Kay

gengwall,

I really appreciate the way you stated things in your last paragraph.
Co-leaders reminds me of the fact that husbands and wives are “joint heirs” together. And I think you are correct – joint heirs do not need another “spiritual leader” besides the Holy Spirit.

My husband and I relocated earlier this year and had to do the find-a-new-church thing. On Mother’s Day we unknowingly visited a very comp/patri church. The pastor’s Mother’s Day sermon made mothers sound like wombs for father’s children and he elaborated mostly on the importance of father’s “spiritual leadership.” I wondered if he had ever read Proverbs 31.

My husband and I have had an egal marriage for 28 1/2 of the 30 years we celebrate. I say that because during the 1990’s we were homeschooling and attended a church that was comp/hierarchial for a time because it was homeschool friendly, shall we say. Because neither of us came from a strong Christian background, we were influenced and “bought” into much of the teaching. After a bit more than a year of trying to figure out how to apply what we were being to taught at church without continuing to ruin our relationship, we had to get out. Not long after that I “happened” onto Gilbert Bilezikian’s book and then a few others. It was so wonderful to find out that our happy, loving, egal marriage wasn’t a sin.