Adventist Ordination Crisis

Why is the issue of the ordination of women as elders or pastors of such crucial importance for the Seventh - day Adventist Church at this time?

What does the Bible teach regarding the role of women in the church?

Was the Biblical exclusion of women from elder-pastor roles a consequence of a prevailing patriarchal, “male-chauvinist” culture and mentality?

Does Ellen White warn against seeking a role or “sphere” different from the one we're assigned by God?

Is the authority of the Bible really such an important issue for Seventh-day Adventists?

But most of the people I know (many of them, anyway) are in favor of ordaining women as elders or even pastors. Shouldn't this count for something?

Why does Paul say, “I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men” in the church (1 Timothy 2:12)? Is it because women in his day were uneducated?

Why not ordain women as local elders? Doing so wouldn't mean we would ordain women later as pastors, would it?

Does the Bible clearly teach that a church elder should be a man and not a woman?

What kind of speaking does Paul prohibit to women in 1 Corinthians 14:34 when he writes, “The women should keep silence in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as even the law says”?

What are the implications of this for the issue of ordination of women to the headship positions in the church?

Does Mrs. White say that Eve was Adam's equal before the Fall and that only after the Fall was Adam to be her ruler?

Can Joel 2:28 settle the issue for us of men and women filling the same spiritual roles?

Is Gen. 1, where man and woman are presented as equals, more trustworthy than Gen. 2, where the woman is subordinate?

Were women excluded from the Israelite priesthood because of their frequent ritual impurity caused by menstrual flow?