Intellectuelle

I agree that this is not just aroused by the activity of feminists. Thanks, Ilona. I'll check out the website.

Thanks for the link Ilona! We're still just getting our toes wet on this group blog thing so I hope you(and others) will check back with us as we get more comfortable with the whole thing.

The issues of inerrancy and women seem to travel side by side don't they? I appreciate the time that you've spent exploring these issues and look forward to seeing where you go next.

Question: What evidence is there that God is behind this "rethinking", rather than it being feministic ideas affecting the church?

Sam :)
I could give you the easy answer and say: God's Sovereign hand upon the movement of all history and especially the Church.
But that is the easy answer.

Or I could give you the subjective answer and say because I sense God's hand in all of this.

Instead I will give you my reasoning coupled with my intuitive consiousness at work:

As in the Slavery issue, I think the movement of truth propels us in society to examine our status, how we function in our society and to try to define what we mean by freedom and equality ( words used by both sides in the gender discussion). I think truth about women, as God issues that truth is bringing pressure to bear on our world. Not just in our own society, but all over the world. I believe it is God because all real truth comes from Him and as Jesus Christ confessed: He is the Truth.

I am not going to say that feministic ideas are not implicated, but I am going to to say that they are merely a prod for a Church which has settled into smug self-satisfaction with their comfortable status quo. I think worldly feminism is a paper tiger, frankly.

Further, I am going to submit to anyone reading here that if we have a solid foundation of truth in the Church, and an able capacity to use that truth in application to life and its issues, we would be a force in society and not have the defensive posture of bemoaning how worldly the Church has become.

One of the things that so disturbs me as I go into this topic in the enclosure of the Church is to see how confused the teaching presently is.... if you look at the social history on slavery, the theological battles that were waged, I think you can see the parallels in what is happening. Not that slavery and women's status are alike, so much as the pattern of the road to finding the true message of God in the scriptures is like. I think this is because both balance on the ideas of freedom and position that the scriptures present to us. They are different issues, but relate in that way.

I would like to write about this issue myself, but before I do, I want to make sure I am understanding you.

Is what is in view here whether or not, Biblically, women should be pastors and elders? Are we only talking about woman's role in the church, or in the society as a whole?

I'd love to see you write your perspective in the depth a full post would give. I think what happens with this subject- no matter which end you approach from, is that it works to the other side. IOW, we don't talk about Biblical defining of women very long before we start talking about women in the society as a whole, and vice versa.

Really, when I began posting on this here, I was eager to jump into the implications of feminism in our society, etc but found that I wouldn't be saying very much if I didn't get a stable foundation in what the Bible is actually saying, and properly representing that, first.

That is why I have taken the road I have in my posts.
To best answer your question, I think ultimately we are talking about women in society. We start as Christians in what we are saying, but when God is Creator God, and He says important things pertaining to women... we will end up extrapolating our views out to the whole of society.

We do that, as Christian apologists and witnesses, but usually we are doing it piecemeal. The challenge of this whole conversation is to have an overview without fragmenting and contradicting ourselves. Or God...which is worse.

Please do enter into the topic. It would be a wonderful addition. We may not agree on everything... and we might be taking different routes in where our posts go, but the final result is a plethora of thinking on something that is going to help all of us understand better.

I'm sure of that :)