[epow]

Protestants who forbid women clergy don't usually cite Jesus' choice of male apostles but rather 1 Timothy 2:12 ("I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep silent").

The Apostle Paul was not just casually mentioning his personal disapproval of women as pastors when he wrote that into holy scripture, he was instructing Timothy under divine inspiration on how God intends for his church leaders and overseers (pastors, bishops, etc) to organize and operate local church congregations.

That portion of scripture is primarily why we Baptists do not ordain women as pastors, and I would think that it is also a large part of the reason why the Catholic Church does not ordain women to the priesthood or the higher ranks of clergy. I hope that both churches stick to their biblical principles and do not cave in to feminist activism concerning this matter.

[LiteKeeper]

mega-dittoes

[Mrs. Don-o]

I would like to see a good thorough discussion on masculine gifts and feminine gifts (not just scriptuiral, and not just theological, but anthropological and physiological, including body stucture and brain structure) and some exploration of how different gifts might translate into different roles.

God created the book of nature as well as the book of Scripture, the laws of nature as well as the laws of Scripture.

I think that as long as we live on God's good earth, sex will always be a meaningful category, a category with broad consequences far beyond one's fitness to be a wetnurse or a sperm donor.

The broad, meaningful --- and God-designed, blessed and beautiful --- consequences of male/female: that's what I'd like to see expanded on, celebrated, and implemented.

[Barnacle]

I hope that both churches stick to their biblical principles and do not cave in to feminist activism concerning this matter.

Can you imagine Pope Benedict caving into anything? Thank God we have another great pope.

[Mazi83]

And written for a community that worshiped the Goddess Artemis--yes, a community that considered a female superior to all men. If you were trying to convince them to follow a dead Jewish guy, wouldn't you want them to abolish their idea of female superiority?

As I am sure you know, there are a lot of things in the bible that need to be evaluated by their context. The discrepancies in the gospels, for instance, are often attributed to the communities they were written in. For example, Matthew being written in a Jewish-Christian community, compared to Luke being written in a Hellenic community (with vastly different traditions and little prior understanding of Judaism) led to some glaring differences in those two gospels.

[JusticeForAll76]

Paul also said that bishops should be married men.