Every evangelical church I know has a couple of "third rail" issues - the three most common are role of women, gifts of the Spirit and "contemporary" music (in quotes because "contemporary" is a constantly moving target). These recent stories have intrigued me because believers that I respect come down on different sides of the issue.

• Anne Graham Lotz wrote in Washington Post's On Faith that Jesus Calls Women to Serve and Lead.
• Irving Bible Church set up a Texas showdown when they decided that the Bible allowed a Woman to Take a Turn in the Pulpit. 
• Evangelicals from all over weighed in for the ensuing fight - oops - "concern" (we're evangelicals after all) over the use/misuse of Scripture.
• Mark Bailey, president of Dallas Seminary posted a "note of clarification" on the DTS web site lest his response be mistaken for immaturity by the way it's presented in the MSM

A couple of observations:

• To borrow Bill Cosby's phrase: "Come on people."
• A glance around Irving Bible Church's web site reveals that the elders take Scripture seriously. They (the church) are spending a significant amount of time on plans to provide some of the social services laid out in the Bible (caring for orphans, feeding the hungry, all that good stuff). One intrepid web surfer characterized it as "The church's website is one of the few evangelical churches I've seen with true community outreach." 
• The web site of Denton Bible Church (their pastor Tommy Nelson is critical of Irving Bible's position) reveals (IMHO) a lot of "Y'all come - and be like us" ministries rather than actually going into the community and living out their faith.

Each of the parties I mentioned are living out their core (Biblical) values. Each one is striving to remain faithful to an inerrant Scripture - yet each one is having trouble getting along with another who differs......

And that's the way I see it. What about you?