LSchmitt wrote:
He is citing the Book of Discipline for part of this. As I’m sure you know that is ever changing. There was a time when women were not allowed to be ordained in the church. I would be curious to hear is take in that as well since their is scripture expressly stating women should not “teach or have authority over man.” Not many churches, including the Methodist, will stand in favor of that. I don’t seeing him or anyone else for that matter standing up against women being in the church. I am admittedly sour about the whole situation but I would summarize the modified plan he was in favor of as the if you don’t like it you can leave plan for local churches.
My perspective is that of a member of a different Protestant background. From Titus 3:5, I think congregations were meant to be autonomous, not governed by a central bureaucracy. Acceptance of practicing LGB individuals by the church is certainly an issue on which there is little middle ground. Perhaps the local congregations will coalesce according to their constituents' acceptance of Scripture.
While I agree that women should not teach or exercise authority over men (I Tim. 2:12), there are many roles where women
can serve: in women-only ministries, teaching children of all ages (where they are arguably better at it than men), and perhaps as deaconesses (I Tim. 3:11 seems to indicate women can also officially serve in that capacity-deacons focus on meeting physical needs, not teaching spiritual truths-Acts 6:1-4).
◼︎ We shall soon be in a world in which a man may be howled down for saying that two and two make four, in which people will persecute the heresy of calling a triangle a three-sided figure, and hang a man for maddening a mob with the news that grass is green. - Chesterton