After brief discussions on this today, and the need for a topic to blog on that isn't benvolio (sorry), I thought I'd use this.
I know it's a subject gone over and over, and debated numerous times, but I'm sure it can't hurt to discuss it again.
I'm not very good at expressing my opinion in writing (or talking really for that matter) but I'll try. I have nothing against women having leadership roles in churches, I think it's necessary to have women in leadership in order to engage with society as it is now, how can the church hope to engage if it's refusing to put women in positions of authority when society is currently pushing for equal oppurtunities?
What are your opinions?
I know it's a subject gone over and over, and debated numerous times, but I'm sure it can't hurt to discuss it again.
I'm not very good at expressing my opinion in writing (or talking really for that matter) but I'll try. I have nothing against women having leadership roles in churches, I think it's necessary to have women in leadership in order to engage with society as it is now, how can the church hope to engage if it's refusing to put women in positions of authority when society is currently pushing for equal oppurtunities?
What are your opinions?
11 Comments:
Mt opinions are very contencious but against my better intentions, they prove to be more true.
Inside or outside the church, I've never been under the guidance of a woman who I think has made a good leader. I've worked under three women bosses and four male bosses and I've seen a constant trend of the men (and I take no pleasure in saying this) just being better at leadership. My father says the same, and his authority in commenting on the subject of leadership comes from being a ship's captain and deck officer for about 20 years or more, and VR-RAF officer.
I think I'm only just grounded enough to know that after a great deal of soul searching, it's not just my abject anti-feminist pro-male supremacist vibes that think this and to the limit of my experience, women are more pridormally suited to things like emotional comfort, maternal instincts, creative expression... males on the other hand are more suited to arithmeic problem solving, physical endurance, spacial awareness etc.
It's my opinion that whether you believe in creationism or evolution, the male brain has adapted/was made with a more instinctive leadership emphases. Conversly, the female mind, it seems, has been created/adapted to tend babies and understand their emotional development better than the attempts of a male.
This is all probably very offensive to feminists and radical liberalists everywhere and I'm certainly not thinking this is a rule (take Joan of Arc, Elizabeth I and that chic-Viking who dressed like a man-Viking and conquered Asia Minor) but drawing this back to the issue of women leadership in church... I don't think it matters at all, I'd sooner submit to a female leader than no leader at all and I think God uses a woman more than He uses nothing when there is no male resource!! But if you believe in a theocratic utopia, then my own considered opinion is that a man will nearly invariably, be a more suited leader.
[hr]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sex/add_user.shtml
That link is a fun old interactive BBC exercise that very starkly outlines the natural difference in male/female brain strengths.
this is an interesting comment.... in particular the link alluded to at the bottom, can show and certainly I have quite a few female friends who having taken this test show more male brain strengths than female....
Just to add some balance, I have experienced working for a female boss more than for a male. My experience is that stronger leadership arose in the situations with a female team leader. Then again as I have always worked in youth work where the essence of the task is in caring for people it would be easy to say that a woman would produce a better environment for this.
The truth I suspect is somewhat broader. The associations of character that we attach to gender identities are much more of a spectrum than we are generally lead to believe. Our culture re-inforces what is largely still and 18th/19th century view of the role and character of women. It does the same for men too but that does not get so closely questioned, principally because men do not enjoy dealing with such questions generally. (John Stoltenberg - Refusing To Be A Man)
I would hope that in youth work we can be more open to looking at the individuals preferences and abilities rather than tagging people with the stereotypes.
Great topic....I think our friend Mr B.F.Foster esq may need to take a look into the women in the bible..there are different types of leaders afterall...all women don't have to fit into the category defined to be right by the Male of the species, perhaps the assumed lack of leadership that he has experienced is more of a reaction to the threat that he felt they were on him. Oh and to have gone through 7 bosses already and still be only 19yrs old, there must be a story behind this somewhere!!
Blessings
Moira
Moira, it's possible to have more than one boss in one position.
I'd be interested in hearing what `women in the Bible` demonstrated leadership.
I'd like to emphasise again that my original post was about a trend in my observations, not a hardfast rule.
Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary were all women whose lives were tainted according to human understanding, yet God chose them to be a part of his plan of redemption. They were women who all be it were not in the lime light as leaders most definetly led us to become who we are today
I'd love to add so much to this blog but I already know my opinion is in the minority, and I don't want to offend people on an issue I don't see as being extremely imporant.
Jane, even if your opinion is in the minority(and generally speaking I'm not sure it is), it isn't less valid than anyone elses, besides, we wanna hear it!
I think it is an important issue, as it will affect how people/society views, reacts to, and interacts with the church.
``Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba``
But were they leaders as much as they were important? Did they lead men and women in the same sense that Joshua did or a paster today might do?
I like to look at the Bible when thinking of summat like this:
1 Tim 3.12 Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.
Titus 1:6
An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient
1 Tim 2.11A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. 12I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.
But do you not think that we need to look at the context when using the bible for justification?
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