A thread on the women's ordination debate: Understand human behavior and theology hinges greatly upon understanding the distinction between bull%^&$ (BS) and horse#$%^ (HS).

(My apologies for the salty language, but I know of no better terms to reflect these concepts.)

Though these terms are used interchangeably, they reflect very unique ideas. BS describes something that purports to be true but is not. HS describes something that IS true, but ought not be.

For example, if you oversleep for work, but tell your boss that you are late because you were carjacked by a group of AK-47 sporting circus clowns, your boss will call BS. You are trying to avoid punishment by claiming something to be true that is not. You are lying.

But if you are on your way to work and actually get carjacked by a group of AK-47 sporting circus clowns, you will shout "this is HS." Such a ridiculous thing should not have happened. But it did.

When it comes to the issue of women's ordination, many will claim that those who oppose it are essentially BS artists. That's why most of their pro-women-pastors advocacy centers in broad criticisms of the hearts of traditionalists.

"How could you silence 50% of the population?"
"You're just intimidated by women in positions of authority."
"You're a misogynist, God isn't."

In other words, "you are BSing when you claim that the Bible says women can't be pastors."

Likewise, you'll notice that the advocates of ordaining women only deal with the text in a negative sense. They can tell that "I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man" DOESN'T mean women can't be pastors. But they'll never tell you what it DOES mean.

Furthermore, they'll go to passages like Galatians 3:28, which is not about ordination, and use it to establish their entire doctrine of ordination. "Paul couldn't have meant that women can't be pastors because he says there is no distinction between men and women."

So, you've got trickery in three ways:
1. Demonize those who cite the texts that deal with the question of the role of women in the church.
2. Obfuscate those texts.
3. Very piously engage texts not related to the issue.

And what this shows is that, for all their accusations that traditionalists are BSing when they claim women can't be pastors, the truth is that women's ordination advocates are HS artists. They know what the Bible says. But dang it, the Bible SHOULDN'T have said that.

It's not fair. It's not welcoming. It's not world-favor-winning. It's an unreasonable burden to place upon Christians.

And we shouldn't have to follow it. So, as people often do when they encounter HS, they just pretend like it doesn't exist.

The Bible says that women can't be pastors just as plainly as it says that Jesus is fully divine. But they don't want the Bible to have said women can't be pastors.

So they obfuscate and deflect and introduce enough doubt to where they can pretend that they're still faithful, obedient Christians who ever so conveniently don't have to do the thing they don't want to do.

In their minds ,the Bible shouldn't have said what it did, so they're going to live as if the Bible didn't say it. That's what God wants.

After all, God never asks us to stand opposite the world or sacrifice anything substantial to follow Him.