Monday, March 20, 2006
The Role Of Women
Chris Giammona of A Mind Awake has recently concluded a great series of posts he has done on the role of women in the church. Chris and I exchanged emails briefly on the topic.
A little background. Chris is in the Presbyterian Church - America (PCA). I am in the Prebyterian Church - United States of America (PCUSA). Historically, probably the biggest issue that has separated our denominations is the ordination of women - my flavor does it, his does not. Although anymore, issues like homosexual ordination are just widening the divide.
I don't want to address the issue in depth - Chris did a great job with that, particularly the admonisions in I Timothy. But I do want to make a couple of comments.
Firstly, I am a bit of an agnostic on the issue, not entirely, but I do think Paul's prohibitions in his letter to Timothy are narrower than they are commonly interpreted in PCA circles. Additionally, I think that at least some of the roles filled by ordained individuals in the Presbyterian system fall outside of those prohibitions and therefore ordination is not entirely out-of-line. That said, I think that my own PCUSA is too liberal on the matter - thus my professed agnosticism.
By the way, I do think the role of women in the history of the church is generally underplayed in conservative circles.
But what this really rasies for me is the question of how to choose and live in a church. Assume for a minute that I am constrained to be a Presbyterian - How do I choose between PCA and PCUSA? Is it better to be a liberal in a conservative setting or a conservative in a liberal setting?
In part I think the answer lies in temperment, mine is very much the conservative cumudgeon, I would feel like a cat being given a bath trying to make a liberalizing argument.
But in the end, at least when it comes to this issue, I am PCUSA for two reasons. The first is the local congregation I participate in. It is just the right community for us, and that I believe is the primary consideration when choosing a church.
The second reason is effectiveness. I was born and raised PCUSA - been there virtually my whole life. I know a lot of people in the PCUSA, some of them in key positions. I can be effective in that denomination now in ways it would take me years to be in PCA.
In the end I have never found a denomination, congregation, or any other Christian institution with which I could claim complete and utter agreement. So I tend to put doctrinal and institutional questions at a lower priority and ask, simply, where I can best serve.
I like the way Chris closes his series on the women's role issue
Related Tags: woman's ordination, A Mind Awake, PCA, PCUSA
A little background. Chris is in the Presbyterian Church - America (PCA). I am in the Prebyterian Church - United States of America (PCUSA). Historically, probably the biggest issue that has separated our denominations is the ordination of women - my flavor does it, his does not. Although anymore, issues like homosexual ordination are just widening the divide.
I don't want to address the issue in depth - Chris did a great job with that, particularly the admonisions in I Timothy. But I do want to make a couple of comments.
Firstly, I am a bit of an agnostic on the issue, not entirely, but I do think Paul's prohibitions in his letter to Timothy are narrower than they are commonly interpreted in PCA circles. Additionally, I think that at least some of the roles filled by ordained individuals in the Presbyterian system fall outside of those prohibitions and therefore ordination is not entirely out-of-line. That said, I think that my own PCUSA is too liberal on the matter - thus my professed agnosticism.
By the way, I do think the role of women in the history of the church is generally underplayed in conservative circles.
But what this really rasies for me is the question of how to choose and live in a church. Assume for a minute that I am constrained to be a Presbyterian - How do I choose between PCA and PCUSA? Is it better to be a liberal in a conservative setting or a conservative in a liberal setting?
In part I think the answer lies in temperment, mine is very much the conservative cumudgeon, I would feel like a cat being given a bath trying to make a liberalizing argument.
But in the end, at least when it comes to this issue, I am PCUSA for two reasons. The first is the local congregation I participate in. It is just the right community for us, and that I believe is the primary consideration when choosing a church.
The second reason is effectiveness. I was born and raised PCUSA - been there virtually my whole life. I know a lot of people in the PCUSA, some of them in key positions. I can be effective in that denomination now in ways it would take me years to be in PCA.
In the end I have never found a denomination, congregation, or any other Christian institution with which I could claim complete and utter agreement. So I tend to put doctrinal and institutional questions at a lower priority and ask, simply, where I can best serve.
I like the way Chris closes his series on the women's role issue
At the end of this journey, I am open to the Stackhouse position that in a sense both sides are right and both sides are wrong.That's true on so many issues. You just have to make your decisions on some other basis when that is the case.
Related Tags: woman's ordination, A Mind Awake, PCA, PCUSA
