More on the Soapbox re: women and T4G

Well, I have been having some interesting dialogue with folks about this T4G uproaor over the matter of women. I even gotten some really good comments from a variety of people. Thank you. I found some other blogs and comments that were worth bringing forth as well. So here they are.

Michael Bird's a self-styled Reformed Baptist New Testament professor at a Bible college is Scotland post is here, and is a very good one called Together for the Gospel … Not Quite! He concludes with this: "but I have huge alarm bells ringing in my head at the moment and I'm putting up my hand so that I can say, "Hey folks, do you realize what you are implying?" I believe that T4G is a good thing since it gets people energized to gospelize - and I'm all for that. But in trying to hoist high the complementarian flag I wonder if they have (inadvertedly?) lowered the value of women in the process. I believe that “together” in the gospel must include everyone irrespective of race, age, education, social rank, economic status, ethnicity and gender – or else it is not a gospel because the gospel creates a new creation where those distinctions no longer matter in relation to the church's corporate witness (2 Cor 5.21; Gal 3.28; Col 3.11). If my tone sounds overly serious (as opposed to my usual whimsical candour) it is because the gospel is at stake. "

Joel Hunter of The Boar's Head Tavern blog has this to say: [...] Junia, who would have been prohibited from attending certain widely-reported conferences, former BHT fellow Adam has a great post on this issue. Why do all the classy fellows retire from the BHT? Hmmm… [...] And in this he has an analysis the T4G conference and an addendum on what together means.

Ben Witherington, Professor at Asbury Seminary, has a post about the passage that tells women to be quite in the church I Tim 2: 8-15. He closes his article with the following: "The only proper hedge against misuse of such controversial texts like this is careful detailed study of the text in its immediate context, in the context of the Pastorals (noting for example how elsewhere in these documents Paul talks about older women who are mature Christians doing some teaching), in the context of Paul's letters in general, and in the context of Ephesus and the social world to which these words were written." You can also read N. T. Wright's thoughts on Women as clergy based on biblical thought here.

I really must be out in the woods, I am totally lost when these people start using terms like complemintarianism versus egalitarianism or whatever those two are. I do know "isms' are dangerous and can often cause schisms and cause more "isms."

Mike at Faith at Work blog wrote this article about T4G Together for the Gospel or Together in the Twilight Zone? Here is some of what he has to say "Not only does Bolton’s comment apply to the UN, I think it applies to the Together for the Gospel Conference that met in Louisville last week to separate the wheat from the chafe in gospel proclamation.
The result of this event, it seems to me, after reading bloggers who attended and those commenting, is not togetherness but more angst over theological debates that were the rage 30 years ago. Case in point: the role of women in pulpit ministry. "

42 has this on T4G. He also has more here where he too has collected some other writings on the topic. Sally has a link to 42 and to a great cartoon byDave Walker.

This has apparently stirred up alot of people that there were men only at this event called T4G.

I asked myself, why did I even bother to post in the first post when I knew what the response would be from those who went and those who are following this line of thinking? And the answer comes back, that I had no voice when The Southern Baptist convention voted in 84 to not ordain women, and then later when The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary was taken over by Albert Mohler and the Fundamentalists. I had no voice when it became clear that there was no place for me as an ordained minister in the Southern Baptist Convention. But now I have a voice and I have a place to post my thoughts. I am ordained in a denomination that answered this battle 50 years ago. And so having that voice and place to express my thoughts, I do so now. Maybe I do it with anger, but I stand by what I believe, and there are others standing with me.

Stepping down from my soapbox temporarily.