a squirrel and a penguin…

dueling banjos.

dukes of hazzard.

pigs.

racist chickens.

completed.

and on the 10th day, the froyd rested. and it was pretty good, not really good, but pretty good. better than ok, anyway.

If I ever write a book on faith to accompany the Bible it’s going to be titled:

The Book of Potluck: God’s Grace as Evidenced in Noodles and Hamburger

so reading St. Paul’s letter to the corinthians, the modern day mind may have difficulty wrapping itself around the exhortations apparently against women in the scripture. I believe that these writings are the basis of the church’s(and the women of the chruch) refusal to allow women to take up leadership positions, or positions of authority in the church.

I also was led to believe that St. Paul was wrong in these exhortations, but the more I think of it, the more I don’t think he was wrong for the time or place, rather he has been wrongly interpreted since St. jerome put together the bible.

This particular paper, though long, covers the society(greek and roman) that was prevalent in Corinth at the time of the writing of the epistle. It covers the social aspects of the women, and certain vagaries in translation of what the actual words from the greek were used.

While this is definitely helpful, and I’d say very very correct, there are other things that point out that there may be an error in applying these rules church wide. For instance, was there any teaching in any of the other epistles about women that Paul wrote? I can’t really think of any that give the stringent rules that are in Corinthians. I think that across all of the letters, we can take what Jesus said and the commonalities of what Paul says about belief in Christ and use those as the basis of what faith should be, not about who can talk about it.

As well, perhaps Corinth had a higher percentage of priestesses and women from other temples defecting to the christian religion. It is possible that Paul wanted these women not to talk, as they had previous ideas about how religions should act, and there were dangers of them leading the early church to practices that were not in line with how christians should act.

But all those aside, I will again point out(as I have previously) that these letters were to the leaders of individual churches, and in all reality probably NOT meant to be shared with the lay persons of those churches. Nor were they probably EVER meant to applied to the church as a whole as rules for everyone. If they were, they clearly contradict earlier statements and books where both Men and Women were given the gift of prophecy and the grace of God.

All in all, I think it’s time that more lay people get more knowlege about the history of both the church and the bible, in order to deepen their faith. And quit being like the suzannites who can’t defend their beliefs when questioned.

So, in closing, I believe that women should have positions of leadership as much as men do. Just so long as the people whose talents lie in preparing hotdishes continue to provide for potlucks. Without potlucks, the modern church is doomed. DOOMED I SAY!

this quiz brought up on J*me’s blog…

You are Ash, from the “Evil Dead”
trilogy. My hero.

Which Horror Movie Character Are You? (Many Options)
brought to you by Quizilla

Maybe my men can hold them, and maybe I’m a chinese airline pilot.