It’s a wonder women go to church at all.
The pastor of a large church here in my town preached on 1 Pet 3:1 only three weeks after the SBC Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, adopted the Danvers Statement. You are familiar with that verse. It is the “wives, be submissive to your husbands” scripture that they love to use. He was laughing and made this derisive remark to women:
“Women, if you don’t like it, take it up with Peter. He’s the one that said it. I just read it.”
For one thing, that is not what the scripture means. What it means is this: “Wives, don’t divorce your husbands now that you are a Christ follower. Continue in your marriage and act just like you always have. Maybe your husbands will come to the Lord when they see how a Christian woman acts.”
I got this from another SBC pastor this past week in reply to a letter I sent him. This is what he said:
Thanks for taking the time to write. I’m sorry you see the SBC position as a “hard line stance against women.” I would respectfully disagree. I believe the SBC has accurately interpreted the Scriptures and desires to obey our loving Lord on this issue.
This is obviously a cause you are very passionate about and committed to, and there is little chance of me changing your mind. But if you are genuinely interested in learning more about what the Bible teaches on this subject and would be willing to yield to God’s teaching, I would be happy to pass along some Scriptures and recommended reading.
After I got his email, my husband checked him out on his website. This pastor had just finished a 12 part sermon and he summed it up in the last sermon by saying: “men are ordained to be the head of the household, and the church.” Same old story. Men are ordained to lead, and it is just women stopping them again. How big is that apple?
He is in California and I had great hopes that he would be supportive! But you can see his mind is as closed as mine is when it comes to equality for women.
I wrote back and said, “I got a chuckle out of your reply. I was so with you when you talked about my passion, but then you told me I had a closed mind and was unwilling to yield to God’s teaching.”
Then I said, “I’ll see you in heaven someday. I guess I will be in the women’s section. I’ll wave.”
You think men would go to church to listen to a sermon on how unworthy they are just because they were born?
Isn’t a sermon supposed to be on something you can actually do something about?
Unless we become trans-gender!
bWe Baptist Women for Equality's Blog 
That “take it up with Peter” comment is a danger sign. When someone starts doing that, they are saying “There is no such thing as interpretation and exegesis. There is only the way I read it, which is the correct way. To question my reading is to question the authority of the Bible and ultimately to question God.”
When a leader equates questioning his teachings with questioning God, he’s well on his way to cult-founding. Don’t drink that Kool-Aid.
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Thanks for the comment. I am continually surprised that these pastors who preach this are joyful in their preaching. It would seem that pastors would be sorrowful and pleading before God for the half of his flock who are women.
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The text, throughout all cultures and throughout all time (as it’s consistent with the O.T. structure of the marriage covenant), has always spoken for itself.
The issue currently within the churches that comprise churcheanity is that they have laid the foundation of acceptance to the assumptions of cultural supremacy (engineered by the well-funded rabbinic/Talmudic -oral tradition- anti-Christ minion) over the supremacy of the written tradition.
In ALL organizations there is such a requirement as righteous leadership. Granted in the Judaized Zino-Masonic anti-Christ construct of Western culture it’s rare. Instead of seeking clarification for clarity of the responsibility of the husbands leadership (headship) the Judaized Baptist women have sought to usurp both the principles and righteous examples of the written tradition.
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“In ALL organizations there is such a requirement as righteous leadership. Granted in the Judaized Zino-Masonic anti-Christ construct of Western culture it’s rare. Instead of seeking clarification for clarity of the responsibility of the husbands leadership (headship) the Judaized Baptist women have sought to usurp both the principles and righteous examples of the written tradition”
One of the more basic problems is that there is no such thing as “headship”. It is a made up word that redefines the meaning of “kephale”.
Why isn’t there a “bodyship”?
Let us start with the very words and concepts they present as factual or biblical which are not.
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Then I said, “I’ll see you in heaven someday. I guess I will be in the women’s section. I’ll wave.”
I’m sorry, but I howled with laughter when I read that!
YOU GO GIRL!
But if you are genuinely interested in learning more about what the Bible teaches on this subject and would be willing to yield to God’s teaching, I would be happy to pass along some Scriptures and recommended reading.
How passive aggressive! YUCK!
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Thank you for writing about us in your blog http://www.eaandfaith.blogspot.com. We need to spread the word. Hopefully this rock will put a chink in their armor and people like yourself will make the hole larger.
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My husband (master) and I are members of a missionary baptist church. As in most other baptist churches, women are allowed to: sing in the choir, tend to small children, and do kitchen detail. In business meetings, we are not allowed to talk, but we are allowed to raise our hands when the men give us permission to do so. If a woman wants to do something in the church, she has to ask a man. If the man likes the idea, he will bring it before the men at a meeting. Otherwise, forget about it. We are muzzled and kept on leashes. It’s okay for us to have jobs, because that means the church gets more tithes. (Taxation without representation?). My husband and I came within weeks of getting a divorce before he finally begrudgingly accepted the possibility that maybe I’m a human and not a piece of property.
I have completely tuned out of church affairs. I don’t care what they do. It’s not like I matter, anyway.
Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclaimation just freed official slaves. It didn’t do anything for women. The three-fifths compromise still applies to us. We count as part of the population, but we have no voice.
No racism intended here — I’m just trying to make a point: “Jest cawse dey let us niggahs come up and set fer a spell in de big house, doan mean dey gonna let us have any say on what goes on in deah.” Yeah, that’s how the SBC and the baptist churches in our area make me feel.
How can I be a baptist and a human at the same time?
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First, let me thank you for reading my blog and writing to me. Did you read the latest blogpost called Speech at El Buen Pastor? I want you to read this one because it is very pertinent to your letter. I tell those women they are equal – no buts, and I tell you that also. However, the church will not tell you that. I encourage you to read as much as you can about this movement that we are in for women’s equality. Please look at the Christians for Biblical Equality website http://www.cbeinternational.org. I am a member of that organization and recommend it. Also look at http://www.equalityjunction.com which I co-founded and do the writing. You might enjoy my book “Women Equal – No Buts: Powered by the same Source.” I know this is a lot of reading, but you found me somehow, so you are searching for the truth. On the Equality Junction website there are many more websites to read. Click the tab Connections, then find Individuals on that page. We are all saying the same things in different ways, but it is all biblical. Don’t give up.
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Even the dogs get the crumbs from the master’s table …… not only did Jesus heal the lady’s daughter, he complimented the lady on her courage, persistence, and faith!!!!!
We have to be courageous and persistent.
“Pass along some scriptures…”. Yeah, scriptures taken and used out of context and from a different time and culture to soothe his inferiority complex.
I am a woman, a wife, and I am sick (ME/CFS). But I blatantly refuse to be treated as substandard for any or all of those excuses!
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