Cheryl Schatz

Lin,
Thank you for expressing your thoughts so clearly and by doing so you have encouraged me too!  I too feel the same way as you do.  These are our brothers in Christ who deserve to be encouraged by us and nourished by the gifts that God has given through us.  If we simply ignore the divisive behavior and never seek reconciliation we are acting as if they are the cancer in the church.  I for one am not willing to do that without giving everything I can to be a peacemaker.  Whether I can be that peacemaker or not remains to be seen.  I know that we are to reject a divisive man after a couple of warnings, but I think the warnings should be an all-out loving confrontation.  This is exactly what I would want someone to do for me if I was in error.  If they really loved me as a sister in Christ, then I should be pursued and lovingly taught the truth as if I was deceived, not that I was a deliberate deceiver.

The fact that strong hierarchists want nothing to do with me says more about their relationship with Christ than it does about me.  If one really, truly loves Christ, that one is to love the brethren in Christ.  How can one say that he loves God when he hates his brother?  I have not been loved by any of them and my objections have not been answered.  Rather I have been hated and rejected, lied about and forbidden to speak.  This is not the “Way of the Master” and when I have pointed this out, I have been accused of being judgmental.

Well I am willing to put my money where my mouth is.  I am persuing peace and standing up for what is right.  I do this in order that the one who has been extremely against women’s ability to teach the bible with authority as 1 Peter 4:11 encourages us to speak, will know that there are those who love him enough to say the truth in love and hold him accountable.

I have been told that I am an enemy and hurting the church.  If I am such an influence in the church, then why would they not take the time to personally influence me and do it in a loving and kind way?  I believe it is because the “fruit” of hierarchical teaching is not one of love and respect but power, control and a fight against any who would challenge the “right” to be the only spokesmen for God to the church.  There is simply no love lost towards their egalitarians brothers and sisters in Christ and it is such a shame.  This should never be.

I will be posting a response to an article by Randy Stinson on my blog where he talks about the necessity of complementarianism.  I have a special interest in this article especially since Randy is the one who threw my DVD set in the garbage after watching only a short bit of it.  Apparently he couldn’t stomach a woman teaching him even one-on-one on DVD.  My communication was with Chris Cowan from CBMW and he let me know that Randy Stinson was not even interested in trying to refute my exegesis.  Since they had originally agreed to do a review of the DVD series, they were obligated to send me a check for the DVDs that they deposited in the garbage.  In that way CBMW has unwittingly supported my work without any kind of refutation.  It is sad but typical.