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?
My article titled “A Daughter’s Worth” was originally published at Fathommag.com in July 2019.
Be a Daniel, not an Esther.” With papercut precision, the church elder’s words sliced to my core. “Unlike Daniel,” he explained, “Esther discredited herself because she hid her faith.” The elder’s criticism of Esther stung with familiarity. Indeed, Esther—the young girl ripped from her home and forced into a king’s harem—exemplified courageous faith despite a huge power differential. Relying on prayer, Esther used her wits and death-defying actions to save the Israelite nation from impending slaughter. But, according to this elder, Esther isn’t to be imitated.
God chose to work largely through women to found and establish the Christian church in China and Cambodia. Nineteenth-century pre-literate Chinese women, evangelized by Protestant women missionaries, were taught how to read Chinese characters thereby enabling them to teach from the Mandarin Bible. These ‘Bible women,’ such as Dora Yu (1873–1931), publicly evangelized and taught the Bible to mixed-sex groups. Peace Lin and her son Watchman Lee, who later were instrumental in forming churches across China, came to faith through the ministry of Dora Yu.
While tracing the influential roots of an ancient anti-feminine bias, I read a revealing statement by theologian and priest John Wijngaards: “Prejudice against women existed everywhere in the past.” Wijngaards describes the pervasiveness of both secular and religious anti-woman prejudices. From what sources do Westerners argue for the inferiority of women and the subordination of women to men?
“When my daughter was in fifth grade, we visited my home church in Oakland, it was communion Sunday, and the preacher—male—got up and preached the sermon, then after the sermon, 12 men in their dark suits came forward to serve communion. And my daughter—fifth grade—leans over to me and she says, “Dad, where are the women?”
Misunderstood No More. It reminds me of the long-standing admonition, “Begin with the end in mind.” The last chapter of Mary DeMuth’s new book, The Most Misunderstood Women of the Bible is aptly titled, “Misunderstood No More.” Through the Bible stories of ten women, DeMuth illustrates the value of enduring the tension and hostility of being blatantly maligned, dismissed, and misunderstood. She writes, “I believe we can grow in our understanding of misunderstanding and, through that learning process, begin to act as Jesus did—with perseverance.” To learn more, read my new book review on The Most Misunderstood Women of the Bible.
Journey with me to learn about women in the Bible and women in church history. Develop your theology of women. Decide what you believe about women in leadership in the Church.
I saw them in Walmart. An elderly married couple, both appeared frail, shopping together for groceries. The husband pushed the shopping cart and the wife held the side of the cart as they walked down the aisle choosing their items. Who was the leader? Is he the leader? Can she be a leader? Clear View Acts of service are my love language and it delighted me to see this couple shopping together. After checking out with my groceries and loading…