• Why Arguments Against Women in Ministry Aren’t Biblical by Ben Witherington

Why Arguments Against Women in Ministry Aren’t Biblical by Ben Witherington

I would ask that you visit the Patheos blog post I am linking you to. It’s very long but a good read. I am only providing some excerpts from that page here on my blog.

Why Arguments Against Women in Ministry Aren’t Biblical by Ben Witherington, June 2015, on Patheos

….Never mind that the Bible does not have categories like ‘senior pastor’ or ‘pulpit minister’, the NT has been used over and over again to justify the suppression of women in ministry— and as I was to discover through years of research and study, without Biblical justification.

…So in this post I am going to deal with the usual objections to women in ministry, one by one.

….1) Women can’t be ministers, because only males can be priests offering the sacrifice of the Mass etc.

The root problem with this argument is that the NT is perfectly clear that apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists, elders, deacons ARE NOT PRIESTS IN THE NT.

There is no need for a separate order of priests in the NT because Christ’s sacrifice made obsolete the entire OT sacerdotal system of priests, temples and sacrifices.

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• Viking Warrior Discovered in Sweden Was a Woman, Researchers Confirm

Viking Warrior Discovered in Sweden Was a Woman, Researchers Confirm

Viking Warrior Discovered in Sweden Was a Woman, Researchers Confirm

by Emily Shugerman

Scientists had long assumed the skeleton belonged to a man

Swedish scientists have revealed that the body of a Vikingwarrior long presumed to be male is, in fact, female.

A team of researchers from Stockholm University conducted a DNA analysis of the skeleton and confirmed that it belonged to a woman. The 10th-century skeleton, the researchers concluded, is the first confirmed female high-ranking Viking warrior.

Scientists had long assumed that the skeleton was male – despite early indications that she may have been female – largely because of the status symbols buried alongside her.

Early archaeologists uncovered a sword, an axe, a spear, armour-piercing arrows, a battle knife, two shields, and two horses in the grave, signifying the buried individual’s status of as a “professional warrior”.

• The Biggest Myth About Our Brains is That They are “Male” or “Female” by Lila MacLellan

The Biggest Myth About Our Brains is That They are “Male” or “Female” Lila MacLellan

The Biggest Myth About Our Brains is That They are “Male” or “Female” Lila MacLellan

Snippets:

We take for granted how often laymen and even researchers use science—and specifically neuroscience—to “verify” stereotypes about gender: That men are naturally more competitive, for instance, or that women are more in touch with their emotions and better skilled at communicating.

Such notions aren’t just academic, but pervasive and potent, indirectly influencing the way we organize our households and organizations, not to mention the way we see our relationships, and even ourselves.

Recently, former Google engineer James Damore was fired from the company after writing a memo criticizing its diversity programs, and suggesting there may be biological reasons that women aren’t fully represented in engineering.

Studies have found that women care more about people than things, wrote Damore, who holds a graduate degree in biology and cited studies from both Wikipedia and reputable institutions.

“When I hear stories like the Google memo in the news, I think, Is this 1873 or 2017?” says Kimberly Hamlin, a professor of American Studies at Miami University.

Hamlin, who is the author of From Eve to Evolution: Darwin, Science, and Women’s Rights in Gilded Age America, says the same arguments about women’s abilities keep being repackaged with new natural reasoning because “naturalist” explanations for why there are few women in science and tech are easier to accept than the more complex structural ones.

…Today, these five researchers, while still working independently, also join forces in pairs or as a group to write papers for the scientific and popular press, and to respond to public issues about gender and neuroscience, explaining the many ways that neuroscience studies and their tantalizing headlines are misleading or misinterpreted.

• Gender Complementarian Trinitarian Analogies Do Not Work

Gender Complementarian Trinitarian Analogies Do Not Work

Blogger and author Scot McKnight made a series of posts about complementarianism and the Trinity this past week. I tweeted links to some of these blog posts earlier. The other night, blog Wartburg Watch made a post about these McKnight posts.

In that comment thread at TWW blog, I made a few comments, which I’ll get to in a moment.

For now, here are links to the McKnight posts (on his “Jesus Creed” blog):

Complementarianism’s Trinity: The Story Now Told – Aug 14

The Rise of the Complementarian Hypothesis of the Trinity – Aug 15

Civil War Among The Complementarians – Aug 16

Why Did It Take So Long? – Aug 17

The Trinity: Not from the Bible Alone – Aug 22

Some complementarians use a doctrine called E.S.S. (Eternal Subordination of the Son) to ground the subordination of wives to husbands in their very being (they use ESS as an ontological device).

