Outrage…
Comments(0)Sunday School Teacher Dumped for Being Female
Pastor Leaves After Church Turns Away Biracial Boy
I usually find a few items of interest on Religion News Blog, but finding these two stories today absolutely insensed me to rage. I cannot believe that a group of people supposedly in tune to the Word of God could miss certain messages plain as day to anyone who cares to find them.
In the Gospel of Luke, distinct pairs of miricles appear. Every healing touch for a man is accompanied by a similar healing touch for a woman. The subtle message here is that Jesus believes in equality of sexes. In fact, Jesus broke many cultural norms, most notably in his dining with tax collectors and interacting with Samaritans. Could the underlying message in that be that our cultural norms are not right in the eyes of God?
Most likely, Luke sought to bring that teaching out in light of Paul’s obvious misogyny. That way, we can fall back to the example of Jesus Himself when faced with verses like 1 Corinthians 14:35 or 1 Timothy 2:12.
Using 1 Timothy 2:12 as a reason to fire a Sunday school teacher is simply outrageous. That is pulling the verse way out of context. The key word in this verse is “I.” Pull out a red-letter edition and open to 1 Timothy 2:12. That verse is typeset in jet black. That means that Jesus never issued this heinous command. In context, “I” refers to the letter writer: Paul! Based on other writings, where Paul relays personal stories or opinions, Paul has a misogynistic bent: his writings are purposely unflattering to women.
Paul is giving his opinion on using women as leaders in the church. Obviously, Paul of all people would not want a woman to teach a man anything. Therefore, he sets the rules up that way. Paul’s letters were probably never meant to be considered holy Scripture by the apostle himself, so he would not have been so keen to not let absurdities like that creep in. It is very doubtful that it would have mattered at the time.
What is important to remember is that throughout Paul’s writings it is clearly delineated what is his own idea and what is God’s decree. A careful reader of Scripture should be able to easily distinguish the two and not force the news to make a spectacle of the church again.
