Don

It does concern me about the seemingly vociferous response by some of the non-egals to this “defection” in their ranks.

My take is part of the non-egal’s argument (see Grudem) is that the words of God about “no women teaching men” are clear and just need to be obeyed.  When someone deviates in just a slight amount from the supposed orthodoxy of CBMW and co., it calls into question their argument based on clarity.  The more they respond with paper after paper, the more they self-repudiate their claim of supposed clarity.

This means they are in a no-win position from their viewpoint and they do not like that, so they wish all who think like them would quit making waves and just agree with them.  When some do not, it invokes their fear response, so they think it is entirely justified to respond in ways to try to create doubt and fear in the “defector”.

As Wade Burleson points out on his blog, there was SUPPOSED to be agreement on the (Southern) Baptist Faith and Message that said (in effect) no women  pastors, but left it up to churches whether women could teach.

But that is not good enough for some non-egals, the “evil virus” of women teaching men needs to be eradicated or else the bogeyman (liberalism) will come and the Bible will mean anything you want.