An associate has raised the issue if it is proper for a woman to express her disagreement with the pastor over an ecclesiastical concern.
I say let a couple of deacons place a pillowcase over her head and drag her down to the kitchen.
Some scullion duty should silence her spiteful tongue.
What's gotten into women these days thinking they can just speak to any man they aren't even related to?
Seriously though, there is nothing in Scripture forbidding a woman from sharing thoughts and concerns with the pastor.
I Corinthians 14:34 says, "Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak...And if they will lean any thing, let them ask their husbands at home; for it is a shame for women to speak in the church."
This would seem to indicate during the church service.
Would pastors rather for the sake of their own egos prefer women to lie as women walk out the church door and act as if all things are hunky-dory?
If this injunction is to be absolute, shouldn’t we also condemn those women congratulating the pastor as to how wonderful they found the message to be?
I guess soon, as in the case of Barbara Streisand and pre-World War II Japanese emperors, we mere lay people won’t even be allowed to gaze upon clergy.
Frederick Meekins is an independent theologian and social critic. Frederick holds a BS in Political Science/History, a MA in Apologetics/Christian Philosophy from Trinity Theological Seminary, and a PhD. in Christian Apologetics from Newburgh Theological Seminary.