Cheryl Schatz

Tiffany,

I have done my best to make you feel welcome here and gone out of my way to express Christian charity and acceptance. If you feel that you are not welcome until your views are accepted, you may have too high an expectation.

I find that some people are just too sensitive to enter into passionate dialog on a secondary issue. They take things personally when the comments are about issues not people. It is okay to make judgment calls about issues when giving clear reason why you judge things as unacceptable to you. It is not okay for people to judge other people’s hearts and this is what I try hard not to do or allow on my blog.

If you think that my blog is not kind or accepting to complementarians, let me give you an example of a complementarian blog that I occassionally post on that allows all kinds of attacks against the few egalitarians that dare to post. This is what one comp fellow posted just today. He had made a comment that egalitarians are divisive church splitters. When an egalitarian made this comment concerning where church splits come from:

It is the inability for Christians of differing viewpoints on non salvic issues to love one another with the love of Christ.

Within a comment or two after that the complementarian posted:

The above reflects the thought processes of a passive-aggressive egalitarian personality seeking the high ground by claiming false victimhood.

This is the kind of interaction from complementarians that is typical on many complementarian forums. But it is not the typical comments on my blog because I don’t allow people to attack one another here. If you think that I am not doing a good enough job of keeping the peace and making complementarians know that they are welcome here and are loved as dear brothers and sisters in Christ, then perhaps you could instruct me on what it is that I need to do to do a better job. And when you visit a complementarian forum that regularly roasts egalitarians, then maybe you will reconsider so that you can understand that passionate argument on one’s beliefs vs another’s beliefs is not a personal attack, but attacks on a person’s motives is such an attack.

Lastly the issue of truth that is debated here will not likely change an opponent’s mind immediately. This is why I believe we need to follow the Scripture’s command to love one another and to defend our faith with respect towards those who oppose. If they cannot see Jesus in us, they are unlikely to consider our argument as an argument coming from the heart of God.

I would like to remind all that patience is a virtue and it is okay if another person does not accept your view. The work of persuading of truth is really the Holy Spirit’s work and we are just instruments that are useful to Him as He does His work.