Mara

“I am a complementarian because I don’t see any other way to understand God’s word on the issue.”

One reason you don’t see any other way is because you have only been shown one way and told that any one who dosen’t hold to this single view doesn’t respect scripture.

Keep in mind a couple things. There are centuries of tradition and prejudice against women that back up the complementarian view. For most of those centuries only men with a bias view of women (due to their culture*) have been allowed to handle and translate the Word. If, instead, women had been the gate keepers of the origianal Greek and Hebrew and were the ones who decided which verses were more important and to be lifted up and which verses were to be ignored or swept away, our understanding of the Bible and gender would be very different.

* An example of blatant bias against women only 450 years ago:
“Five years earlier, in 1647, Fox was both a seeker and a finder. He met with various people and groups, but none spoke to his condition. One group, “held [that] women have no souls…no more than a goose.” Fox responded by quoting Scripture, where Mary, the mother of Jesus, said, “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my savior.” [Luke 1:46-47] ”
Taken from:
http://trilogy.brynmawr.edu/speccoll/quakersandslavery/commentary/themes/radical_quaker_women.php