So, while I can understand religious leaders wanting to preserve the Christianity they grew up with, they have ignored the people who have to live with their restrictions.

Complementarian (male headship) teaching is completely outside anything that Jesus said or did. Jesus held individuals responsible for their own actions. In no way did Jesus hold women accountable for the deeds of men. Likewise, Jesus did not hold men accountable for the deeds of women.

It was not wives whom Jesus held responsible for the destruction of worship and family. It was the religious leaders – the ones who stood before the people – that he held responsible.

Consider this:

• We have a dark secret that we keep at home. We, too, keep women in submission.
• It is not qualifications nor is it spirituality that makes men desirable as leaders in the church. It is the male body. What is not explained is how this adoration of the male body translates into worship of God.
• Look to the seminaries for the answer to where the church went wrong.
• Remember, it is always up to the husband to determine to what degree he demands submission from his wife.
• When you accept that translation, you have accepted divinity for human males.
• The greater problem when women refuse to accept the equality they were given at creation is that they are abdicating their own responsibility to serve.

Yes, at times we must laugh (some of the sentences you will read in my books)

• If Adam had been a male headship kind of guy, he would have knocked that apple out of Eve’s hand and picked up a stick and killed that snake. Alas! Male headship ate the apple.
• His loving, humble headship did not rise to the occasion.
• If that doesn’t make you queasy, then I don’t know what will!
• If you believe that, then you need to get yourself a real Bible.
• If you do not think that makes a woman feel inferior, then you need to rethink your definition of inferior.

This a time for action

• It is a testimony to their love of God that women go to church at all considering the way they are demeaned in most churches. A church’s legal documents tell women what they cannot do in church.
• Pastors are deciding now if they want to continue to be part of the problem – holding back women’s equality – or if they want to follow Christ and be part of the solution.
• At some point, women will have to decide if they want freedom or if they want to be bound by restrictions.

Shirley Taylor Books (available on Amazon in print and on Kindle)
The Biblical Marriage Myth: The Devil Comes Calling
The Power of a Book: The Street Evangelist
Raising the Hood: A Christian Look at Manhood and Womanhood
Women Equal: No Buts
Dethroning Male Headship: 2nd Edition