Now I don't want to get off on a rant here...

Is Feminism more important than Shepherding?

It ain’t the Ocars but, it is coming time to choose leaders at my church. As a member of the Nominating Committee, I have reflected upon my role quite a bit. The gravity of selecting leaders that will serve our body of believers is not to be taken lightly. As such, I have been prayerfully fasting and considering who is equipped for these roles of leadership.

One issue in particular that has weighed on my heart is the role of women in these positions. Has feminism become more important than leadership or shepherding in our culture today? Are the values of equality or perceived inequality becoming more important than Biblical principles? Have women been suppressed by the Church? Are women as important to the body as men? I’d say YES on all accounts.

Dave Rudd has laid out some fair assumptions regarding those that oppose women as elders:

• Because Paul's letters to Timothy and Corinth were inspired, they are directly transferable to us today.
• The gender specific language in the lists of "elder qualifications" eliminates the possibility of female elders.
• The concepts of male "headship" within the family are transferable to the roles within the church.
• God has designed women and men with distinctives which enable them to perform different tasks efficiently.

Being a member of a church that does not allow for women to be ordained as Pastors or Elders, one might think this to be a non-issue or at least an issue that has already been dealt with in my church. To some degree it has, but there also seems to be another issue at hand, husbandless wives. By this I mean, families that have wives and mothers as the spiritual head rather than the husbands and fathers that are physically present.

“[T]he New Testament sees a close relationship between male leadership in the home and male leadership in the church. This is in part because the church is viewed as a “family,” and patterns of church life are imitated in the family, while patterns of family life are to be imitated in the church.” said Wayne Grudem in Evangelical Feminism and Biblical Truth, Chapter 2: A Biblical Vision of Manhood and Womanhood in the Church. He continues that, “male leadership in the home and in the church will likely stand or fall together.”

My fear here is that as family structures tend not to reflect a Biblical worldview, than neither will the leadership of the church. It is a slippery slope indeed and not easy to balance the deficiency of available male leadership with the overwhelming blessing of gifted women. Grudem offers up this exhortation in his conclusion on A Biblical Vision of Manhood and Womanhood in the Church, “I simply encourage churches to be careful not to prohibit what the Bible doesn’t prohibit, while they also attempt to preserve male leadership in the way Scripture directs.” Conversely I would add that churches should be careful not to exhibit what the Bible does prohibit.

Some may disagree on the Bible actually prohibiting female leadership when it comes to teaching Biblical truths in a congregational setting and governing or shepherding the church. I would be hard pressed to agree with their specific set of assumptions as Dave Rudd as offered or characterize them as anything other than liberal:

• Men and women are created equal (and often equal means identical)
• Biblical passages need to be interpreted in light of their context (and sometimes that means the particular words become irrelevant).
• The gospels are a higher authority than the epistles. (this is not always assumed, but often it is argued that Jesus would never have differentiated between genders)

In the end, I believe we are all attempting to glorify God and make known His eternal truths to a fallen world. I realize that I do not have much to offer to this conversation in the way of exegetical discourse, but I do have a passion to serve God. That is my attempt and this is my working out of that passion.

Am I Elmer Fudd?!

Last night I cut the grass for the first time this spring. I guess I waited a little too long because the grass was a bit high. No big deal, my new lawnmower and I headed out into the yard to tackle the forest. My dog seemed very happy and watched me mow down path after path for him to make his way through the yard again. Of course he insisted on always standing in the longer grass because he is a black lab and I suppose he felt like he was hunting something when he was there and not just hanging out in the yard watching me.

I had a feeling because of his attention and because this isn’t the first time I’ve let the grass get too high in the spring, that we weren’t alone in the forrest. Yes it was ‘wabbit season’! Sparing the blogosphere the gruesome details, there are no longer rabbits in my backyard. There are however two unfortunate ones in a box by my trash can. And one that at least still had a chance that I carried out behind my garage, while trying not to let my neighbor’s two toddler sons see what was in my hand.

“Is that a rabbit, Mr. Jeff?!?!”
“Nope!”
“Daddy, Mr. Jeff said he has a rabbit!!!”
“NO I DIDN’T...squat!”

At any rate, I’m sure Google will be picking up on me soon with their new Seawch Engine.

Vote Early. Vote Often. Vote Black & Orange.

Because I love elections...

Vote for all your favorite Orioles
The 2005 American League and National League All-Star Teams will be unveiled on the Major League Baseball All-Star Game Selection Show presented by Chevrolet, which will air live on ESPN at 7 p.m. (EDT) on Sunday, July 3. This special program will feature the announcement of the 17 elected starters, as determined by the fan balloting program, and 45 pitchers and reserves, as determined by the player ballot, the two All-Star Team managers -- Terry Francona of the Boston Red Sox and Tony La Russa of the St. Louis Cardinals -- and Major League Baseball.

