paul. valid or not?

^{1 Corinthians 11:7-16
7} A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. ⁸ For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; ⁹ neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. ¹⁰ It is for this reason that a woman ought to have authority over her own head, because of the angels. ¹¹ Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. ¹² For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God.
 ¹³ Judge for yourselves: Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? ¹⁴Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, ¹⁵ but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering. ¹⁶ If anyone wants to be contentious about this, we have no other practice—nor do the churches of God.
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Now to even ask this question is heresy to many people. But hear me out. I was reading through hundreds of verses in the Bible as I write a paper on my core values and beliefs and I came across this passage. In the TNIV/NIV it is Titled "On Covering the Head in Worship." As I read this  Paul first says woman came from man and man came from God. In the first couple of verses it seems as if man is better than woman. At least how I am interpreting this from Paul. Saying that man is in the image and glory of God and then woman comes is in glory of man, not God. Then later in the same paragraph Paul then says that man is not independent of woman after all, nor woman of man. Actually both come from God. Then it later says that men should cut their hair because it does not glorify God, it is moreover a disgrace to the man, but for women it is her glory to have long hair. (I'm screwed then) I do not seem to understand then what Paul is saying, he seems to contradict himself. This isn't the only place. Most of us know the various other sections of Pauls writings where he says that people shouldn't get married(1 Cor 7), boast (1 Cor 5:6, 13:3, Eph 2:9, and numerous other verses), or greed.
(ie...Corinthians 5:9-13  ⁹ I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— ¹⁰ not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. ¹¹ But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with any who claim to be fellow believers but are sexually immoral or greedy, idolaters or slanderers, drunkards or swindlers. With such persons do not even eat.
 ¹² What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? ¹³ God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”) 
Didn't Jesus actually eat with these people? And if we reject those in the church - won't they just leave and feel rejected from the church anyways. Where does love, justice, mercy, or forgiveness come into play?
Now wait, shouldn't you tell me that I need to take these verses in context? Not everything you read in the Bible is literal Andy. You can't take what Paul wrote in 60 AD and assume it means word for word what it does today. After all the Bible has been translated numerous times to get to the English language. (at least that what most of us in the US read it in). Ok, if I am to take these verses in context - such as, who the author is, who the author is writing too, when the author wrote this, etc... then how can we claim such strong demeaning insults at people based off Paul's writings. I am thinking specifically of equality for all people, men as head of his wife, women in leadership positions or pastors in the church and homosexuality. It seems these areas get pulled out of Paul's writings and taken literally, but other areas do not. This just seems very inconsistent to me. How do we know the word homosexuality means the same thing then as it does today. I have read many times where the meaning differs then from now. How do we know that women today can't lead? Maybe women had no rights back in the day of Paul and weren't afforded the opportunity to have been instructed or taught how and what to preach/teach. Many men weren't afforded this opportunity either, but they aren't included in this text. Could this mean that those who didn't have proper instruction to teach/preach shouldn't do so? Well if women have those rights today, doesn't that then give them the authority to preach and teach today? If God calls them to this, why should she be silenced because of what Paul said some 2000 years ago, in a completely different culture/context/time than today in many parts of the world. (i understand this is still the case in some cultures that women still have no rights, but not in the state and so many other parts of the world). Could submitting to each other in marriage or even outside of marriage mean something different today? Does the submission for women in Eph 5 actually a literal statement from Paul? What about later in the section when he actually says he's not talking about marriage but Christ and the church? Or earlier in the sections that says above all we should submit ourselves to Christ.

I am not sure where I stand on Pauls' teachings. Many of the things I read from him go against the way in which Jesus lived his life. What am I to do with that? Even though many of these books were written before the Gospels, Jesus still lived before Paul and Paul attributes his works and ministry to Jesus/God. Then why do they seem so contradictory to Jesus' ministry? HELP!!!!!!!!!

i do not believe in Jesus.

This is not a new concept, thought or even self-critique from others. Matter of fact it sounds like some trendy, hip, progressive, post-modern, (whatever is cool to say these days in christianity) saying. But it has been something i've been thinking about for about a year now. Sara said this(the title) to me a few weeks ago and I have not been able to let it leave my thoughts. And the statement, "i do not believe in Jesus" is followed up by, "because if I did my life would not look like it does." This thought became more heightened on the heels of the tornado on the north side of minneapolis and across the midwest and south. specifically thought in north mpls, the tornado struck one of the most poverty stricken areas in minneapolis, leaving people with, in some cases, nothing. so what should my response to this be? go help clean up? and if so, go everyday? should my job be a priority or should helping others be a focus? give money? pray? secure my home and possessions?

another example is the way in which we live in America. How can any of us say we truly believe in Jesus and live the way we do? I will be the first to blame myself for not living how I think Jesus said I should. And what am I willing to do about it? Am I saying to God that I am following Jesus to the point of comfortability and the moment I fear or become uncomfortable, I acquiesce to what I want to do and the way I want to live. How can I fully believe in Christ and then own the things I do? Is the Bible and the story of Jesus more radical than we want to believe, I think so. Stephen Colbert, though his MO is more to be funny, he said something pretty profound that I have shared in the past that I think pertains to this post. He said on his show "If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it." 
(I have posted this video in the previous post.)

