Comment on Northern California Conference Votes to Act Independent of the General Conference by Sean Pitman.

I’m sorry, but my household is not your household or visa versa. Therefore, I cannot, simply because I am a man, claim “headship” over your wife or any other woman in your household. The same is true for the church. The church is independent of my own household. Therefore, I cannot claim automatic headship over all of the women in the church just because I am a man because I am not the “head” of the church – Jesus is its only head. It’s a silly argument to claim that a man has “headship” over all women in the church or anywhere else – and is not supported by the Bible.

Again, no other man in the church or elsewhere has been given “headship” over my wife. That position has not been given to you or any other man by my wife or by God – only to me by my own wife according to God. The head of my wife is only me, not any other man, and the head of me is Christ alone (1 Corinthians 11:3 and Ephesians 5:23). The Bible calls upon women to “submit yourselves to your own husbands” (Ephesians 5:22) – not to any other man, except for Christ, outside of that marriage relationship.

As an aside, I’m not going to have “headship” over the future wives of my sons just as my own father does not have “headship” over my wife. We are called to honor our parents (Exodus 20:12), but that isn’t the same thing as the “headship” situation within a marriage setting where a man and a woman are called to “leave father and mother” and to “cleave” only to each other (Genesis 2:24). You’re misinterpreting things here as well. The “headship” passages in the Bible only deal with a man and his own wife. These passages are not saying that a man is given automatic “headship” over all women. That might seem like fun from the perspective of some men, but that simply isn’t what the Bible is saying…
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Regarding Women in Leadership Positions:

“Those placed in the position of responsibility should be men and women who fear God, who realize that they are humans only, not God. They should be people who will rule under God and for Him. Will they give expression to the will of God for His people? Do they allow selfishness to tarnish word and action? Do they, after obtaining the confidence of the people as leaders of wisdom who fear God and keep His commandments, belittle the exalted position that the people of God should occupy in these days of peril?”— Mrs. White, Manuscript 163, 1902.

Here we have Mrs. White clearly presenting women, as well as men, in positions of leadership and rulership among the people of God under the will of God…

“Ellen White’s name was among those voted to receive papers of the ordained ministers, although her ordination was not by the laying on of hands by men. The conference session closed on November 27 [1887].” Ellen G. White: Volume 3—The Lonely Years: 1876-1891, By Arthur L. White, Page 377. [a copy of these ordination credentials from 1887 can be found in the main article above].

Rather than ordination by men, Mrs. White says: “In the city of Portland the Lord ordained me as his messenger…” Mrs. White, The Review and Herald, May 18, 1911.

A couple more items may be of interest to you regarding 1 Timothy 2:11-14 and other relevant passages, as interpreted by the early leaders of the SDA Church, to include James White and J.N. Andrews:

January 2, 1879 by J.N. Andrews and James White (Link)

There are two principal passages cited to prove that women should not take any part in speaking in religious meetings. These are 1 Corinthians 14:34, 36 and 1 Timothy 2:12. But a careful study of the books of Corinthians shows that the passage first referred to can have no such application.

The Corinthian church was in a state of great disorder. The first chapter shows that they were divided into parties in reference to the apostles themselves. The fifth chapter shows that one had taken his father’s wife, and others did not mourn over this act. The sixth chapter shows that they went to law with the world, and implies that they were guilty of violating the seventh commandment. The eleventh chapter shows that when they celebrated the Lord’s supper, the rich ate and drank until they were intoxicated, and the poor were waiting and suffering hunger.

Now it appears from the fourteenth chapter when they were assembled in meeting, the women threw everything into confusion by talking among themselves, and acting with such indecorum as to be a matter of shame to them. So that what the apostle says to women in such a church as this, and in such a state of things, is not to be taken as directions to all Christian women in other churches an in other times when and where such disorders do not exist. [emphasis added].

See also:

May 29 1879 by James White (James White, J.N. Andrews, Uriah Smith editors)

The next case is that of Deborah, mentioned in Judges 4:4-10: “And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time. And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah, between Ramah and Bethel in Mount Ephraim; and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment. And she sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedesh-naphatali, and said unto him, Hath not the Lord God of Israel commanded, saying, Go and draw toward Mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun.

“And I will draw unto thee, to the river Kishon, Sisera, the captain of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his multitude; and I will deliver him into thine hand. And Barak said unto her, If thou wilt go with me, then I will go; but if thou wilt not go with me, then I will not go. And she said, I will surely go with thee, notwithstanding the journey that thou takest shall not be for thine honor; for the Lord shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh. And Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kadesh; and he went up with ten thousand men at his feet; and Deborah went up with him.” Notice the following particulars in the foregoing statements:—

1. Deborah was a prophetess. She received divine instruction from Heaven, and taught the people.

2. She was a judge in Israel. The people went up to her for judgment. A higher position no man has ever occupied.

… And the dispensation which was ushered in with glory, honored with the labors of holy women, will close with the same honors. Thus says God by his holy prophet: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.” Acts 2:17.

So, here we have leaders of the early Adventist Church commenting on the very same texts that you’ve presented to me coming to a very different conclusion as to their meaning than what you seem to have concluded. And, Mrs. White did not correct or argue against their conclusions (one of which was her own husband), but seemed to support these conclusions in her own writings.

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