Trinity and subordination

There is an interesting post about the Trinity over at Ben Witherington's blog (thanks to The Community of Jesus for the link) discussing the role of the Son with respect to the Father. Thought provoking and disturbing. It is long (and it's not even Witherington writing it!) but worth the read. Short quote:

"Paradoxically, in this same thirty-year period in which the co-equality of the divine persons has been powerfully reaffirmed and the implications of this teaching for our human social life recognized, many conservative evangelicals have been moving in the opposite direction. They have argued that the Trinity is ordered hierarchically, with the Father ruling over the Son. The Father is eternally “head over” the Son just as men are permanently “head over” women. In this model of the Trinity, the doctrine of the Trinity, rather than being a charter for emancipation and human liberation, becomes a charter to oppose social change and female liberation."

And, on a related note, the top 10 reasons men shouldn't be ordained can be found here (thanks to Ben Myers for the link). These are my favorites:

"4. To be ordained pastor is to nurture the congregation. But this is not a traditional male role. Rather, throughout history, women have been considered to be not only more skilled than men at nurturing, but also more frequently attracted to it. This makes them the obvious choice for ordination.

"3. Men are overly prone to violence. No really manly man wants to settle disputes by any means other than by fighting about it. Thus, they would be poor role models, as well as being dangerously unstable in positions of leadership."

<idle musing>
It is scary how often we let political and/or social presuppositions influence our theology. We stand in judgment on scripture instead of letting scripture stand in judgment of us—or to put it another way—we assume that culture is the Holy Spirit and can't be wrong. Dangerous presupposition that leads us to lose our saltiness. Perfect environment for a demogogue to arise and lead us.
</idle musing>