.org/Journal/Vol-13-No-1/Women-in-Ministry-Practical-Application-of-Biblical-Teaching