Those of you who know me in the real world will probaby be aware that I've spent quite a lot of time recently celebrating and advocating for women leading in the church. There are lots of reasons for this, which I will hopefully try to dwell on a little bit in later posts, but for now I just want to hightlight the MOST annoying things that comes up in conversation abou this.
You would think the most annoying thing would be people saying that women aren't qualified to teach, that women are called to submit to all men (***stabs pen in eye***), but actually these are just the tip of the ice-berg. At least those people are honest in their sexism. Actually, for me, the most annoying arguement comes from those who believe they are 'moderate' saying that, 'when men in the church fail to come forward, God calls women.'
Basically, what this arguement is, is that ultimatly, what God wants is for men to lead the church, but because men can be lazy or whatever and fail to heed the call, sometimes God is forced to call women to this role. Do this people seriously have no idea how patronising this is? I would challenge them to tell the Godly, amazing female ministers/elders/priests that I know that they are only fulfilling their call because there is no man around to do it.
Its a terrible argument. Its used to try and make sexism more subtle and its not even logical. Either God welcomes women as leaders or God doesn't. There is no room for middle ground. It also suggests a really low opinion of God. A perfect God does not do imperfect things, this makes no sense. If God does something, and God is perfect, then the action cannot be wrong. (Although for me this becomes difficult as I read the Old Testemant!) Or does God ever compromise? Theres an interesting discussion to be had here!
Seriously, what should I say to people who say this? I honestly don't know how to engage with this arguement, it makes me want to cry.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment