Cheryl Schatz

I would also like to comment on John’s quote:

“A person who pushes for equality in the Church to their own benefit is doing it from their own flesh and not from a pure heart.”

I agree with what Lin has said.  Not only is spiritual equality given through Christ by the Holy Spirit, but in the church it is primarily for the benefit of the body of Christ, not our own benefit.

We we serve the body of Christ, we are benefiting all.  Paul said in 1 Cor. 14 that all may prophesy so that all may learn.  When I give of myself, I am a servant to all.  We are to meet the needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ and serve them with our gifts.

Can you imagine a pastor saying that he needs volunteers to serve the body.  The volunteers need to serve the body by meeting the needs of the body.  They must give and give and give of themselves for the benefit of the body.  When a few hands go up, will the pastor say to them, “Your hand went up to benefit your own flesh and you do not have a pure heart”?  No, a servant who serves all is not lifting himself/herself up.  They are serving the body with love of their brothers and sisters in Christ and love for the Lord who died and bought them.

What I don’t understand is what manner of logic that consistently questions our motives?  If we would question motives, would it not rather be a question of the motive of the one who stands at the door of the church and will not allow in people who are not of the “right” nationality or the ones who have a certain standard of education or money?  Those who hold people back are not to be questioned but the one who wants to give of themselves as a sacrifice for the body of Christ should be questioned regarding their heart attitude?

Something is not right here.  It makes me think that there MUST be an attack on the person when there is a weak or nonexistent argument.

Those who pull at the apron strings will find an angry response because people do not like to have to rethink their theology when their theology is comfortable.  Five years ago I had to rethink my theology when I was confronted with someone who told me that God didn’t allow women to teach the bible to men.  Is this true?  I needed to find out for myself.  What I found in the scriptures was a whole bunch of contradictions that had to be examined.  Why so many contradictions internally within the passage and with other passages?  Those complementarian scholars who have dealt with me with charity have told me that my exegesis is thought-provoking and my questions deserve to be asked and answered.