It's Fun to Skewer Christian No-Women-Behind- the-Pulpit


If you ask someone from one of the denominations that does not allow women priests/preachers you get some quite wimpy answers. "It's in the Bible," or, "Jesus only had guy disciples."

Any rational person has suspicions about who wrote the Bible and what was intended. There is no verification that Jesus had all male disciples, or that there were any disciples. And, who wrote what is constantly debated.

What is fun is to read arguments about some of the old copies of the Bible and see the various translations. There certainly are good arguments that scribes who wanted to exclude women from the pulpit took liberties with the oldest writing. According to some scholars, women were bigger in the faith before the Middle Ages. Apparently, the door opened for men to move into authority and move women aside. They ran with it.  

The link instructs us that Paul, who is quoted often as saying women are second class citizens, actually advocates women as preachers behind the pulpit. In the case where he wrote against women as preachers he was addressing one specific place where there was one specific problem. The link says Paul was not making a generalized statement against woman preachers. But it works for anti=women denominations to read it incorrectly. 

Even if the Bible advises no women behand the pulpit, it would help the faith to ignore it. The faith needs participation of all races and genders to survive. The two biggest denominations, Catholics and Southern Baptists exclude women preachers. Both are experiencing big losses. 

Many professions are not equally open to all genders. Christianity, however, is supposed to teach the world about sound morals and ethical values. It would be the best place to start practicing what it preaches.

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