narrow experience

A couple posts ago, I talked about the narrowness of fundamentalism in the theological arena. Their narrowness in theology affects how they relate to people. I found in fundamentalism experience of God and relationships with others were narrow too. Their "literal" understanding of Scripture without understanding the cultural and Biblical context of the text leads them to exclude women from certain ministry positions. What I heard from the church when I questioned women as trustees was God's grace was good enough to give men "leadership skills" and to restore them from their sin but God's grace was only good enough to get women out of Hell. God's grace cannot undo our ability to be lead astray. The narrowness of the experience of God's grace in fundamentalism is not limited to gender roles. This is simply the experience which I am most familiar with and most hurt by. I have lost friends over my call into ministry. When we cannot extend grace to each other, it means we have not experienced that grace ourselves.