Posted on 08/21/2006 5:51:49 PM PDT by Bob J
In earlier news it was reported that a Baptist Sunday school teacher of 54 years was let go from her position because "My belief is that the qualifications for both men and women teaching spiritual matters in a church setting end at the church door, period," the Pastor was quoted as saying.
Apparently in a letter sent to the teacher earlier in the month they qouted from First Timothy Two, 11-14 "A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, she must be silent."
This news was posted on FR here and here.
It's an interesting topic considering the current discussions regarding Sharia law and the treatment of women in Islam. Some FReepers were shocked and others appeared to support the policy based on scripture interpretation.
What is your opinion?
LOL. My older siblings demonstrated to me to not get on the Nuns' bad side. So I only got a couple of whacks across the knuckles.
Goofy thread, goofy question.
Because the Bible clearly says "No."
Why shouldn't people who believe they've been led by the Holy Spirit say so?
Uhhh....yes.
Unless one is going to say females are less worthy than males- just like Islam.
Oh, they are here.
Sorry, you've lost me in translation. I've never willingly read the bible.
Yes, short of breaking the law.
Why shouldn't one?
So you are saying that Jesus erred when he said divorce was wrong? Or at best permissible only in the case of adulterer?
This is a very difficult topic. The Bible also says that the body is the Temple of God. I do not believe that God expects a person to stay in a relationship that puts anyone (wife, husband, children) in harms way. The only time God recognizes divorce and allows remarriage is for sexual immorality (Matt 5:32). If the divorce is for other reasons, God does not recognized that the marriage is dissolved, and adultery occurs in a remarriage situation.
When faced with a difficult choice of which sin to commit (allowing a spouse to abuse the Temple of God or getting a divorce), we should remember that God will forgive us of sin as long as we turn away from sin. However, can we repent if we remarry and are therefore continually committing adultery?
For what it's worth, I'm praying for a lot of people on this thread.
My experience is that there are lots who DO feel that way in the church.
I guess it depends on how much you want to learn what she can teach you.
She apparantly made a mistake 46 years ago, or whatever, about the doctrinal purity of the First. She shouldn't waste her time, patience or knowledge on such people. Just kick the dust from her feet and hat up!
Picking and choosing lines from the Bible, and then using them as a weapon in assorted and sundry venues of mortals, as the inerrant word of "God," can lead to all kinds of mischief, and often does.
Is that really a responsible way to shepherd the flock? The attitude of if you don't like it, you can leave?
Women are important in the Church, and always have been--and yes they are spiritual equals to men.
However, if anyone wants to say they follow the bible, they need to follow all of it--especially the commands and advice in the New Testament (which helps us interpret the Old Testament, and its commands correctly). Any honest look at the New Testament on leadership clearly shows men are to be the leaders of the whole church.
Men learn from women all the time of course, ask any Christian husband...but formal leadership in the Church, as it is in the home, is clearly commanded to be men. Only since the feminist movement of the 20th Century has this been questioned: Christians are virtually unanimous for 2000 years of what they read in the bible on this until then.
The reason the ordination of active homosexuals so easily became an issue in mainline churches is they have ignored the commands on leadership and church discipline for quite a long time now. It's no accident that in virtually every defense the homosexuals make they bring up the women's leadership question, its quite logical. If we can fudge on what the Holy Spirit said through St. Paul and other authors of the New Testament on the issue of women, why not bend the rules for homosexuals too? It's a very good question, and one I've never heard a good answer to by the pro-women-leadership "evangelicals" and Charismatics.
Christians are bound to obey the New Testament, even, or especially, when it is counter-cultural.
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