To paint or not to paint...that is the question?

We decided on tongue and groove bead board for the cathederal ceiling in the addition.  Our journey started at Moynihan Lumber.  We decided on the fir "beadboard" planks.  The fir had a more uniform look than the wider pine planks.

Since we're definitely going with white cabinets the question came up, do we paint the ceiling?  What about staining the ceiling?  Here are a few pictures.

I used miniwax whitewash pickling stain on this leftover piece of beadboard. 

Here I used miniwax bombay mohogany polyshade which contains both the the stain and polyurethane for a simple application.

Since painting the wood ceiling seems like such a sin, and the dark stain on the ceiling reminds me of my church going days, I'm leaning towards the whitewash.  What do you think?