This thread popped up in my Twitter/X feed. It’s a lengthy thread about a pastor facing discipline in the Presbyterian church. Michael Hunter described it this way:
On Saturday, Grace Presbytery (ARPC) decided to take up charges against me based on the investigator’s report. I do not intend to participate in any ecclesiastical trial since the presbytery has demonstrated that they are exercising illegitimate authority, which I will address below. So here I will defend my name by going through the report in detail.
As I was skimming the charges, this particular part about no longer allowing women to pray in the midweek prayer service stood out to me.
The report provides specific examples of the ways in which I allegedly wronged these women. First, the report refers to the church’s policy of “no longer allowing women to pray in the midweek prayer gatherings,” a policy supported by B.B. Warfield and many 19th- and 20th-century Presbyterians. But, note, this policy was not my policy; it was the decision of the session as a whole. The report acknowledges that “any decisions made concerning the role of women in the life of the church were made by the Session and therefore are not specific to Mr. Hunter.” How then can those decisions provide the basis for specific charges against me? Second, the report alleges that my Reformed and Presbyterian teaching contributed to the problem because “what Mr. Hunter taught in Sunday School and from the pulpit touched on areas where differing views have been debated and held, specifically the interpretation of 1 Corinthians chapter 11.” Again, you read that correctly. I am guilty of teaching biblical texts, including 1 Corinthians 11, that have been interpreted in different ways; in other words, I am guilty of teaching the Bible.
Here is the screenshot.
So, yes, among the group who would gladly take the label of Reformed Patriarchy are pastors who are now silencing women during the midweek prayer gathering due to 1 Corinthians 11. They are obsessed with putting limits on women. They openly use the terms superior and inferior when discussing men and women. The overcompensation by the angry Christian men will devastate so many families and individual lives.
His appeal to history is interesting given the views of other Christian men throughout history.
Who Decides Which Women Are Granted Exceptions and Why Only for Teaching?
When the idea of women being told to be silent in I Cor 14: 34-36 comes up, one needs to ask where “in the law” it comes from. Nowhere in the Old Testament. I have to agree with the view that 34-35 is a quoting of the Corinthian leaders, and verse 36 is essentially Paul refuting. And a few translations, including KJV, no less, say “What?” As in, “Where did that come from?”
I know of a church that will not allow women to pray in the worship/communion service they have prior to their regular service. They say that they are allowing the men to pray and lead. They say that women can lead and pray in different areas/meeting in the church, but not this one. I personally don’t agree with it at all. So women are not permitted to pray publicly here, but can here? The women are to be silent in church scripture seems taken so narrowly. Makes no sense whatsoever!
Women aren’t allowed to pray now? What are we allowed to do? Care for babies in the nursery and make tuna casseroles? My own denomination will call women to all the work and responsibilities of deacon, but will not call them deacons. How does this make sense?