5 Reasons to Stop Using 1 Timothy 2:12 Against Women
Hundreds of pages have been written on this chapter, with almost as many interpretations, proving this to be one of the least understood…
What I Would Tell My 12-Year-Old Self About Gender Roles
It wasn’t until I started attending a private Christian school as a 12-year-old that I became aware of the spectrum of views regarding…
Who “Killed” Junia? Part One
When I first began wondering how to harmonize my church’s restrictions on women with some of the passages I found in scripture, I…
Defusing the 1 Timothy 2:12 Bomb: What Does Paul Mean by Authority (Authentein)
In my recent post on 1 Timothy 2:12, discussion about the word “authentein” (often translated as authority) was especially rich. Here are some…
Defusing the 1 Timothy 2:12 Bomb
A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man;[b] she…
Footnoted: Was the Bible Written Only for Men? Part 2
In Part One Rebecca wrote about how the Greek word “adelphoi” has been intentionally translated as “brothers” rather than as “brothers and sisters”…
6 Reasons to Include Women Elders on Your Church Board: Part 2
In the end, you see, it’s not about effectiveness, although adding women to your church board will certainly have an impact on that.…
Lost In Translation: A Look at 1 Timothy 2:12-15
In Lost in Translation, Part 1, Bob showed that some words in the Bible are translated differently when they refer to women as…
Lost In Translation: Phoebe, Servant or Minister?
Though inequality makes some of my complementarian friends uneasy, they hold fast to their beliefs nonetheless. They do this, some tell me, because…
Taking the Backseat of Christianity
I was a freshman in college and I believed that I needed to take the backseat of Christianity. I was headed to Columbia,…
Male-Female: Equality in the Gospel of Luke
When we view scripture from the 30,000 foot level we see it moving in the direction of a more equal partnership of men…
Egalitarian Marriage: More Than An Equal Division of Roles
On the third Wednesday of each month I set up camp in a conference room at the hospital where I work. I set…
Paul’s Egalitarian Reading of the Old Testament
For years I struggled with my relationship with the apostle Paul. On the one hand, as a teenager, I was completely taken with…
Miss & Carry: Towards a Theology of Unrealized Motherhood
In this personal and moving post, guest author Hannah Helms makes the case that the Church needs a better theology to address the…
Confessions of a Closet Egalitarian
I never heard the words egalitarian or complementarian until last summer. At 50 (first of my true confessions) I’m a little late to…