A somewhat liberal conservative

[Blossom]

I had already considered recommending that some of you visit Ben Witherington's blog. He was one of my profs in seminary (one of my favorites) and has written a good deal on the role of women in the Church. I think that he might serve as a good example of the diversity we have in conservative Christianity. On a number of points, he is more liberal than I am, yet he remains theologically conservative.

As of today, the second post down (scroll past "The Origins of the English Bible") on his blog deals with the Baptist woman who has been removed from her teaching position in her church. You may also find some of the replies to his entry interesting.

Here is a snippet from Witherington's post:

"And I will say once more-- the problem in Evangelical churches is not strong women. Its weak men who are so insecure that they feel threatened by strong women and can't handle them doing various things the Bible allows them to do."

www.benwitherington.blogspot.com (http://benwitherington.blogspot.com)

[BruceChris]

The fact of this woman's long service, her age and position in the community, and the high handed way in which this appears to have been done all point to this being totally outrageous. I have read works by countless women theologians, and women religious who have been saying these same things about the church, and their own denominations and churches. I could give you their names, but I would have to warn you beforehand, they are all a bunch of raving liberals, aka my kinda people. I'm going to have a talk about this with a friend of mine, the Reverend Nadean Bishop, recently retired as head pastor at University Baptist Church, here in Mineapolis. And they have had an accepting and affirming policy toward gays and lesbians for about ten years now. (Congregational Polity does have it's advantages, now and then.)

Perhaps more later. P&L, Bruce Chris