Guilty_Assignment_25

Not a Catholic, but in Romans 16:1-2 Paul explicitly name drops a woman named Phoebe as his friend, helper, and deacon. He explicitly uses that term, which many are increasingly taking to mean as a green light for it.

After all, if he wrote a letter where he called a woman an accountant, chances are she was an accountant, and therefore in a broader sense women are able to be accountants.

The official Catholic answer though is along the lines of, "Ehhhhhhh, it's complicated!"

This is the same Paul that wrote 1 Timothy?

We actually aren't 100% sure. Differences in style, word choice, etc. lead some scholars to believe some of Paul's letters may have been edited after the fact, or potentially written by people trying to use Paul's name to espouse their own ideas.

Taking it at face value though and assuming it is the same Paul, which I think is fair, even those verses you mentioned have a number of different interpretations that can change when one accounts for the context, and the idea that Paul may have been writing to that specific church in Ephesus that Timothy was in charge of, within specific circumstances and contexts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1_Timothy_2%3A12?wprov=sfla1

On the contrary, female deacons seem to actually go beyond mention of Phoebe in that verse. There are mentions by Romans towards female deacons they're interrogating or putting on trial. There are records from various early churches attesting that women outside of this verse in Romans held the role. While access to, and perceived priority of, the role of deacons has certainly shifted back and forth across denominations and time periods, the idea of it as a specific role seems relatively consistent, and seems like something women have actually held before.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deacon?wprov=sfla1

But yes, the tl;dr is that it's complicated.

I love this.

You sound like a strong, brilliant, wonderful person who's doing a lot of good in the world, and the world would be a hell of a lot better with more people like you in it.

I'm sure Stephen Hawking had days in his life where he felt similarly bitter and resentful. I'm sure most people have. Hell, I certainly have and I don't have any major health issues. It's all a matter of perspective, I guess.

So you're a white hat hacker for fun?

Dude, that's awesome!

Are you just not interested in doing that as a career though?

Definitely sounds like you could smoke your competition, and would be better pay, better use of your skills, and less physical stress than the car dealership.

I'm surprised the FBI or some other Alphabet Soup hasn't tried to recruit you yet, tbh.