Davidius, so are you saying that I'm being more 'emotional' and 'practical' in my argumentation than you are?

And my reasons are less valid because of this?

(I'm smiling, by the way)

They [my friends who find the puritanboard irrelevant] don't see how most of these discussions bear on their own daily lives, the immediate problems they are engulfed in. It isn't real life to them, and doesn't help with real life. They simply aren't interested. They are taught theology at church and in daily devotions -private & with their husbands; they love the truth they learn there but the puritanboard is not a pursuit they find helpful or enjoyable as something to do in their free time. They would rather do something to help the lady who lives next door. In this way their enjoyment of truth is more 'practical' than 'intellectual'. I think we agree on most of what you are saying: women should learn the doctrines, have joy in them, be able to teach them to their children: all of theology should be applied, etc. But the application most of my friends make of the theology they learn is to use their spare time to do something for the lady next door, while their husbands use the same spare time for further study or getting on the puritanboard.

I think you aren't making a consistent distinction in your arguments between having a rational faculty and being more prominently motivated by intellectual than practical concerns. I am not trying to argue that women are somehow lower down on the scale of rational being than men. I am concerned to point out that women who quietly and diligently, with a richness of emotion and practical thought about details, provide a nurturing home for their children and help their husbands - but aren't all that interested in the puritanboard - are no less valuable as humans or Christians than men. They have good practical and emotional reasons (emotion and practicality are real aspects of life: indeed intellect without them is nowhere near justice or truth) for what they think, even if their reasons aren't primarily 'intellectual'.

__________________
Heidi
Indianapolis, Indiana

After two days, he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.
Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.