Should Women Be Silent In Church.mpeg

"Let your women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is a shame for women to speak in the church." I Cor. 14:34-35. "Let the women learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence." I Tim. 2:11-12. Seems straightforward, doesnt it? Women are not allowed by God to air an opinion, to be heard from, to exercise any authority in a church service. They may run fortune 500 companies outside of the church and order hundreds if not thousands of men around, they may be police women and enforce our laws, they may serve in leadership roles in the miltary and even order men into battle and perhaps death itself, but in church God says shut up and listen to your husband, even if he is a dumb as the day is long or never goes to church or goes and nods off to sleep. So how many churches, assemblies, fellowships do you know where women are forced to be silent at all times during church service. Not many I would venture. I am not sure what form the apologetics take to wiggle out from under this teaching of Paul or is it God, but I know most churches have found a way to ignore this plain Scriptural teaching. In the vast majority of churches around the globe women voices are heard in services of one kind of another. Personally, I applaud all such efforts. Women in common with men are created in the image of God teaches the Bible. There is no male or female in Christ teaches Paul. All things are permissable even though not all things are good for us. I see no harm in allowing half of the human population to have a say in church. There is no doubt in my mind that I have learned as much from women as men about God and Jesus Christ, in church and out of church. There is no room for doubt that our worship lives would be seriously impoverished if we took these de contextualized passages to silent women in church services. I follow where my conscience and God given reason leads me... I simply cannot bring myself to believe the God who created our awe inspiring Universe felt some need to keep women silent or away from leadership roles. I have no doubts that legions of men have sought to keep women in their place and that they often have dressed up this misogynistic thinking in Scriptural terms. But those who do so step way beyond the clear intent of what Paul was getting at in his pastoral letters. In context the problem was not a matter of silencing forever half or more of the human race, not a question of disrepecting the intelligence and maturity of women but rather a larger general concern with good order and decorum in the worship practice of some of the Corinthian churches. It is hard not to read the whole letter and not reach the conclusion that their worship or meetings had devolved into