I’ve posted 304 times on this blog and I’ve called for action. We can’t stay in this hole. We can’t keep blogging, fussing, writing comments after comments that say the same thing. I am grateful for all of you who are so knowledgeable about the scriptures, about life, and about the situation women are in today. I am grateful that you have taken the time to read what I have to say. But I don’t want to be blogging about this 5 years from now.
What do you want to do?
Do you want to still be reading the same stories 2, 5, 7, 10 years from now? I don’t.
I read a blog this week and the preacher-man was extolling his wife of 25 years on their anniversary. But in his blogposts, he wrote about biblical womanhood, and folks, it just makes you sick. His wife has certain roles that she must fit into, and rejoice in it. He has grand roles that he fits into, all greater than hers, of course. After all, she is a woman, and women can’t do certain things.
Now why do you think a preacher keeps on writing about complementarianism (role-playing men and women)? What pleasure do they get out of it. Do they love feeling superior, because of course that is the positon they have given themselves? Do they get a kick out of telling women that “the Bible says” you have to stay in your role?
What do you want to do?
Do you want to defend yourself, and other women, for another 10 years?
If you are like me – tired of being put down by those in the pulpits, those we look up to as our pastors, and our friends – won’t you help do something about it?
What do you want to do?
bWe Baptist Women for Equality's Blog 
I cant believe noone has commented 😦 im not sure what i want to do, to be honest. But a couple months ago i went to a wedding where they said the same business as above about submission, and i was furious. I felt this way for more than a month, so i let my friend who got married know (he was kind about it) and then i emailed the minister. He actually replied and said sorry. Thats not to say he has changed his mind, who knows. But i feel a lot better now. Hugely better!! 🙂 so i will speak out from now on about this. I dont think it will be enough, but it is a start.
How about you? What do you want to do??
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That takes courage, and I applaud you for doing that. If we want to change, we must step out. A minister whose church is not egalitarian (yet) but who is thinking about it, said that it must come from the people in the pews. When enough people in the pews start telling their pastors that it has to change, they will be forced to do so. Right now, the ministers are calling the shots and they are learning at the feet of Piper, Grudem, Patterson, Mohler, Driscoll. They are also being bullied to conform to their teaching. Thank you for telling us about the action you took, at a possible great cost.
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I Love reading your blog. I have even sent it to a few of my female friends. In general, I am finding women to be passive in their role of the church. I really feel that they truly believe that they should be in the position in which they find themselves. Or, they don’t want to upset anyone. This sickens me. Yes, I listen to my husband, but i never feel subjugated.
I agree that this “higherarchy” is a man proclaimed one. I feel that this way of being is about a man’s fear of women and because men are more aggressive than women, they can get away with this type of attitude.
I don’t put up with it and usually say something, in a nice way unless they just don’t get it. Then I take other actions, such as, removing myself from their “authority”. Which is something I have just recently done since this man’s actions were so graciously couched in kindly sheparding. It just turned my stomach, especially since I was reminded that I was to submit to his pastoral position. P-L-E-A-S-E. to me this smacked of manipulation and justification.
Tell me how I can help.
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Welcome! I am so glad to hear from you. You are right about the passivity of women. I read that during the civil rights movement in the 1960s, most blacks were not for their civil rights. Most did not want to be involved. Some spoke out against it. Things were okay just the way it was. If it had been left up to those people, our African-American friends would still be sitting in the back of the bus.
It is time to do something, and I am glad you asked. You can help by promoting these kinds of blogs among your friends. You can join our CBE facebook where you will find much information, and read what people are saying on other blogs and venues. Our unofficial logo is “Educate and Agitate.” All the education is not going to make a difference unless there is activity associated with it. Either speaking up or leaving a hierarchal teaching church are options. Both have emotional consequences. However, doing something is necessary.
I particularly want to encourage you to Commit to 5. That is a simple plan, but we have to start somewhere. We need a plan that anyone can start doing at any time, and commit to educating others about what is going on. I emphasize Christians for Biblical Equality because I am a member and it is the only organization equipped with teaching literature and support for egalitarians.
1. Pray about gender equality
2. Visit the CBE website (www.cbeinternational.org) to read one article and one recommended book on gender equality.
3. Attend or host a small group Bible study or book discussion group for further exploration of gender equality.
4. Make one change in the way I sp3ak about and participate in congregational worship.
5. Share my journey with at least one other person who I think wil be blessed with the knowledge of gender equality.
I want to hear from you. Please let me know what you decide to do.
God bless.
Thank you for sending this blog to your friends.
