Henrietta Dubb's Diary - 3
Women Restored to Office in God's
Kingdom
Let me be provocative. I have God-given
responsibility for the church. I have no problem with competent, spiritual
women being called to office in the church. But I am happy as a Christian and I
don't think I am a preacher. Nor do I believe anything goes; I'm no liberal.
Still, I don't believe everything must stay the same. I'm no conservative.
Some react and tell me I'm on a slippery
slope. Those who say that are wrong. I accept women can hold office in the
church but this does not mean I embrace moral relativism. I don't believe
the gay life-style is a valid Christian form of friendship. Nor do
I accept "living together" before marriage as a Christian form
of preparation for that life-long partnership. It clearly isn't.
Conservatism can't lead me to think as a Christian. Thinking needs
biblical teaching to get direction.
We are called to love our neighbours,
all of them and so we should not exclude from the circle of love those who have
not been able to throw off the homosexual temptation, or the adulterers,
murders, gluttons, power mongers and opinionated middle-aged women like myself
who like to hear the sound of their own voices.
There is, I believe, one office in creation
that is exclusive in gender terms. I've studied sociology and I think I know
what that is. It's the mother role. Mothers can take on the social-role of
fathers but the mother role is exclusively female. I'm talking "shoulds"
here, and I know how complex issues can get, like when lesbian couples take
each other to court for child maintenance when they break up. I'm not ignorant.
But I have deep concerns for the
"women-can't-be-in-office-in-the-church-because-the-bible-forbids-it"
lobby. It's not just that view of women. It's that forbidding view of the bible
that worries me. That lobby fools itself. Service in God's Kingdom - latreian is the NT Greek word - is not pretending to be living when Paul penned
his letter to Timothy. That is an anti-historical mental flip which assumes
churches can live today by the letter of Pauline ordinances (1 Timothy
2:8-15). Which church requires hats for women these days? Besides, those who do
wear hats very often need counselling against the pagan tendency to make public
worship into some kind of fashion parade.
As a peacemaker I don't go to war with
those who believe woman can't be in office in the church, but I wish they would
let them expound the bible positively and practise self-denial, exposing the
way women and others are used as chattels wherever it happens. Let God's
Kingdom be proclaimed to encourage all to use their gifts to serve Christ's
body.
Let's rediscover the restoration of women's
office in creation after the coming of Jesus Christ. Let's avoid
elevating women out the world into latter-day Madonnas. Let's look again at how
Jesus accommodated His male disciples, and appointed 12 as the senior students
in His school. It was some women who stuck with Him right to the end,
and it was some women who were inaugural witnesses to the
Resurrection.
April
14th, 2003
Henrietta Dubb - A Christian citizen of the 21st century
April 2003 © Henrietta Dubb's Diary, written
and published by Bruce C Wearne, 29 Lawrence Rd., Point Lonsdale Vic 3225
AUSTRALIA, 61-3-5258-3913, may be photocopied or retransmitted in its
entirety but shall not otherwise be reprinted or transmitted without the
publisher's written permission. This personal project aims to
encourage positive Christian citizenship, the development of policies and
political attitudes that better express our love for God and all our
neighbours.. Comments welcome. Email : bcwearne@ozemail.com.au Web-site: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~bcwearne/hdd.htm