Don Johnson

The point about believers having no infallible interpreters is a good one. In fact, history has shown that sometimes interpretations were made in order to reinforce the existing power structures, such as with the idea of the divine right of kings and the Southern Baptists, etc. splitting off to form their own group based on human slavery being OK. The point is we should resist the temptation to interpret the Bible to give a group we belong to an advantage over another group.

From the 2nd century until the 20th, it was just “KNOWN” that women are inferior to men, so it was mostly just accepted that men would be the leaders most of the time. THe male hierearchicalists cannot use this argument today, so they have to come up with entirely new ones, but all their arguments are recent inventions. So they try to make their answers sophisticated. What if someone taught today that blacks and whites have different but complementary roles to play? The answer is it would be seen as the racist rhetoric it would be. P.S. This WAS part of the argument in the 19th century for black slavery.

So the question becomes MUST one interpret some puzzling “women” verses to say that women cannot be leaders and the simple answer is that it is NOT true that one must do this. This is similar to whether one MUST interpret some puzzling verses on slavery to say that black slavery is OK. We know the answer to the latter.

P.S. When I was praying for you last night, I got a word that a faithful servant (you) were to be willing to “take an arrow” and not respond in kind and that this would allow the Holy Spirit to work on others, when they see your meekness when attacked.