Understandably Feminist

Thanks, Phil, for your helpful comments regarding feminism.  In light of this, I would like to say that I am sympathetic to the reasons why women are drawn in a feminist direction.  While I do not believe that patriarchy (biblically defined) is a sin, as Stackhouse claims, I do believe that many women have never experienced biblical patriarchy but only a mockery of it.  In other words, however big the feminist problem is in America and in the church, I believe there is a masculinity problem that is just as big, if not bigger.  Given the attitude of many men towards their wives and daughters, and given the actual behavior of many men (in and out of the church), it is no wonder that women fear male authority structures. 

Therefore, while I firmly believe that we have to speak out against the kinds of hermeneutical arguments used to deflect the Bible's insistence on male authority in the church, the far better solution is for men to exercise the kind of self-sacrificing, nurturing authority to which the Bible calls us.  We will really have solved this problem when women delight to find themselves under nurturing, spiritual, male authority.  Likewise, it is far from the case that women lack opportunities to exercise their gifts under a complementarian view of the church.  In my view, it boils down to a trust issue, and the best remedy is for men to be trustworthy with the authority granted to them by God.