HERMENEUTICS!

...What I have argued is that nothing in the New Testament itself tells us which is the most important or “controlling” text on women in ministry. Rather, this decision becomes a hermeneutical one, attempting to assess the context of each passage and its role in biblical teaching and seeking a balance of all (not simply a selective group of) texts. Further, one needs hermeneutical skills to assess the cultural contexts of passages written in first-century culture, in which, generally speaking, women were considered inferior, subordinate, not worthy of education and suited only to domestic responsibilities. David Scholer

Hermeneutics, Hermeneutics, always Hermenuetics, I say!!

Jesus the Christian Hero

One particular issue to which I have given increasing attention is the oft-repeated Jewish charge that Christian feminism is a new form of anti-Semitism, by making Jesus the Christian hero who liberates women from oppressive Judaism. I have, thus, given attention to the accomplishments and positive roles of women in Second Temple Judaism before I cover the negative views of men toward women. Further, I have argued (in print) that Jesus is a hero to both Jews and Christians. David M. Scholer

This is an accusation of which I had not been aware. It is something to be sensitive to as we approach the discussion of how Jesus treated women. His treatment of women is very positive and is a model that is important in understanding the role of women in the home and in the Church. We do not want to minimize or lose the powerful image of Mary sitting at Jesus' feet learning as men did at the time. Nor do we want to miss the importance of Jesus speaking to the woman at the well and revealing to her who He was! But perhaps we should choose our words carefully so that we minimize any potential offense to our Jewish brothers and sister.

What do you think?

Male and female / He created them

So God created / man in His own image, In the image of God / He created him; Male and female / He created them. Genesis 1:27

Although there is much debate about the meaning of the image of God, the Hebrew poetic parallelism clearly demonstrates that the female of the human species is created in possession of this same feature. She participates in the divine image in no grammatically, demonstrably different way in contrast to the male. Mary Hayter, when discussing the Imago Dei, says:

Whatever it is correct to say about the creation of the male in the image and likeness of God applies to the female. Anything and everything that may be deduced from the text about “man,” “mankind,” “humanity,” is relevant not simply to one half of the human race but to all men and women (Hayter 92).

Therefore any claims to variation of degree in bearing the divine image based upon gender distinctions should be rejected. Such readings overlook or ignore the plain reading of the text. The third line of this poetic refrain candidly recounts the creation of a plurality of persons, “them,” in genders male and female. Article from Wesleyan/Holiness Women Clergy

Help meet?

If the Hebrew phrase simply meant “helper”, then could a woman hold a leadership position in the church, let alone a single woman?... In the beginning, men and women were both created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27), and they were created to be equals. They were both given the commands to be fruitful and to rule over the earth (Gen. 1:28-30). The woman was not created to be a subordinate helper to her husband. She was created as an autonomous being; she was a complete human being, just as the man was. Her existence was not dependent on him as his existence was not dependent on her: their existence depended on God alone who created them both.

Call Me What You Will...

Call me what you will, but God calls me....

How would you finish this sentence?

Gender and roles?

Marriage is hard even when both parties believe in mutuality and equality in marriage. Sharing. Negotiating. Swallowing your pride. Censuring yourself. Finding a rhythm between the two of you. Trusting the other. Forgiving. Letting go of the hurts. Overlooking. Growing older and changing. Finding a new rhythm. Renegotiating. Starting over. It’s messy, bruising work that wreaks havoc on your self-esteem and ego. But you can survive the bruisi-ness of marriage when you know that you’re not the only one in the relationship “dying to ego.” Marriage is about mutual sacrifice, mutually giving and forgiving, and mutually surrendering one’s wants and needs for the sake of the other– not because of some preconceived notion about roles and gender, but because you love each other, and because forever is a long time to be sad, miserable, and subjugated.

How much of the problem people have with viewing women in ministry as leaders is based on the these preconceived notions about roles and gender which say the woman must be submissive to the man?

"The Deeper Places Insider Her"

"A girl, forming her identity also experiences herself missing from pronouns in scripture, hymns, and prayers... she will experience the otherness, the lessness, of herself; all the pious talk in the world about females being equal to males will fail to compute in the deeper places inside her."-Sue Monk Kidd

Inclusive language is more important than we may want to acknowledge. If the church is not contextualized for over half of its participants then it is missing the opportunity to minister to the "deeper places inside her."