Yes, to clarify, I am a male, and I apologize for my language of attack and for using what turned out to be a naughty word in one of my posts. Had I known the word would be offensive, I wouldn;t have used it; that it is says something about where our discussion is coming from, in any case. I was going to make some gentle jokes at bmerr about his stance on gays in the church, given his terms of endearment , but accidents happen and my user name isn;t exactly solidly gender specific.
I do not think anyone has sufficiently explained why Paul would have used "diakonos," the masculine gender for a word translated elsewhere as "minister," for Phoebe if she were notin a position of leadership in the church. Further, I see it as a grave mistake to insist that Scripture exists out of a cultural and historic context. The culture of the time that Paul wrote was decidedly patriarchal; further, women who led men, were outspoken in worship, and generally loud and/or finely adorned were associated with temple worship and prostitution.
The above should address the several requests for me to address Paul's Scriptural prohibitions.
I take the murder of my friend at the hands of a clearly insane Fundamentalist very seriously, as I understand you all do. I am concerned, thugh, that the violence Nancy suffered is an outward demonstration of an inward violence done women (among other individuals) by many churches to this day.
If God is no respecter of persons, why, then, are we? If, in Christ, there is niether male or female, slave nor free, etc., why do we draw these distinctions in the church? We do not labor in Corinth or Antioch, but we do exist in an increasingly pagan and unbelieving culture. We have no hope of ever impacting men and women with the love and truth of Jesus Christ if we continue to hold our own underfoot and fight with one another over what is, in the light of the Resurrection, minutae.
Finally, on the issue of original languages: translators are human beings, and exist at a place and time which must directly affect theor work. The translators of the original English Bible used words, phrases, and spellings quite clear to them, but difficult for us today. One example (and I am not using this to derail the thread or make any statement of support prohibited by the TOS) is that the word "homosexual" is not found in any translation before the late 19th century, because the word was unknown until then.
Thus, rather than relying on the fluidity of our own ever-developing language and cultural context, it is imerative that we examine the original tongues, which are not fluid, and which are a product of specific cultures and contexts.
Thank you all for being much kinder debaters than I; I confess Nancy's death has affected me far more than I might have thought.
