“Women should remain silent in church. They must not be allowed to speak.”

Did you know the Bible says that? It’s in Paul’s first century letter to the Christians in Corinth (1 Corinthians 14:34).

Did you know that because of this verse (and one other), many churches prohibit women from serving as pastors (only 11% of Protestant churches have a female pastor even though more than 50% of the members are female), yet, almost NO (that’s zero, none) churches actually fully obey what this verse seems to say rather clearly. So, what’s going on here?

I’d love for you to join me on my 5-year journey to discover what this Bible verse and other relevant verses actually mean. It’s very different than many assume. My book is titled, “Should Women Be Pastors and Leaders In Church? My Journey to Discover What the Bible Says About Gender Roles.”

In a very important part of chapter 8, each of the following points about this challenging verse are developed in detail:

1. The traditional understanding of the prohibition passages (women cannot be pastors) does not adequately consider the historical, cultural, and local context of those passages.
2. The traditional understanding of the prohibition passages proves too much (nobody does what it says).
3. The traditional understanding of the prohibition passages contradicts 1 Corinthians 11 and other Bible passages.
4. The traditional understanding of the prohibition passages is based on inadequate and/or misleading translations of key Greek words and completely misses the theme and structure of the paragraph. This is the most important point. A careful examination of the correct meaning of the words Paul used absolutely undermines the traditional view.
5. The traditional understanding of the prohibition passages overlooks the strong possibility that 1 Corinthians 14:34, 35 was added to the text later by a Scribe and isn’t part of the inspired Scriptures. This point is debatable, but looking at the evidence is quite startling.

My book is available (paper cover, hard cover, or ebook) from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Westbow Press (see the Home Page above), and personalized copies from me.