A few weeks ago, I wrote an article called “John Piper Gets it All Wrong About Women in Ministry. I knew this article would stir a hornet’s nest, but I never imagined in a million years Jesus would condemn me to hell for writing it.
In the article, one of my paragraphs was: “Look at Aimee Semple McPherson. What about Kathryn Kuhlman? How about Marilyn Hickey and Joyce Meyer? All of these women have been a blessing to the body of Christ, and they have all faced persecution from people who don’t agree that they should speak and teach. Jesus certainly didn’t prevent women from entering ministry so I am unsure as to why there is so much resistance in some camps within the modern church.”
I got a wicked, nasty comment on the article from a Richard Tuttle. He didn’t share his credentials or why he thinks God granted him the authority to condemn me to hell in the name of Jesus, but he said plenty more.
“Miss LeClair’s argument regarding women teaching in the Church and/or exercising authority over a man in the Church is unbiblical at best, and heretical at worst,” Tuttle says.
First of all, spell my name right, especially if you are going to argue accuracy and make an accusation of heresy. Can’t you see the enemy is using you to throw a fiery dart with such a serious allegation? Are you really going to call me and the many, many others who believe the same as I do false teachers? Are you not aware that you are claiming I am going to hell? Can’t you disagree without sending me to the devil’s chambers?
Apparently not. It gets worse. He goes on to point out, “What does God have to say about this issue? He states in His Word, ‘I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor” (1 Timothy 2:12-14 – ESV). “Clearly then women are not permitted to teach in the Church, nor are they allowed to exercise authority over men in the Church.”
As Lee Grady so eloquently wrote, “Paul’s first epistle to Timothy seems to limit women’s roles in leadership (see 1 Tim. 2:12). Yet Paul also gushed with praise for the women who served with him as co-laborers—women such as Phoebe (Rom. 16:1-2), Junia (Rom. 16:7) and Priscilla, who helped lay foundations in the early church (see 1 Cor. 16:19). In Phil. 4:2-3, Paul expresses solidarity with two women leaders, Euodia and Syntyche. And he refers to other women who obviously led churches, such as Chloe (1 Cor. 1:11) and Nympha (Col. 4:15), and he does not try to silence or restrict them,” Grady says.
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