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The comments on this blog entry just make my day!!!! I am with Shirley 1000%. We have become good friends over the course of last year, when we got together to do a conference in Houston. I too, feel that I must do something. I am constantly agitating. WE MUST SPEAK UP, TELL PEOPLE WE DON’t AGREE WITH THEM, MAKE OUR VIEWPOINT KNOWN. So many people still do not have the most rudimentary clue about this gender abusive teaching.
I encourage you to go on Facebook. If you friend me or Shirley, we can include you in the open FB page CBE or CBE Houston. I post many good links there. Shirley cannot blog everyday of course, but almost everyday I will be posting something there. My goal is
EDUCATE and AGITATE
Please take Commit to 5 seriously.
Join CBE. Go to their website and read the free articles there. They are EXCELLENT.
http://www.cbeinternational.org/?q=content/free-articles
Pray for your church leaders. Let them know you do not agree witht heir gender bias. But before you confront them, make sure you educate yourself first so that you have an answer to their stock response, you know, the party line, and the usual bible passages about women submit to men’s authority, keep quiet and not have authority over men, etc. etc. etc., based on the English translation of the bible of course. The Divine revelation was always in English, you know.
If your finances allow you, attend next year’s CBE conference in Pittsburg, end of July . CBE has a conference in the US every other year, and always at end of July. This is inside information I am giving you as CBE has not officially announce the location of next yr’s conference yet. They will do so some time after their conference of 2012, in Kenya. The CBE conferences are always excellent. I have been to 4 CBE conferences, and they are all of the best quality. I can vouch for them. With this advance notice, God willing, I will see you there.
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As Mabel says, join with us. All of us together will make a difference. We join hands with all of you and will form a net (network) that will be strong. From wherever you are located, link your hands with those who are fighting against injustice in the church (of all places!).
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Before doing anything, we should remember that this is a spiritual battle, not a physical one. Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
It is the spiritual enemies that incite men to pride, that want half the gifts in the church to go unused, etc. The way that the majority of words in any confession of “Biblical manhood and womanhood” (for example the Danvers statement; the True womanhood manifesto; the Resolution of the Courageous movie) are about ordinary Christian truth, true for both genders and not setting out different gender roles, so the statements could seem deceptively orthodox and get acceptance from Christians, is evidence that the gender role people are influenced by the deceiver.
What should we do? I pray that God gives us strategies, but start with putting on the full armor – our enemies are not Grudem or Kassian or Piper or Baucham.
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our enemies are not Grudem or Kassian or Piper or Baucham.
True, they are simply doing the bidding from their boss the Great Deceiver.
Yes, you are right about this being a spiritual war. This is the end times, and people do not want to hear the truth. That seems to be the only reason why a John Piper conference draws thousands and a CBE conference draws maybe 200. The Great Deceiver is doing a great job brilliantly: candy coat the poison, use euphemism so that the naive will not see the real identity of the teaching, i.e. complementary instead of male hierarchy, role instead of caste system, manhood instead of male entitlement, womanhood instead of woman subjugation, etc.
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I think women and men who believe strongly enough in equality will have to break off from hierarchical churches and start their own. Equality will not happen by waiting for men to give women permission to share power. Those who enjoy such priveledged positions aren’t about to give that up. When enough women get fed up with getting trampled on maybe they will be willing to risk the pain of rejection and loss of relationship to regain the selves God gifted them with.
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I fear that you may be right. There are 118 Southern Baptist churches in this association, and not a one of them have a woman as a deacon, and certainly not as a pastor. In the Baptist churches, a deacon is next to the pastor in the church leadership. Women may be worship leaders (singers), or children’s ministers, but even those “ministers” could not be a deacon if they left and went to another Baptist church across the street. Education, spirituality, giftedness doesn’t count. The only thing that counts is being male.
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Take action. Study the methods of bringing change through non-violence. Create events that cannot be ignored by media and hierarchy. Be subversive. Demonstrate at church and clerical gatherings with placards, sit-ins. more here: http://www.peacemagazine.org/index.php?id=2083 Inform media of your planned action. Invite female clergy from other denominations to bring focus to your gatherings. Enrol men as allies. Refuse to accept any patronising attitude from men in your communities. Take your husbands with you. Stand your ground. Invite men to your meetings. Train each other in public speaking. Rehearse your responses to repressive attitudes. Research and practise the language of Scripture. Become experts through practise. Elect a gifted woman to speak on your behalf to the media. Fund raise and pay her a salary, for she will need time to build her skills. Understand that women can be gutsy, brave and instrumental in bringing about change.
