Of wimminz deacons

I actually enjoyed myself at church today. Apparently, the Seventh-Day Adventist church now ordains female deacons! So there was quite a debate at White City church here in Francistown, and things did get pretty heated. The discussion soon devolved into one of those arguments you always see on the internet that aren't quite flame wars but neither party wants to budge and so they keep slinging the same arguments back and forth for an interminable period. Sheesh, it ended up taking more than half the time of what was supposed to be an orientation of officers!

But why this uproar, one may ask? Why should there be such a fracas over such a simple and just thing as equal recognition of the sexes? I'll tell you why. This strikes at the very heart of the conflict between biblical literalism and literalism. I mean, face it - the bible clearly says to women: You Are Inferior. You are -4 str, and you should STFU when in church (1 Cor 14:34-35).

This move is a departure from the literalism of old, which is the very foundation upon which the SDA church was built, and as expected, most of the opposition (which was futile because The General Conference Is God) came from the oldsters (one old lady was particularly vociferous in her criticisms). In my opinion, though, this is a most excellent move, hopefully the first step on the road to throwing off the shackles of literalism for another globe-spanning community of Jebus Freeks. I even joked a bit o Facebook that come another five years, they'll be accepting evolution. Well, maybe not in five years. Maybe some time in the next 50-100, when Jebus hasn't come and the whole world hasn't turned on them at the behest of the Antichrist.