Key Tenets
The important part of this debate is the relationship of men and women. It is not just about what is “‘a woman’s place in the church,’ but involves the bigger question of the design of the relationship of man and woman in creation and redemption” (Saucy 21) Men and women are created both in God’s image, but they are created different. They were were created to need each other and be one, but the special relationship was broken by sin. (Saucy 21-22)
Most people on both sides of the issue agree that the New Testament says for wives to be submissive to their husbands, such as Ephesians 5:22 and Colossians 3:18. They also agree that in 1 Timothy Paul says that women couldn’t teach men. The division comes with how these verses apply to the church today.
Egalitarianism
Those that believe that all church positions and ministry is equally open to both genders are called egalitarian. (Saucy 26) Alan G. Padgett, for the organization, Christians for Biblical Equality (CBE), defines Biblical equality as, “All have equal responsibility to use their gifts and obey their calling to the glory of God. God freely calls believers to roles and ministries without regard to class, gender, or race.” (22) They would see the verses about women being submissive and not being able to teach as not not applying to the church today.
Egalitarians can be divided further into a more liberal and a more conservative view. The more liberal view sees all the distinction between gender as the fault of coming out of a patriarchal society, which is not from God. The more conservative view tends to see the restrictions on women being addressed to specific people and churches that don’t apply to the church anymore. (Saucy 27)
Complementarianism
Complementari...
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It has played a major role in history, persecution, church, wars and most importantly in slavery. in this essay i have focus in how hypocrisy was use in race relations using the slave narrative Equiano. In Equiano 's slave narrative examines Christianity and how it allows hypocrisy in slavery. As Equiano travels he sees and learns how whites use religion as a pocketbook, whites pretended to be holy and virtue by attending church and being thrilled of their practice when in reality they were unjustly treating African slaves and not living up to the tenets outlined in the bible. Equiano studies the bible carefully; despite of the hypocrisy Equianos faces he remains loyal to god and always kept his faith in god. Once his convince of the authenticity of his spiritual transformation and studies of the bible then Equiano convert to Methodist
Montgomery, William. Under Their Own Vine and Fig Tree: The African-American Church in the South. Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 1993. Print.
Women were the subject of marginalization ever since the very beginning of Christianity. They were viewed as a “second Eve” (92) who did not deserve the same attention as men. Women were treated as second class citizens. They were willfully ignored by members of the Christianity
Religion is often something people turn to during times of difficulty. During the times of enslavement, Christianity was a double edged sword. The Angela Davis edition of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, illustrate how religion, mainly Christianity, was immensely complex and moved from one extreme to the other. When preaching Christianity to the slaves, slaveholders emphasized the Bible’s passages teaching obedience and pacifism. Thus, slaveholders used religion to justify their brutal actions and condone slavery. Douglass and Jacobs demonstrate the moral contradiction between slavery and Christianity, thereby illustrating that slaves must be able to alienate themselves from
"Birney's American Churches and Slavery." Birney's American Churches and Slavery. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Nov. 2013.
Complete Title: An Exploration of the Relationship between Southern Christianity and Slaveholding as seen in the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Written by Himself”
Turner, G. “The Christian Life as Slavery: Paul’s Subversive Metaphor.” The Heythrop Journal (May 28, 2010): 1-12.
I have always found the role of women in religion to be a fascinating and diverse subject, varying from community to community. Sometimes, the role of a woman in society is so closely linked to her religious role, that the two are indistinguishable. For example, why is it that some women are expected to upkeep the home and children without question? How are such gender roles assigned? Are these gender roles created by religion and upheld by culture or created by culture and upheld by religion? Where do such social expectations stem from? What does the daily life of a woman in religious groups that hold such expectations look like? And given these questions, is it possible for such roles to evolve? Has social change within gender roles occurred in the context of religion? In order to find the answers to these questions and questions like them, one must seek further insight of religion itself and the social context within which it exists.
The Torah, in general, does not exactly alleviate the situation of women. Many Jewish feminists argue that a big chunk of the misogynistic views of men stem from the exclusivity of God as male. Judith Plaskow says, “There is the fact that we address God as he. And it is not just that we use the masculine pronoun in the absence of neuter ones – we image him in male terms. Thus he is King, Lord, Shepard, Father, etc.” She goes on to mention the incredulous arguments against the ordainment of women. Arguments that stated things like because a Rabbi or Minister is in effect a Godly figure, and since God is used in exclusively male terms, it is not fitting that a woman should take a role in the clergy.
In Women, Church, God: A Socio-Biblical Study, Caleb Rosado uses a socio-biblical approach to discuss the role of women in the church today and how they were treated in the Bible, during the patriarchal times. Rosado looks at the connection between what people believe now, their culture, and how they treat women in regards to how one perceives God. This book contains ten chapters in which several topics are discussed, including the nature of God, the treatment of women in the Bible, patrimonialism, servitude, and servanthood.
The first of two questions we considered was "How does my being male or female affect my spirituality?" I thought for a while and could not think of a single way in which it did. I often ponder how my being male affects my relationships with my biological father, the opposite sex, and society. But, before this meeting, I had never pondered how being male affected my spirituality. Most of the men in the room seemed to be in a similar state of confusion at the question. The women, however, had a more varied response. Some felt the same way I did - they had never really thought about it. A couple mentioned how being able to give birth to another human brought them closer to God, the creator of life. Several more mentioned sexism in the church and how it interfered with their spirituality. This got the discussion rolling, although in a slightly different direction from what the discussion leader had planned. We talked about how sexism in the church had affected our lives. The church often seems to push men and women into specific roles. Women are not always taken seriously, and their spiritual gifts and needs are sometimes ignored. These shortcomings, caused by members of the church as well as tradition, are harmful to members of both genders because they can distort people's views of the world, the Bible, and God.
Religion is powerful in that it controls followers’ behaviours and beliefs throughout their entire lives; it is a form of social control. Catholicism is one of the most widely known religions influencing more than 2 billion people around the world (Ross). Within Catholicism not everyone are seen as equals; men have greater privilege than women. The bible and church are from a male’s point of view (Christ 86) and passages within the bible are used to enforce a sexual hierarchy. In fact, the oppression of women begins with the first story in Genesis about creation, which portrays females as being inferior to men and even of an evil nature. This one passage is the main source of justification of oppression of woman in the church (Daly 13). The church and its teachings instil low self-esteem and low self-worth in women; it creates false identities that are supposed to be God’s plan (Daly 3). One has to wonder why women participate in the church and follow its teachings, and how women can overcome the oppression in the church.
Napierowski and Mary Ruby. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Literature Resource center. Web. 9 Feb 2014
“Today I appeal to the whole Church community to be willing to foster feminine participation in every way in its internal life. This is certainly not a new commitment, since it is inspired by the example of Christ himself….nevertheless, he also involved women in the cause of his kingdom; indeed he wanted them to be the first witnesses and heralds of his resurrection. In fact, there are many women who have distinguished themselves in the Church’s history by their holiness and hardworking ingenuity.”
Kelley, Rhonda H., “Communication between Men and Women in the Context of the Christian Community”. Retrieved on October 4, 2004 from http://www.cbmw.org/resources/articles/gender_communication.php