Comments on: “auntie kathy, are you sure it’s not wrong for you to be a pastor?”

By: kathyescobar

kathyescobar — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:17:59 +0000

hey john, thanks for reading from afar and taking time to comment. look forward to hearing from you again. peace, kathy

By: JOHN

JOHN — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 04:35:19 +0000

It’s good to go thru the topic,
thank u for the encouragement
john
india

By: kathyescobar

kathyescobar — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 05:28:49 +0000

carlos – muchas gracias, mi hermano!

By: Carlos

Carlos — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 00:50:52 +0000

Kathy,

As a Latin American Male wih big “cojones” I’m 1005 with you on this…preach on sista….

By: kathyescobar

kathyescobar — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 19:15:44 +0000

sorry i have been off line on the blog so am just now commenting!

erin – thanks for stopping by & i am glad that somehow this piece encouraged you. i would love to hear what you are considering doing!

carolyn – thanks for taking time to comment and i, too, would love to hear what you are considering doing. i do think “subtle misogyny” is so prevalent. sometimes we don’t even notice it and then, when our hearts become more aware of how much it has hurt, we have to seek healing and strengthening and listen very very very carefully to what God is saying to us…peace to you on your journey!

By: Carolyn

Carolyn — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 16:46:34 +0000

Hey, I just found your blog post, and I want you to know that I am a woman in seminary training to be a pastor…. and my parents sent me to a conservative Christian school. That subtle misogyny was very hurtful to me, and I’m still in therapy because pastors’ intolerant and condemning words still ring in my ears. But in my gut I knew it was wrong all along. I knew it and just didn’t know how to say it. After I encountered other ways to understand the Bible, I knew that my gut feeling was the Holy Spirit convicting me. God speaks, even when humans try to speak louder. I just wish everyone else knew how to listen.

By: erin warde

erin warde — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 00:26:31 +0000

TRULY a great piece. i am a Christian feminist, and a woman considering ministry, so this is really interesting and insightful to me. i remember saying in high school “i think i want to be a youth minister,” and promptly being told that “women weren’t ministers.” i think that’s always hurt me, but i’m trying to turn hurt into passion into activism into love. it’s not easy, but i think it’s my best response. thanks so much for sharing!

By: randi :)

randi :) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 22:06:25 +0000

Thanks Kathy! I am gonna email you. Thanks so so so so so much for your time. I feel a bit guilty for taking up your time — but I don’t really have anybody else willing to give me attention. Thank you!!! will write more soon!

By: kathyescobar

kathyescobar — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 21:58:59 +0000

hey randi, thanks so much for sharing a bit of what you are wrestling with. it might be best to try to have a conversation live or through email because i don’t know how much you can share here about what you ran into today in terms of “an awful situation” and what you are wrestling with. i so agree with you, it is indeed so confusing, interpretations of scripture, etc. there are so many resources that will support a complementarian view & others that will support an egalitarian one. one of the things that i think is important to wrestle with is the idea of the deeper, bigger story of Jesus & the hope and freedom he brings. if he truly came to set the captives free, then why would he keep some in bondage? i know a good complementarian will just say “well, we have different roles, that’s all” but i think it’s much deeper than that. the subtle and direct subordination of women is a worldwide issue. so to me, the church of Jesus Christ, the light and hope of the world, should be the ones leading the charge for full equality and freedom for ALL, period. how could i ask an abused woman who has left an abusive relationship and is rebuilding, healing, discovering who she is as a person, to enter into a church system that will put her in the same one up-one down relationship she’s always been in? but unfortunately wars within the church have been fought and continue to be fought over what to me is the stupidest of issues. aren’t there bigger fish to fry? if Christ is preached, who cares? i think the deeper issue is one of control & power & that is why i always say “why are people so hell-bent on protecting something? what are they getting out of it?” i guess my questions to you are: how could you disappoint God in this area? what would that look like and what are you afraid of? what does your heart tell you, not what people have told you, not what scriptures you read, not what people online say? (i’m not saying that is the right answer, i’m just saying it’s something to listen to).

By: randi :)

randi :) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 19:22:49 +0000

kathy — I was looking for some of your thoughts on women’s ‘roles’ or whatever… and found this entry — then I just read that blog link from tia lynn…. I only read that one post & comments and I’m so confused.

I feel so lost sometimes in all this. I read one side and totally agree with what they are saying… but then I read somebody else from the ‘other side’ and totally ‘get’ what they are saying.

I know that God hasn’t given me a spirit of fear…. but I am so fearful to disappoint Him. What if everything I thought was true – is not really? Or what if I think I am following the right path — only to find out it was the wide path and not narrow and I am just a totally rebellious, undisciplined watered down version of what God designed me to me.

I’m so afraid to disappoint Him — but sometimes I just feel with all the different divisions over the Word – that I’m in a state of paralysis. That I just end up going nowhere because of all the divisions I’m afraid to choose. I have to believe that many ‘out there’ are in that same state and why we’re all just ‘stuck’ / ‘lukewarm’ …

AHH I don’t even know what I’m looking for in telling you all this. Just had an awful situation with part of my church today and feel all icky and don’t know what is true/right. *sigh*
gotta go….. maybe what I’m saying makes some sense?