True Woman Makeover update...

There is an obvious reason why women in patriocentric American churches aren't also able to operate church machinary...

This is the teaching (below) from the True Woman Makeover people for today. Much of it is taken from the teaching of the American 'theologian' John McCarthur - I've read one of his books on gender issues - through gritted teeth. This is the programme supported by John Piper, who has some very good things to say about the Christian life despite his myopia here for supporting this programme, on gender issues.

'We have talked in the past on Revive Our Hearts about how women in the church can be a real source of seduction and temptation to men. I've heard this expressed so many times in different ways from men who say,

"Look, it's one thing to go out in the world; you expect women to be immodestly dressed there. But to come to church and to have to wrestle with your thought life as a man . . .!"

Oh ladies, the apostle Paul says, "When you come to church, make sure you've been arranged, ordered, in respectable clothing, modest clothing." So let me ask you: Is your inner life well-ordered? Do you have a well-ordered heart? How about your emotions? Are you one of these people who lives on an emotional roller coaster? Now, if you are a woman, the answer is, "Sometimes, yes." ... I'm not talking about emotions that are just flat. But I am saying, too many of us as women are living from these very high highs to these very low lows, and we're just like yo-yos, up and down, back and forth. Your husband walks in the house and he doesn't know what to expect.'

Well, poor husbands, we seduce other men at church and then turn into monsters at home - I'm surprised the human race has lasted this long. The author of the programme recommends loose clothes, well, if only we'd all known that it was loose clothes that would cure all ills. Those corsets of the last century were often the cause of the female malady I suppose, perhaps she's got a point! But seriously, aren't we all responsible for the state of our hearts and minds with the help of God's grace and a little self-control.

It rather reminds me of a book I read during my research for the women bishops essay. It was called Priesthood & the Ministry of Women, edited by BRUCE, M & DUFFIELD, G. E. It was written in 1976 so was very much a product of its time. In it men wrote that one of the reasons that women could not be priested was because men in the congregation would not be able to concentrate on the gospel message because of the sexual distraction of the woman preaching. Well, sorry, but I refuse to have such a low opinion of men... we are all just as able to develop the fruits of the spirit, self-control being one of them, and it has nothing to do with our gender and everything to do with our faith.