In 1988, the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood issued the Danvers Declaration, stating that “In the church, redemption in Christ gives men and women an equality to share the blessings of salvation, however, some governing and teaching roles within the church are limited to men." I'm reluctant to single out one organization for a focused topic, but this statement accurately represents a sentiment within the faith that I find disturbing. In this article, I will use the hermeneutic of the redemptive tendency to deconstruct the CBMW claim, while providing my perspective on why I find both women in ministry and the hermeneutic of the redemptive tendency valid. The hermeneutic of the redemptive tendency is a strategy for making sense of our 2000+ year old Collection of texts that we call the Bible. Keeping in mind humanity's fall from the creator's ideal, the reader sees Scripture as containing situations and imperatives that, when the text was written (and perhaps even today!), brought creation closer to what it was always meant to be. The Bible, then, as sacred documents of the Church (the redemptive institution), and its predecessor Israel (the redemptive nation), guides the reader in coordination with the ultimate trajectory of God's people - in all places, in all the times. pun intended, but my mental image for understanding the purpose of the biblical canon is that of, well, a “cannon.” Just like artillery directing an explosion to launch a projectile, Scripture guides our religious fervor “that everyone who belongs to God may be competent and equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:17). This means, of course, that the trajectory of the Bible will extend beyond the written word, not unlike a cannon… middle of paper… ty. For example, I might compare the Corinthian women abandoning the veil in an attempt to show equality in Christ to removing my Sunday best from the pew in an attempt to simulate Eden. As verse 23 reminds us, the resulting controversy may be permissible, but it is not only beneficial. Having said all this, I hope that the impression given in this article is not that of a closed-mindedness towards the CBMW. If people can be happy with a patriarchal, complementary world, leave it alone. The distinction between me and them is not one of morality but of culture. But, given recent history, they are an endangered breed in the Western world. Which seems to be the ultimate hope of the biblical canon. Works Cited Grudhem, Wayne. “But what should the woman do in church?” The Journal for Biblical Manhood & Womanhood (Fall 1995). Accessible at http://www.cbmw.org/Journal/Vol-1-No-2/But-What-Should-Women-Do-In-The-Church