Now I know I may get in trouble over this, but such is life! Now I am a Christian, and I do believe in the Bible...but there are some inconsistancies that I have not been able to reconcile. The part about women being silent in the church was explained to me like this: In that book of the Bible, Paul was writing a letter, I think to the Corinthians. At that time, there were a lot of issues the Corinthians were dealing w/ in regards to church protocol, including folks acting up in church. Under that situation, Paul wrote a letter to them addressing their issues. That scripture has been (in the opinion of some, I'm not sure where I stand on the issue) stretched to apply to all women, everywhere in the church body.
Now is that how it really went down? well I don't know. But I do know that the epistles in the New Testament were just that, epistles, or letters written to a specific group of people who were dealing w/ certain issues. Once those letters were cannonized, they became part of the Bible. Does that mean that everything in them is universal? Or does it mean that the message in them is addressed to certain people, at a certain time, dealing w/ certain issues? In which case, our interpretation of the books, (the good parts and parts we question) is no less real; it just would not necessarily apply to present day situations, you know?
If anyone (Bible scholars?) has any info on this, please let us know. This is an issue I have been thinking about for awhile, so I'd like to see what other believers out there think about it!
Peace is not the absence of trouble, but the presence of God...
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