The Story of One Woman Employed in the Evangelical Community
This young woman had been successful in her career in the secular world but became an evangelical Christian and decided to work at the Billy Graham institute at Wheaton College. After she had been there for a couple of weeks a man who was her supervisor sat down with her and said, Laurie, you are a very smart person and we are excited to have you here as we believe you have much to contribute. But, I have to warn you that you have things working against you, you're young, you're blond, you're short and you're female.
Of course, this little talk could have happened at any number of religious and secular organizations. What makes it so important is that women are assigned a secondary role in many Christian denominations and are prevented from being clergy. The implication is God does not want Christian women to be in top Christian leadership positions. That is why this is different from secular organizations which discriminate.
It seems so contrary to the self interest of denominations to freeze women out of clergy positions. Out there is a load of talent these denominations cannot use. All they have to do to put them in clergy positions is to read the Bible. The Bible has any number of references to women in responsible positions. Denominations could do what they have always done, talk about some different part of the Bible and adjust to the current culture.
I've read that women do the lion's share of work in churches and are the most reliable church goers. It would follow they are the church's future. The male Christian culture has a good ability to shoot itself in the foot as parts of it are doing with anti abortion and gay marriage. It is easy to understand the drop in Christian numbers.
I thought you just told us that we should only trust hard stats (pro-abort stats in particular ) and eschew anecdotal accounts from whatever source. BTW there is an old saying: consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds. apparently you take that adage very seriously.
ReplyDeleteUnknown -- "...and eschew anecdotal accounts from whatever source."
ReplyDeleteGood comment. I did not say "from whatever source." Matt often, and you occasionally, use news stories about one abortion gone wrong and claim all abortions are dangerous. Statistically, abortions are safe.
There is a branch of the social science research that is based on anecdotal evidence. This is done by experienced people and is reviewed and critiqued by others in the field. The anecdotal comments are then classified into various categories and some simple statistics are provided. These can open open ended responses, much different than "yes" or "no" or "grade this on a scale of 1 to 10", etc. This is the kind of research done in "Turned Away." I think even you would find this book/study interesting. I have heard stories from women I know about abortions they have had, but I don't know many. The author says most anti abortion advocates don't know women who have had abortions except those who came over to pro life later. This book has quite long and detailed testimony from many women, some had abortions, others wanted one but could not obtain and gave birth. The study involved about 1,000 women. Just tonight I read that one in five of the women in the study who had abortions did not and today do not approve of them. It is an opportunity to see into a world that is off limits to most of us. I'm going to read some more of it right now.
Jon, your time is near. By that, I mean you have some amount of time to turn your life around and find the hand of God that is reaching out to you. Every indication is that you see it but reject it. We know not the time or the place of our death, but we know that we can die in a state of eternal damnation. Well, perhaps you don't *know* that. I know you will laugh off my warning. Regardless, the time draws nearer. There is no negotiation after death. There is no eternal slumber. The finality is Heaven or Hell. You are either 'all in' or 'all out'. Feel free to make fun of me. It's what you do best of me and people like me.
ReplyDeleteMatt--If there is a God and a judgement at our deaths, it is you who should change and better prepare yourself. You write things here constantly that are simply not true--you violate one of the Ten Commandments. I can't count the times you have claimed some link you provide says things it does not say. You make claims about what the Bible says that a host of scholars say is not there. There is still time for you to change, but delay is not really wise. If it is true there in eternal damnation, well, eternity is a long time. As you claim, you are either all in or all out. If all this religion and death is what you say it is, I for one would not be the foolish risk taker that you are.
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