Hi. I grew up in a Catholic family, lived an atheist life of sin and returned to God through Catholicism. I knew nothing about other denominations.
My big issue was with Marion devotion, my parents being Portuguese are devoted to Our Lady of Fatima. But when I inquired about it in a Catholic forum I was labelled a Protestant.
"What is that?" So I looked into it. I always thought that Catholics where the original religion which held the bible sacred and then the denominations split off with new books, dogmas and doctrines. I was shocked to learn that its the Catholics that have a heap of other stuff besides the bible.
I learnt about "sola scripture" and that the protestants adhere to the bible and so began to wonder if I was even a Catholic anymore or a Protestant now as I believe in sola scripture and not the opportunity for humans to add doctrines to it without any bible foundation.
So now I"m surprised to learn that there are female priests in the Protestant priesthood.
"Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; the woman was deceived and became a transgressor." Timothy 2:11-14 ESV
Scripture is quite clear on that topic, what happened "sola scripture" in this case?
It goes like this. Just like some Catholic churches teach various different things and have different interpretations of scripture, we protestants teach various different things and have different interpretations of scripture. But don't let the minority of Protestants prevent you from joining or considering our Church because the vast majority of us do not believe that women should be pastors.
A vast majority of Protestants believe what Luther believed when he founded Protestantism back in the 1500's. The doctrine of Faith alone, Sola Scriptura, Eternal Security, That we are not saved by our Baptism or Participation in the Sacrements ...etc. We (Just like Luther) believe that all of these main points of Protestantism are both biblical and taught throughout the Bible both Old and New.
I agree with you that women should not be pastors but not every Protestant (Or Christian for that matter) will agree with me. It's been a belief in Christianity since pretty much the beginning of the Christian church. But, with the changing times of history as Christ's return is getting closer and closer Christians are starting to go away from God's word by believing that many things condemened by the Christian church in the past are "okay" now because the times have changed. This is a lie straight from Satan. God's word has never changed ever since God spoke it to Moses. The law didn't change and Christ didn't come to abolish the law, he came to fulfill it. Not just Protestants but Catholics and the Greek Orthodox church as well.
For example, my mother is stuck in a Catholic church where the preacher says that we don't need to accept Jesus to be saved. That when we die all we have to do is ask Jesus for forgiveness and he will give it to us because God is love. She's also being brainwashed into believing that we are saved by our works despite Paul quite clearly teaching that this isn't the case. My mom has probably never picked up a Bible in her life yet she's carried the label "Christian" her entire life. All of this is of course, just not true and had her priest (or my mom) actually picked up a Bible for themselves they would see that that, just isn't the case.
But the mainstream belief of Catholicism believes in the same things we Protestants do. That we are saved by faith in Christ, that we are not saved by our works ...etc. They just don't accept many of our beliefs as scriptural and Catholics and Protestants have been fighting and debating for over 5 centuries on what the Bible says and does not say.
So just like there are "bad" Catholic churches that preach against God's word and there are "bad" Protestant ones too. Any church denomination really. It's up to you and up to God to decide what denomination is right for you. Just because I believe that mainstream Protestants have the right interpretations of scripture doesn't mean that others don't have the right to disagree with me and I'm open to being wrong and having great debating discussions with my fellow Christians.
Anyway, I'm glad you're considering Protestantism but don't let the minority convince you into not joining. The mass majority of us believe what it says in scripture and believe that God's word has never changed and never will.