That was precisely my point. You interpret this passage to apply only to salvation. I interpret this passage to say that the rules do not apply differently to men or to women. We both know it doesn't apply to whether men can have babies or women can grow beards. We have to interpret what we read. This doesn't make Holy Scripture any less the enerrent Word of G-d. It's just that our imperfection allows us to misinterpret what G-d has said.
When we reconcile the two - the fact that in Christ there is neither male nor female but that Paul does not allow a woman to be in authority over a man, you have chosen to limit the context of the first. I chose to note that the 2 Timothy passage is based on Paul's preference "I do not allow" rather than a law of G-d. Given the number of women Paul greets as leaders of their own churches, and the woman who taught Apollos the Gospel, I don't accept that Paul insisted that women can not be leaders. We have each chosen our own way of reconciling the two passages, each chosen our own way to look at the context. That means we should be able to discuss the issue as reasonable adults who recognize our basic similarity rather than fight about our differences.
My mind is not closed on the issue. And I don't respect the RC church any less for its position.
Shalom.
I have to say that I find female leadership in the church totally impossible to reconcile with the totality of scripture. There is such a beauty in the picture of biblical man and womanhood that's just destroyed when you put women in charge.
You know, I recently watched a two part series on Victoria and Albert. (I highly recommend it, by the way.) Any Christian holding to traditional biblical views of gender roles would have immediately recognized the problem of a man having his wife for his queen. *G*
Ditto for "pastor".
God bless.