I am so proud of Tom Lemon’s honesty in his remarks introducing the 14-page document, its history, his praying over it for three days because he obviously was deeply concerned about taking it to the oversight committee.
While not surprised that Ted Wilson is unhappy with Lemon’s honest and careful approach, I’m deeply disappointed that Lemon will no longer chair this committee after his groundwork visiting the three divisions/unions and stating that he found NO rebellious souls in his conversations. The Mid-America Union was the first to vote to ordain women, under Lemon’s presidency, even though they had no women currently in the pipeline for ordination. As chair of the board of Union College, Lemon oversaw a process in which a top female president was hired, Dr Vinita Sauder.
This presumed firing of Lemon as chair is one more notch in TW’s intense war to pressure an international, uniform ban of women from ordination as pastors and as elders. The “out-of-compliance” loyalty oath is ultimately calculated to remove vote and voice of any opposition to his authoritarian approach to decision making, and to remove women from decision-making levels in the church.
These documents, firings, and pressure to punish are extreme and ultimately defeating measures to the church’s mission to take the Gospel of Jesus to all the world. In this war against women, God has intervened and sent the document back to a committee. Now, TW is trying to manipulate the leadership of even that committee.
Those who have eyes can see. Those who have ears can hear.
It is a serious and awesome thing to be at war with Godly men and women of the Spirit.
May God bless Tom Lemon, a hero of our church in our time.
Yes. You are correct.
But that is not necessarily his idea or preference, is my understanding. The Headship Heresy proponents, which he seems to align with, want to roll back all authorizations for women in any kind of leadership, including ordination to the ministry, commissioning to the ministry, and ordained elders. In other words, they are not happy with things “remaining the same.” Their goal is to reverse ordinations and commissioning, and eliminate women elders altogether. The Calvinistic Piper theology is that women are not involved in any “teaching of a male” over the age of 12; no directing choirs, or anything that would be considered directing, teaching, or managing any male.
That is certainly not our SDA practice, thankfully. But that is where the ultimate Headship Heresy leads in its fullness.