That should have said: Sorry, there is not a Christian man I know that I trust and respect more than I trust and respect my wife.

A recent in-depth study of biblical church structure and the verses that seem to support restrictions on women with a Greek/Hebrew/English interlinear bible has led me to abandon my claim on that label.

But, soft complimentarians are very close to my position.

Guys something to consider: If you and your wife are both born again and indwelt by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit and you are both seeking God’s will and His best for each other, where do you think that leads?

The thing that puzzles me the most about the Authoritarianists is the apparent yet unstated distrust and suspicions about a women’s abilities and a questioning of a women’s motives.

Sorry, there is not a Christian man I know that I trust and respect more than my wife.

Amen!!!!

That being said, I have no clue what I am

… but I sure know what I am NOT

… I am not into pharisical legalize humanism that cannot be supported by Scripture no matter how hard some groups try to twist Holy Writ into their agenda of power, manipulation, and control

Rightly or wrongly, I love my husband. He defers to me on somethings & I defer to him on some things. There are other things that we both decide to take a wait-&-see type approach. Moreover, there’s a whole bunch of stuff neither he or I could care about the final decision.

Frankly, I am shocked that I even post on a White Washed Feminist site (my husband thinks it is hysterical cuz he knows how conservative I tend to run!).

Yes, the labels do get tiresome but they do help define. It is just hard when you can’t really see yourself fitting under any one label and that is where I am. I think I am growing okay with that. I think that is how it is supposed to be. We are all supposed to be moving towards being One Body united in One Spirit with One Mind.

If we are becoming more polarized and saying “I am of Apollos!” then I truly believe we are moving in the wrong direction.

I am a soft and squishy complementarian or a combo of egal/comp, I suppose. I really don’t know what I can call myself but I do really love the name White Washed Feminist. I will wear that badge with honor and dignity. I know it wasn’t meant to be a compliment but I proudly own the moniker.

I agree with Molly’s post about the differences between hard/soft comps and the players on the hard side. The hard comps are complaining that even comps don’t go far enough with the headship/submission thing, so they are stealthily moving to patriocentrism. And I do mean stealthily and even surreptitiously not steadily.

Just wondering, is anyone else getting tired of all the labels? Like what Molly was saying about the complimentary in the egalitarian view point versus the hierarchy in the complementarian view. And the white washed thing. None of it quite accurately describes anything, and it’s driving me bonkers. I am so shy of labels as it is, and it makes it so hard to “define” what I believe…

And the minute a certain word or phrase comes out of my mouth, I am shoved in a box, discussion is shut down. (Not here of course.) Sorry, I guess I am ranting.

I do think the Bible does talk about submission (wives) & sacrifice (husbands), but the way it works out in our marriage, the two don’t look that much different. It’s more like mutual respect.

I could talk awhile about what I think about submission–it feels to me (I know, I’m not exegeting at all here) it’s more like a respectful attitude than unqualified obedience. There’s a 1950s-ish servility that I think has been substituted for a Biblical model of submission in many people’s minds, and that kind of non-confronting-sin-in-a-brother + a martyr-like submissive attitude does not make for a healthy marriage. I respectfully (and sometimes forcefully) disagree/argue/debate with my husband (and he wants me too), and we make our decisions together. But I don’t crush him by rubbing it in if he makes a mistake, to me crushing another person is unsubmissive (and on the other side unsacrficial). Does that make sense?

And I do believe in male elders/pastors. Not because men are inherently superior, either.

But outside of those two circumstances, I don’t think there is a male over female Biblical directive.