In an effort not to give moment by moment updates on the progress of my cold (it is so bad I was forced to lie in bed yesterday and read a novel, moaning quietly, while the kids wallowed to varying degrees in the mud outside) I happened to click on a link that is linked by MCJ about why your senior pastor not only could be a woman but should be. I'm not linking the link, I'm linking MCJ because he's so clever and funny and you'll enjoy reading him. I don't even really care about the five points. It's the usual, 1. Women are better than the stupid stupid Men. 2. Women are better. 3. Bla bla bla. And so on and so forth.
Not only is this kind of blogging what, like thirty years old, (what is this, 1973?) but it's also basically boring. What is there in American life that is not entirely dominated by women and their feelings? Go on, try to name something. Women are better parents, better cooks, better doctors, better sports people, better in the army, better teachers, better managers, better everything. So I guess they must also be better pastors too, just for being who they are, just for being female.
Except that its just not true. Women are not better pastors. Shall I say it again? Women are not better pastors. Sometimes they are terrible pastors. Sometimes men also are terrible pastors, but more often, in this day and age, because women are shrilly trying to prove that they're just as good as the men, I would bet you a whole nickel that if you lined up all the pastors of the world, more of the bad ones would be women than men.
I say this for two reasons. The first is the fault of the men. Women came in to the church because men had abdicated, just like Adam, the great responsibility of keeping the church free from error and after that began not to show up at all. How many men, through the centuries, have sent their women off to church and sat back to enjoy a quiet uncluttered Sunday. That was a bad, wrong thing to do. Women stepped in and did what the men should have been doing. There is a nice little bible story that illustrates this point. Some of you may have heard of it. It starts with a wimpy man and ends with a lady and her tent peg. The second reason is that women, instead of stepping in with humility and grace, misunderstood and took the fact of their stepping in to be a sign of how wonderful and special they were. And so, where the men had betrayed the gospel, they followed along and betrayed the gospel too.
I know it sounds harsh. And I know this puts me on the drone list for dissenting from the common knowledge of our time, which is that men are stupid and women are wonderful. I know I risk my own self, for I, yea even I, am a woman pastor, a fact which sits about me like a badly arranged mantle. I love my job. I love the ways God has used me to preach and help and move his kingdom ever so smally forward. But I know if I was in charge of Good Shepherd it would not be the place of health and light that it is. It is because Matt leans out towards the people from the pulpit, week after week after week, as a man, invested with the weight and voice of the gospel, that the pews are full. It is because twenty or so men gather every Friday morning to study and pray. It is because the vestry is 99% male. It is because men come with their wives and children, rather than sending them on alone. And what is the character of the church, with all these men invested and leading and pastoring? There are also women everywhere, doing interesting, life changing work all over the church and all over town. Both together, male and female, before God, doing what he calls them to do.
I profoundly reject the prejudiced and vulgar idea that women are more compassionate, more broad minded, more loving than men. That is just not true. Shall I say it again? Women are not better than men, and they are not better pastors. Would that the church was so ordered, so holy, so in love with God, that all women pastors everywhere had no more pastoring work because so many men were doing the necessary and life giving toil that God calls them to.
And now, I guess I'll go continue to plan my funeral, for death is doubtless what lies before me for saying That Which Must Not Be Said.
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