Re: Women, etc.

From: Bill Mounce (billm@teknia.com)
Date: Thu Dec 07 1995 - 12:41:33 EST


Ellen,

>>I really don't think that using emotionally charged and incorrect language
>>like "chauvanist" is helpful or correct.
>
>Good point. I must learn to word things more discretely.

Thanks Ellen, I appreciate it.

>By the way, you teach Greek, presumably to students of both genders. Just
>out of curiousity, how do you counsel women involved in Biblical studies
>concerning their options in ministry?

I stopped teaching three years ago and left to have time with my family (my
kids are 1.5, 5, and 7). They were growing up and I was working two jobs in
order to have the "privilege" to teach at a Christian university in
southern California. HA! I am now finishing up my fifth and sixth writing
projects, pastoring at the church, learning what ministry is really about,
playing with my children, and being a husband to my wife. What a life!
Anyway, to answer your question, back then I encouraged the women to be as
active in ministry as the women in Scripture were active :-) and pleaded
that some do what TItus 2 requires and yet is almost uniformly passed over.
(which makes me wonder whether the issue for some is power and not
service). I always encouraged them to hold their conclusions for Biblical
reasons, not cultural, and if they came to a different conclusion than I,
then I was still their teacher and friend and would support them as I
could. This isn't a watershed issue for me, and we are all so tied up with
presuppositions and biases that in all honesty I think that we have to hold
out the possibility we are wrong on these issues that are not part of
orthodoxy.

Having said that, and having pastored for three years now, I can see the
devastation on marriages and families, and consequently the church and
society, when husbands aren't husband and fathers, and women aren't wives
and mothers. I am not attempting to define what those roles are for
everyone, or even for anyone. But our families are disintegrating from the
inside out, and if we Greek Geeks and others don't step up to the plate and
take a stand, the devastation will not soon cease.

And with that comment I will get back to proof-reading my second year
grammar. Oh what joy! Right now I would rather be preaching.

Bill Mounce
Teknia Software, Inc.

Internet: billm@teknia.com (preferred)
AOL: Mounce
CIS: 71540,2140 (please, only if necessary)

"It may be Greek to you, but it is life to me."



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