Anyways, now that that is out of the way, I had a small/moderate/huge (subjective really) revelation yesterday. And it was on the controversial topic of women in the church and their role in leadership. Now, I also want to preface that I am the furthest thing from the expert on women. I feel as though most men are students in the back of that class just trying their hardest to pass the course. But, I've heard this topic come up in a bunch of different venues as of late. People from all sides of the table weighing in whether or not women should be allowed to be leaders in a church setting. This is a fastly multi-sided table. You have many differing view points. Whether its a Christian who is firmly against a woman leading their church or a Christian in that same church whole heartedly behind a female at the pulpit. I've heard the argument from people outside of any distinct religion asking the question of why women would be apart of a religion that "obviously" doesn't respect their influence and strength.
I'm going to keep this somewhat surface level, otherwise it would lead to a long drawn out blog of me stumbling through explaining the many different passages that seem to deny the legitimacy of a woman having any kind of headship in the church. That exercise would ultimately lead to a "blind leading the blind" scenario.
So, the way I see it the core of the apparent "contradiction" that the written word of the Bible and many modern day churches have comes down to very different cultural settings. And trust me I know this point has been brought up many, many times and eloquently done so. All I'm trying to do is give, maybe, another avenue of understanding exactly what is at work here.
The ideology that The Lord does not value the role of women as highly as men is extremely bogus. And any man that claims that a woman is lesser than you is lying straight to his own face. As a man I feel I can speak on behalf of our whole knuckle-dragging gender in saying that without women we would be utterly lost in life. They are the leaders in a whole host of areas. But that is another completely different topic that someone else can get into. What I'm getting at is women are important and have way more influence on the world than what we tend to give credit. And Jesus/God knows this and knew this plain as day. Jesus encountered many women on his time on earth. Whether it was the woman that poured perfume on his head or the prostitute at the well, Jesus had many miraculous encounters with them that turned them around in life and made them lights in our dark world.
I love the point Jim Henderson at Relevant Magazine brings up in his March 8, 2012 article entitled "Women: The Church's Most Wasted Resource":
"It’s a fact that Jesus did not choose a woman to be one of the Twelve, but it’s just as true that He did not choose a man to be the first person to witness and announce His resurrection. It’s also a fact that no women were included in the inner circle of three who were present with Him at Gethsemane and the Transfiguration, but it’s just as true that no women followers bear the shame of having denied Jesus publicly."
Now why would Jesus go through all this trouble to involve women on such a large and important scale in his work here on Earth but not have them lead in a church setting. Now, we encounter where the dilemma of cultural differences comes into play. In the era of the world in which Jesus blessed us with his presence women were very much seen as lesser than men in all walks of life. They were the caretakers of the home, seemingly servants under the "all-powerful" man. It's for this reason, I believe, that Jesus didn't call the women to stand at the pulpit and teach. He knew that if they had they wouldn't have been shown the slightest light of day by any passerby or patron of that meeting. That's just how the world was. It wasn't that the women weren't capable of leading it was that the men would not have let them. So He worked with women in a different mission. I almost see them in a modern spy thriller being sleeper agents under cover having a more subtle and unseen influence that keeps everything on track in a much larger scope.
Fast forward to our modern day culture we see this role of women in the church hitting a conflict. This is because this seemingly barbaric view of women is just now becoming less and less common. Up until a few decades ago it was really no argument that the woman's place was back at home being the homemaker. All of this is not to say that it is wrong to be a homemaker, as C.S. Lewis said,
“The homemaker has the ultimate career. All other careers exist for one purpose only - and that is to support the ultimate career. ” However, with a surge in civil rights for women their role has increasingly become more and more equal to men. Women are CEO's and presidents and owners at multi-billion dollar corporations. They are congresswomen, governors, mayors. Long gone are the days of them not having a public sense of influence. As it should be, women are becoming equal to men in all walks of life. This is why I think there is no problem with a women leading in a church in this day and age. I understand why it wasn't possible before, but now is a time when women have an equal voice in the world and I see no problem in them teaching me or anyone else about the bible.
In one of the most controversial passages on this subject comes a great conclusion to my point:
"Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God."
1 Corinthians 11: 11-12
We're all human in the end. Let's just help each other and get past our own short-sidghtedness.
Thank you and God bless.
