i WILL prophesy!

I understand.    I get it.  I have done a lot of wondering, over the years, too.    I would say, though, that it’s been over the last couple of years or so while watching female friends struggle with being gifted, while denied a role or a place, that I’ve said, “enough.”  I choose to step over this issue – it just doesn’t have to be here.  It doesn’t have to be an obstacle in my life nor in my children’s lives.  And when you try on those new (but still faithful) scripture glasses – you are able to completely see it with a new view, new eyes.  The homeschooling world I have been a part of for a decade and a half clouded my view – for a time – because I let it.  I went with the flow, talked the talk, tried, even, to convince my husband that we were complementarians.  He didn’t want a thing to do with it.  He insisted that we built each other up, not ruled over the other.  He also feels that sometimes one will do heavier lifting, but that will switch and then the other one lifts their partner up.

(And as I type, I see what a gift my husband and even my father have given me, by not insisting on strong and restrictive gender roles.)

Methodism (and I’m not trying to proselytize – not my business.    ) has long been a forerunner on this issue, though – so it’s not really a recent splinter group.  The founder was a guy named John Wesley, and it dates back to the late 1700s.  It’s sorta the “anti-Calvinism.”    It has its’ problems, too – don’t they all?  However, by and large I find it a good place to be.  Women have long been encouraged in all aspects of ministry.  The college I went to was founded by a woman minister in the 1800s.  It’s only recently that I’ve realized how *radical* this was, and know that I come by my heritage honestly!    Nazarene, Wesleyan, Free Methodist, UMC churches – they all allow and encourage women in ministry – IF God so gifts and calls them.

(So, that’s just a little history and perspective – not really meant to *do* anything here….just wanted to share it.)

EE, I know what you mean about you and your husband fulfilling differing roles in your family.  We do too.  But?  Really, we’re not following rules.  I don’t do what I do because I have to and I would be sinning if I were to do otherwise.  I do what I do because of love (and so do you. )  If I needed to, I could breadwin.  And my husband?  He really does a great job at laundry and at cooking.  He never even asks – he just pitches in and does what needs to be done.  He has my heart forever. 

Sabahmom, this is a struggle for me, too, having left a strict Protestant  fundamentalist church but finding that so many others do limit women’s roles per their gender rather than per their abilities.  I have searched and am searching the Catholic and other orthodox types of churches and most have a limit on what women can do that always falls short of what men can do.  While I, too, am not interested in leadership in a church, I am uncomfortable with any church that says no woman may do thus and such just because she is a woman.  After all, though I may not feel called to be a priest, clergy, etc., some other woman might.  One form of Anglican church, from Africa, actually allows women at all levels, but the branch nearest me is not very near from a practical standpoint.   There are some Protestant churches that do allow women to participate at all levels.  These include some United Methodist, United Church of Christ, Quaker or Friends churches, etc.  Some do, some don’t.   I am still searching for something near to where I live that does not have a spiritual/practical glass ceiling for women that also conforms to other beliefs I hold to be important.   And, as you said, it is also about who gets to hold sway in the decision-making processes, also.  This is a helpful discussion.