In a lecture on the book of Ephesians, one of my seminary professors described Artemis of the Ephesians as a goddess of fertility. Except she wasn’t. Artemis, whose temple was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was “nobody’s mother.”
Does the Bible direct the exclusion of women from a pastoral role? Let’s put this hotly debated question under the microscope in Part II of “Disfellowshipped Churches, Rick Warren, the SBC, Women Pastors.” An influential SBC pastor writes, “Abiding women in the pastoral office materially harms the work of the Convention because it cultivates disunity where we have long been united. It contaminates the soil of our Convention with distrust of and disobedience to the Scriptures.” I’ll recap this description of sisters-in-the-faith: Women pastors “harm the work,” “cultivate disunity,” and “contaminate the soil” because of “disobedience to the Scriptures.” Truly?
I fell down an escalator, at a recent Evangelical Theological Conference (ETS), to get Nijay Gupta’s newest book, Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church. I’d seen a Twitter announcement about this forthcoming book and couldn’t wait to read it. A word of caution, if you drop something while on an escalator DO NOT bend over to pick it up! When my feet hit the bottom step, I rolled like a bowling ball and landed in a splat. Fortunately, though rattled (and bruised), all my limbs worked. Two gentlemen kindly helped me to my feet. I immediately turned to see if I could recover my lost item. Behold, a guy with a twinkle in his eye handed me the postcard he had seen me drop and perilously attempt to recover. “Thank you,” I said and sheepishly added, “It’s for a free book!” All three men laughed uproariously. They weren’t so much laughing at me (well maybe a little), as with me. ETS conference attendees are book nerds, and we especially appreciate free books! With my feet on firm ground, I redeemed my rock-and-roll postcard for a complimentary advance copy of Tell Her Story. The book’s official release day is March 14th and I’ve written a review for you.
I logged into Twitter early one April morning to tweet a request for ideas on Christian egalitarian women to interview. To my delight, Marg Mowczko (pronounced “Moss-Koh”) reached out and offered an interview. I’d previously read several of her blog articles, but we’d never before met or spoken. After arranging a Texas to Australia connection, Marg joined me via Facetime from her home in New South Wales.