Get Your Facts Right!
(Oringinally posted in February 2009)
Inaccuracy. Blatant stupidity. Poor research. Three things that cause a great deal of angst in the mind of my husband. I hear him vocalize his annoyance off and on within different areas of life. For instance, I have heard him yell at the T.V. screen with disgust when a hockey analyst gets his or her facts wrong. "No, Maguire, the GM did NOT negotiated a masterful trade to get Zdeno Chara. The Bruins picked him up as a free agent in the summer! Maguire, it is your job to get your facts right!" Stupidity? I don't know how many times my husband has expressed his righteous anger at the idiots that drive on our roads, especially when someone doesn't signal, cuts across three lanes of traffic, dumps a mini-van smack down in front of you, and then has the gall to drive ten kilometers per hour under the speed limit. As for poor research - you want to turn off my husband from listening to your sermon, reading your paper, or learning from your academic lecture? Just slap together some random, unrelated facts and claim them as truth.
It is the latter point that I would like to expand further. My husband is a huge proponent of women in church leadership (actually, in any leadership). He would be willing to sit down with a person and systematically explain how scripture supports this stance. However, he is extremely disturbed when someone uses faulty arguments or "cut and paste" hermeneutics to support their viewpoint, even if he agrees with the conclusion they are trying to prove. I admire that!
For example, we have been studying a paper entitled "Wesleyan Perspectives on Women in Ministry" by Karen Strand Winslow. Winslow claims in her footnotes that Lydia, a women mentioned in the book of Acts, was the head of her household and the head of the church that met in her home. Let's look at the text that the author of the paper is referring to:
From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day on to Neapolis. From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days. On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message. When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. "If you consider me a believer in the Lord," she said, "come and stay at my house." And she persuaded us... After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia's house, where they met with the brothers and encouraged them. Then they left. (Acts 16:11-15, 40)
I don't know about you, but I do not get the impression that Lydia was necessarily the head of her household and the head of a church that met in her home! Winslow appears to be reading more into the text than is actually there.
In all fairness, Winslow does offer interesting perspectives on the issue of women in church ministry. However, she clearly desires to push a particular agenda and presents some tenuous myths from the first century to support her position. I encourage you to read the article to critique it for yourself. Furthermore, I would suggest studying "Reading 1 Timothy 2:9-15 in Its Literary Context" by Doug Heidebrecht as a comparative article. While Winslow and Heidebrecht share the same conclusion, Heidebrecht's extensive research is fairer to the text and warns against reading ideas into the text that we want to find to push our agendas.
Thanks to my husband, I am more aware of inaccuracy, blatant stupidity, and poor research. While idiotic drivers and annoying analysts do not bother me as much, inaccurately handling God's Word definitely does!
Inaccuracy. Blatant stupidity. Poor research. Three things that cause a great deal of angst in the mind of my husband. I hear him vocalize his annoyance off and on within different areas of life. For instance, I have heard him yell at the T.V. screen with disgust when a hockey analyst gets his or her facts wrong. "No, Maguire, the GM did NOT negotiated a masterful trade to get Zdeno Chara. The Bruins picked him up as a free agent in the summer! Maguire, it is your job to get your facts right!" Stupidity? I don't know how many times my husband has expressed his righteous anger at the idiots that drive on our roads, especially when someone doesn't signal, cuts across three lanes of traffic, dumps a mini-van smack down in front of you, and then has the gall to drive ten kilometers per hour under the speed limit. As for poor research - you want to turn off my husband from listening to your sermon, reading your paper, or learning from your academic lecture? Just slap together some random, unrelated facts and claim them as truth.
It is the latter point that I would like to expand further. My husband is a huge proponent of women in church leadership (actually, in any leadership). He would be willing to sit down with a person and systematically explain how scripture supports this stance. However, he is extremely disturbed when someone uses faulty arguments or "cut and paste" hermeneutics to support their viewpoint, even if he agrees with the conclusion they are trying to prove. I admire that!
For example, we have been studying a paper entitled "Wesleyan Perspectives on Women in Ministry" by Karen Strand Winslow. Winslow claims in her footnotes that Lydia, a women mentioned in the book of Acts, was the head of her household and the head of the church that met in her home. Let's look at the text that the author of the paper is referring to:
From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day on to Neapolis. From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days. On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message. When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. "If you consider me a believer in the Lord," she said, "come and stay at my house." And she persuaded us... After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia's house, where they met with the brothers and encouraged them. Then they left. (Acts 16:11-15, 40)
I don't know about you, but I do not get the impression that Lydia was necessarily the head of her household and the head of a church that met in her home! Winslow appears to be reading more into the text than is actually there.
In all fairness, Winslow does offer interesting perspectives on the issue of women in church ministry. However, she clearly desires to push a particular agenda and presents some tenuous myths from the first century to support her position. I encourage you to read the article to critique it for yourself. Furthermore, I would suggest studying "Reading 1 Timothy 2:9-15 in Its Literary Context" by Doug Heidebrecht as a comparative article. While Winslow and Heidebrecht share the same conclusion, Heidebrecht's extensive research is fairer to the text and warns against reading ideas into the text that we want to find to push our agendas.
Thanks to my husband, I am more aware of inaccuracy, blatant stupidity, and poor research. While idiotic drivers and annoying analysts do not bother me as much, inaccurately handling God's Word definitely does!