I’m embarrassed that I’m writing this…but I’m going to anyway. This is just another example of the “church” not just allowing an evil (sexism) to continue, but rather actively promoting that injustice. If the church was just shutting it’s eyes, I’d be more inclined to say, ok, you’re missing this, you’ll get there. But when it’s one of the things the church actively teaches as righteousness, it’s very hard for me to say, yeah, well, I can trust that Christianity has it right on the main things anyway.

Like many, I was really taught that the Bible teaches that women are in a subordinate position. Now, I believe that’s wrong, but I don’t feel like I’m reading the Bible honestly if I try to believe that the Bible doesn’t teach that. It’s one of those things that makes me wonder if I ought to be holding onto the Bible/Christianity at all. I don’t mean that I haven’t heard people teach on why the Bible isn’t against women in leadership. I have heard that. It comes across as a bit of a rationalization, and maybe some mental gymnastics. Do you feel that you can read the Bible with integrity, without leaving stuff out, and still think that it treats women the same as men? I mean, sometimes I wonder why didn’t God pick more women in the Bible? Why was Jesus a man? He wasn’t afraid to cross other barriers or upset other social norms. Why not that one?

If this is an inappropriate place for me to say all this, please let me know And I hope that my tone doesn’t come across as attacking…they’re sincere questions.

When I became a full time youth pastor, folks would still say, “oh, thats so nice. When do you think you will move on to have your own church and be a real pastor? –a senior pastor.

I came to realize over the years that what we call “pastor” has little to do with what we read in our Bible. We have told both women and men that they cannot be real leaders, they cannot have a real ministry, they cannot have real meaning… unless they are a “pastor.”

In my experience, so many women (and men) wanted to be “pastors” because they had bought into the whole flawed system that confused leadership, importance, and ministry with “ordination” from a human institution.

Until we understand leadership.. until we understand church… these titles will have no meaning anyway.

How many folks have suffered because they were looking after the wrong thing and seeking approval from the wrong people?

katherine – argh! ick! i can see and feel the moment and it makes me so sad…

A few years back, the southern baptist convention actually voted on whether women should be permitted to be the “pastor” of a church. They decided “no”. The church I grew up in, and the one my family still went to at the time were preparing to cast their own vote on the issue. I remmember my Mom telling me that she thought it was wrong for a woman to be a pastor and that she hoped that the motion would pass to exclude women. It felt so horrible to hear my mother feel like she really should be beneath a man. That it was okay with her for women to be second class citizens in her church. I think I ended up biting my tongue a lot over that one.

Thanks for sharing and marching onward with your internal, non-visible genitalia.