Women’s suffrage did not come about through men’s good will. It came about through sustained action in the public that finally shamed the men in power to reconsider their prejudices. You have a cause that eventually will be history. You are on the right side of history. Don’t shy away from the hard decisions. You may have to leave the community to form an embracing, welcoming community.
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Yes! That is what we must do. Thank you for putting it so concisely. We are at a cross-roads. We can educate and agitate (our new buzz words) or we can just spin our wheels and get nowhere.
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We need to pray for God to raise up leaders to organize women in churches across America, so that when we act, we can act as one. A few women will be seen as agitators. A large number of women will be seen as a movement. One woman walking out of a sermon on male authority will be ignored. Twenty or 50 women walking out of a sermon on male authority will be noticed.
And we need to pray whether God might be calling one of us to take such leadership. The Internet is a powerful tool for communication. The women’s prayer walk in March of next year could be much better communicated, organized and attended than it was this year.
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Yes, we are learning to walk, and have fallen down many times, but soon we will be running! I believe God is already at work. He may be raising one of us up already. (I am not a speaker and don’t qualify for this. This is something for someone else.) The woman’s prayer walk is a CBE International project, but we can begin now to think how we will participate in it. March will be here before you know it. We can organize, educate, and promote it. The more people involved the better. Do you know anyone who would take on such a project? We could work alongside CBE or go on our own. It is a date on a calendar that anybody can use! It is Galatians 3:28, hence March 28. Excellent suggestion. Thank you.
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No criticism was intended, Shirley. I believe you and CBE are doing a wonderful job!
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Oh, I didn’t see any criticism. Please don’t think that. You are like me, just glad that somebody is doing something.
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Thanks krwordgazer.
Make sure that your men are with you. Start at home and double your numbers. In the Lutheran Church of Australia, the Working Party on Women’s Ordination, from a city congregation in Adelaide, has a majority of men. Men are important in the struggle. It’s not a male vs female thing.
In our church it’s also not about theology any longer, as our theological bodies have found no objection to women’s ordination. It’s now about politics and networking. It seems to us that you need to jump straight to strategy and action. Don’t trust one strategy, but develop a hundred strategies.
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Excellent point, Katie & Martin. Fifty women walking out of a sermon will be noticed, but could very easily be dismissed as ‘rebellious women who just don’t want to submit.’ We need men to stand with us, and walk out with us too!
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Here’s something on the women’s suffrage reference I made. We recently referred Emmaline Pankhurst in a post: http://katieandmartin.wordpress.com/2012/05/06/emmaline-pankhurst-now-that-we-are-roused-we-will-never-be-quiet-again/
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Thanks for looking at my blog. I haven’t found out anything about that artist. I’d love to see your GG Bridge piece though.
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Shirley, thank you for visiting my blog. I have not been able to find anything online about this artist and am not sure if it is a “J” or an “L”. I’d love to see your painting though.
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I feel as you do Shirley, our efforts require action! There is a lot of prayer and fasting women need to do (myself included). The key to me is to not focus so much on attacking those that oppose us but rather following the Spirit to create something “new”. Really I feel the Spirit wants to raise up something that belongs to the Lord not to institutions, or pastors, or authoritarians. Women need to be praying and seeking about where God wants to use them to plant churches, evangelize, pray for the sick/demon possessed etc. etc. The Spirit is calling women to do the work of the kingdom “The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.” I don’t need permission from any church or man to go out and take care of sick, I don’t need any man to tell me I can preach, we don’t need men to give us their blessing to do the work the Lord has for us. I don’t mean just “men” I mean institutions that men have created boards, organizations, denominations etc. I am very radical with my views because I have seen the limits men put on God and it is offensive to the Spirit and if God is not allowed in church He will use whoever is willing to work outside of it. The Lord will educate us through each other and His word and we will keep each other accountable and move to come against the gates of hell. It is definitely time to act and reach out to whoever comes into our path. The time for fear is over, the time for attachment to man made religion is over, the time of the Spirit is here and we must heed Him so we can act according to the Lords will.
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Celina, I agree with what you said but I would like to add one more: there is strength in unity and in numbers. I am realistic. That’s why I belong to CBE. CBE is not a big or powerful organization because so few women and men see the need to join it. We can all go out and do our own thing, but there is something about critical mass that is essential for a voice to be heard. If this blog has no followers, each follower has his/her blog, I doubt the effect will be the same. An egalitarian blog with a large # of followers where each can learn from another is a good thing. A good discussion is healthy. A good and Godly church (ekklesia, community) with many followers where each can do what God wants him/her to do is a good thing. However, each person who belongs in a larger community also need to make his/her own solitary walk with God. I think the Berean model is best: each person listen carefully to separate true from false teachings.
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