These are just my thoughts. What I am going to do with them, I am not sure. I would hope it moves me to change. In what direction? That is the hard part. I feel like the answer is real easy but I am self aware enough to realize I do not want to change how I feel I should. So then what does that say about me? Do I really believe in Jesus? 

colbert. jesus is a liberal democrat.

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the point of christs' story. is there one?

So as I was reading this week for my class on the book of Matthew, I was repeatedly reading about Jesus and the people he was encountering, at least from what the author of Matthew was depicting and it started to make me wonder something. What is it exactly that we are to get/understand from the story of Christ? I mean I have essentially narrowed it down to two options. If there are others our there, please by all means, send them my way, I'd love to hear them and discuss them. I'll even treat you to coffee and we can talk about it.

1 | Are the stories of Christ to give us background information on this man and how he lived his life and we are to tell others about what he did. A small percentage of what Jesus did with his life here on earth is recounted by the authors and is for our retelling of the books Matthew through John to other people, believers and non-believers of Christ. That is one option.

2 | Are we as "christians" supposed to go out into the world and repeat what he did. Meaning learn from what Christ did and do it?

Well I guess we could say both are acceptable answers right? But then my confusion comes in when I think about what we are doing with our churches. As I have been reading Stanley Hauerwas' commentary on Matthew I started thinking about how Jesus rarely spent time with other people who were like him. (Yeah I get Jesus is God, but I mean, what I think we would consider today as Christians) I mean those people that were in the temple and "church" were the Pharisee's, Teachers of the law,  and Priests, right? Yet the stories we get when Jesus interacts with them is rebuking them or telling them they are wrong for what they say and do. He spends more (most of his) time with people who do not yet believe him or have rejected him. This includes both his disciples and then the large crowds that hear him and learn from him. After he gets done speaking he tells them to leave and tell others about God.

I fail at this EVERYDAY. I spend time with people mostly like me in my faith. Not all are like me, but the majority are. So my pondering is asking what is the point of Jesus. If we are truly to do as Christ did, then why do we spend so much time focused on church and not on the things outside of the church. The people outside of the church. Our big Christian focus for the week is Sunday to help teach those who come to church, yet, if we look at our churches, the vast majority are people who already believe in Jesus and claim to follow him, myself included. So what are we doing? Jesus came for the sick, not the healthy. The sick are not in the churches. Tim Keller says in The Prodigal God, the church is filled with elder sons, the younger sons are not in the church. If that is true, which I think it is, then what are we doing with our focused attention to Sundays? Are we just waiting for the younger ones to come to the church? I don't think that is happening.

Just some thoughts.

baptism. why?

we talked about in my Matthew for Theology class about Matthew 3 and the theology behind it. I couldn't get passed the idea and question of why is baptism really needed and important. I know some would say because it is the way to salvation - which doesn't entirely make sense to me. Some might say because Jesus was baptized. But as Matthew records John the Baptist saying that He baptizes with water for repentance. Why would Jesus need to be baptized for repentance? So that doesn't make sense. Matthew talks more in depth about the baptism than any other Gospel, but every Gospel at least references it, ie....Mark and Luke talk about it only in a verse or two whereas John recounts the baptism, but not in present tense. So Jesus in Matthew 3 talks about needing to fulfill all righteousness. Is this to fulfill the prophecies? Is it to emphasize his humanity? I get that Jesus was recorded by Matthew in chapter 28 to go make disciples, baptizing them.......

But still the question remains WHY? John was baptizing people before Jesus was baptized, but who told John to baptize people and why?

Lastly where do we get the form of baptisms? As a lutheran it was sprinkling water on the baby's head at a very young age. In the BGC (Converge Worldwide) it is full submersion, but where does that come from? In Matthew 3 (v16) it talks about Jesus coming up out of the water.....does it mean walking out of the water or coming up from being submerged. I feel like the author could have easily made this more clear. Why was it not stated clearly?

I don't know. I feel like I should just say because "it takes away my sins and Jesus told me to do so" but I feel it's good to ask the question as to the significance and where it derives from.