Last week I received a sensitive letter \u2014 a letter that made me more sensitive. Here\u2019s the issue that the writer pressed into my mind: when we talk about \u201cwomen in ministry\u201d we need to understand that, regardless of what we think, there are women who genuinely think they have been called by God into a ministry and treating such a topic neutrally threatens their sense of vocation. Furthermore, Last week I received a sensitive letter \u2014 a letter that made me more sensitive. Here\u2019s the issue that the writer pressed into my mind: when we talk about \u201cwomen in ministry\u201d we need to understand that, regardless of what we think, there are women who genuinely think they have been called by God into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[476,1750],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-women-and-ministry"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nEven those who don\u2019t think they are called to some kind of special kind of ministry can sense that \u201cwomen\u201d are being objectified \u2014 as if they were a piece in a museum or a cadaver on a gurney \u2014 with (mostly male) inspectors trying to figure out the cause of death or the quality of life previously enjoyed.
\nSo, let\u2019s make sure we keep these sensitivities in mind when we write \u2014 and I\u2019ll try do this as well. Here\u2019s a good question: Do you really think men and women are equal in value? Do you tend to see women as inferior? Do women really believe they are equal? Or, do we say things and do things that make women feel they are inferior?
\nNow here\u2019s the big one: What specific behaviors do we find in Christians that create a sense of inferiority in women?
\nWhich leads us into Sarah Sumner (Men and Women in the Church<\/em>), chp 6, \u201cWomen and Personhood.\u201d The chp begins with a \u201cLydia\u201d who went after Sarah for not being committed to helping the Church see that secular feminists had a case with the Church. Sarah admits she didn\u2019t care about secular feminists; she wanted to be respected by conservative Christians more than follow Christ.
\nAt a conference with conservative Christian women Sarah asked six women this question: Are women inferior to men? Results: 2 said \u201cnot inferior\u201d; 3 said \u201cunsure\u201d; 2 (both under 30) said \u201cmen are superior.\u201d She told this story to a national leader who pulled Sarah aside to say that she, too, had been holding back.
\nThe Church is mistaken, Sarah argues, in conditioning women to think of themselves as inferior. Sarah probed her own conscience: she, too, held men in higher esteem than women. She asks this question sometimes when speaking: \u201cWhy are you thankful to be a woman?\u201d (She\u2019s often confronted with women who struggle with an answer.) Sarah confesses that many times she has tried to transcend her womanhood by being exceptional. The problem is not trying to be exceptional, but in so striving to do so in order to transcend being a woman.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"