They argue that because (in their view) that Jesus Christ is supposedly eternally subordinate to God the Father, in the same way, married women are subordinate to their husbands.

(I am unclear if the complementarians arguing ESS mean to say all women, regardless of marital status, are to be subordinate to all men or not. In all the cases I’ve seen of complementarians arguing ESS, it’s generally been on the basis of marital submission.)

• The Negative Side Effects of Anti Depressant Medications by Sonya Vatomsky

The Negative Side Effects of Anti Depressant Medications by Sonya Vatomsky

I took physician-prescribed anti-depressant medications (about two or three types at different dosages) and about two anti-anxiety medications off and on over a period of about 17 to 18 years. None of the medications helped me.

There have been many articles and studies published (that I can remember) in the last 15 years disputing if anti-depressants are effective for most.

Here’s an article about the negative side effects some people experience when taking anti-depressants or anti-anxiety medications:

When Medication Side Effects Make You Rethink What It Means to Have a ‘Good Life’

Snippets:

by Sonya Vatomsky

Even if you aren’t aware of it, the chances are good that someone you know is taking some sort of psychiatric medicine.

According to the most recent research, an estimated one in six adults in the U.S. have a prescription for antidepressants, anti-anxiety pills, or some other drug to help them manage their mental health.

And with those drugs, for many of those people, come the side effects — some of which can feel dire enough to become a problem in and of themselves, requiring a second treatment to offset the first.

• Man Copes With the Death of His Wife By Hiking

 Man Copes With the Death of His Wife By Hiking

What may become my standard opener for posts about death and grief:

My mother died a little bit before the year 2010 (yes, I am being intentionally sketchy about specifics because I would like to remain anonymous).
I discovered the hard way after my mother’s passing, and I was shocked and deeply saddened and disappointed to find, that most Christians are terrible at helping someone who is in grief.
Many Christians do not even want to try to be there for someone who has experienced loss, whether out of laziness, selfishness, or feeling uncomfortable with open expressions of emotional pain.
Whatever the reason, most Christians do not want to weep with the one who weeps and therefore leaves them to cope with the loss completely alone, which I feel is terrible and insensitive.

---

I watched a Christian program that involved a man whose wife died of breast cancer. He started hiking to cope with the loss.

Before I get to the link and his story, I wanted to use his story as a reminder: conservative Christians keep offering this fairy tale story that marriage will solve all a person’s problems.

The conservative church portrays singleness after the age of 25 as being second class or merely a waiting period until one eventually marries (what if one never marries? they never address this possibility).

Getting married is not a solution to loneliness, financial problems, or about anything else problematic, as so many Christians like to portray it.

Should you marry, your spouse may turn out to be abusive (whether physically, emotionally, verbally, or financially), your spouse may announce one day that he’s not in love with you any longer and wants to divorce you to marry another; or, your spouse may come down with a mental health problem or get into a car wreck and become paralyzed.

And, of course, as this post shows, should you marry, your spouse may die from a physical cause.

Hiking Through – One Man’s Great Adventure on the Appalachian Trail

Snippets:

Each year thousands of people attempt to hike the entire Appalachian Trail from start to finish. Only one in four completes it. When then 58-year-old Paul Stutzman took his first steps on the 2,176 mile journey, he wanted more than a great adventure. He was looking for an encounter with God.

Years before, Paul was busy living life. He was happily married, had three children and a great job managing a large restaurant in Ohio’s Amish country.  Then in 2002, doctors diagnosed his beloved wife Mary with breast cancer. Although they did everything they could and believed God would heal her, Mary passed away four years later.

• Should You Stay In A Bad Church To Try to Fix It, or Leave It?

Should You Stay In A Bad Church To Try to Fix It, or Leave It? 

I don’t know the person who tweeted this. I think her Tweet came through my timeline because I follow one of the people who left her a reply.

She said in her Tweet,

“Leaving bad churches is wrong. Change the church you’re in. If you don’t, it never changes & healing never comes. Don’t #EmptyThePews …”

Leaving bad churches is wrong. Change the church you're in. If you don't, it never changes & healing never comes. Don't #EmptyThePews 1/2

— Valerie Ohle (@SheSeesFar) August 17, 2017

Ohle also Tweeted that if you are in a bad church, you are obligated to stay in it to protect other members:

everyone sitting there with you. I'm not built to leave them sitting there without an attempt to save them.

— Valerie Ohle (@SheSeesFar) August 17, 2017

The majority of people who left her comments disagreed with her position.