1.20.2009

The Culture

So did you look up Answering the Call? It's pretty cool, huhl!
So now that we know the history of the church and the church's positive stance toward women in ministry how do we change the culture in our churches?
Culture? What culture?
The culture that says, "Well, Pastor, we would hire a female youth pastor, but I am worried for you. What would it look like? We don't want you to be tempted." Or, "Well, District Superintendent, we believe women can be ministers, but we don't think we could follow a female leader." Or, to the potential female candidate, "How can women be leaders in the church if they are to be submissive to their husbands?" Changing the culture is not easy! But 100 years ago, it would have been difficult to foresee an African American president! That was difficult to foresee until it happened! This Presidential Inauguration Day should give us hope. So...I guess we just keep talking, teaching, educating, praying, hoping, doing, preaching and answering our call.....

6 comments:

  1. Sharon, this is an awesome thing you're doing. Thank you for starting this blog and for being a trail blazer!

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  2. First, I miss our conversations. Second, my male colleague and I were just talking about this. He thinks that the reason that we have not had a female president has to do with this idea too. He thinks that the church is what is holding women back in politics. Makes sense. He has no experience with "church" politics, so he didn't really know what it was like within the church. So I just shared what little insight I had from what you have taught me. I am glad that this blog exists. Thanks!

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  3. That last comment is from Stephanie not David. I am accidently logged in as him.

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  4. Hi Stephanie,
    Thanks for responding. I am not convinced that it is the church that is the only (or major) negative influence that is holding back women in politics. The position of women is influenced culturally, historically and religiously. It should be no surprise that a male person of color would be elected to the presidency before the female. That was the order of receiving the privilege to vote. So, I guess that should give us women hope.

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  5. I think Kristina LaCelle-Peterson would agree with you about the cultural and personal paradigms being more powerful than a churches' use of Scripture in holding women back from a variety of leadership roles. "Answering the call" to responsibility in various fields as women is addressed in the book, Liberating Tradition: Women's Identity and Vocation in Christian Perspective. Baker (2008). Kristina identifies women priests and bishops in the early church, notes the Reformation as a force in limiting women's options for education and for leadership, and chronicles the long history of women preachers and church planters in America. Her treatice reminds us to do more than simply meet societal, church, and family expectations, and to think in terms of what we can do to participate in God's work in this world.

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  6. Kristina LaCelle-Peterson definitely is contributing positively to the discussion of women in the ministry. I need to get her book. Thanks for your contribution!

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