Dignified Noise

Yesterday the United Kingdom, our closest ally in the War on Terror, held their big election. It appears as though another controversial leader, like John Howard in Australia and George Bush here at home, has won another victory. Strong leaders are not easy to come by, bold leaders are even rarer. These are men of courage united to defeat the global threat of terror, and Tony Blair's victory is the second this week.

President George W. Bush spoke these words in reference to WWII about our friends on the other side of the lake:

America has always found strong partners in London, leaders of good judgment and blunt counsel and backbone when times are tough.
...
We saw an island threatened on every side, a leader who did not waver, and a country of the firmest character. And that has not changed. The British people are the sort of partners you want when serious work needs doing...America is fortunate to call this country our closet friend in the world.

We still see a country of firm resolve in their desire to support a leadership that supports the US. It is important to remember these close friends and thank them.

It is interesting to note this entry that appeared on the BBC Election Blog yesterday, while the election was taking place.

Dignified silence
The Election Monitor will return to active duty when polls close on Thursday, and when our correspondents round the country tell us how events are unfolding.

Does this refusal to comment on important issues like an election display a wise use of restraint? Is there a lesson to be learned from our friends here? Or do we simply affirm our Dignified Noise?

If you couldn't get it signed...

Check out the Gameday action...in progress as the O's avoid the sweep!

Humble to be an American

I don’t usually pay much attention to stories in the news that I think are absurd. Laura Ingram accurately refers to these dead on a arrival news stories as “shockumentary news”. Whether you are a bride with cold feet or a man that just murdered his wife or “a freak show of ‘Neverland’ pornography”, you don’t deserve the media attention you get. There is too much attention paid to this kind of news and very few people in the media are able to keep themselves from dipping into these kinds of stories.

That being said, I don’t like to draw attention to these kinds of “shockumentary stories” and rarely pay attention to anyone else that does. This is not one of those “however this story…” incidents. This is one of those, “I’m about to draw attention to a story I wouldn’t otherwise dignify with attention” moments.

Donna Glee Williams, the Director of the Holocaust Education Program at the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching, recently used her free lance writing skills to pen an article, “Yesterday and Today: Nazis and the Righteous Right”.

Here is the conclusion to the article:

And what we notice are a lot of parallels between the Nazi rise to power 80 years ago and the “Christian” right-wing rise to power today. Do we keep our wide-eyed mystification—“How could they have done those things?” —or do we do what Germans failed to do, what we revile them for not doing: Do we recognize the road we’re on, wrestle the steering wheel away from the mad bus-driver, and stop the bus before we get to the last stop, the town of Ultimate Consequences, Pop. 11 Million?

Where could she draw this conclusion from? It seems to boil down to this: nationalism, good geeky science, September 11th and homophobia. Yes that’s it; her four point plan to paint right-wing “Christians” as Nazis. Hardly seems reasonable to think that love of your country, an educational system producing smart people, a national tragedy and unfairly stereotyping people of faith would lead us to the 4th Reich. But that is right where we are, as Donna Glee Williams would have you believe.

Despite the enormous leaps of “faith” that are required to follow this story to its conclusion and agree with Ms. Williams, she does provide us with this small nugget of truth. Unfortunately it’s a parenthetical nugget, “(I’m still waiting for some churchgoing patriot to notice that being born American is a gift of grace and to begin marketing ‘Humble to be an American’ decals.)” That is actually a fantastic idea and taken out of the context as a snide remark, it certainly warrants attention. I believe it is that line alone that made me decide I would actually pay attention this “shockumentaryesque” story.

Ms. Williams certainly doesn’t fail to fall into the same relativist trap of her liberal brothers and sisters. “The core resentment that energizes the swing toward right-wing ‘Christian’ totalitarianism is the confusing, painful panic at seeing The Way and The Truth become one of many ways and many truths.”

The funny thing about that is there is no panic and there is no concern that The Way, The Truth and The Life will disappear. The Word of God is everlasting and the truths found in Scripture and revealed through the Holy Spirit have yet to be brought down to the footstools of liberal thought and they never will be. Jesus Christ has always impacted the culture, whether in persecution or in freedom. This so called “Christian totalitarianism”, is nothing more than the fear of moral relativism being squelched in the hearts of many.

Sharing the message of love, hope and faith brought to us by Jesus Christ with the world, with our country, with our communities, with our friends, with our families, with each other has nothing to do with taking over the world and exterminating people. It has everything to do with following The Way, The Truth and The Life and loving a gracious God. That is truly humbling.