Gender Bias : Denial Of Clergy Rights

Women in church leadership; I believe women are encouraged to teach other women (Titus 2:3–5). I also believe that the Bible also does not restrict women from teaching children or teens. The only role women are restricted from is teaching or having spiritual authority are over men. (1 Timothy

Professor of religious studies Karen Armstrong finds in the early Christian Church examples of hostility toward women and fear of their sexual power, which she contends led to the eventual exclusion of women from full participation in a male-dominated church.

As early as the beginning of the Christian Church women had some important but very defined roles within the church. There were roles women could not play, of course, but that does not mean they did not have value to the Christian movement. Unfortunately, there have also been a lot of things overlooked that have been done by women, especially in the New Testament. There have also been arguments that the Christian Church is a "man's church" because men wrote the books of the bible and women did not have much say, apparently, in what happened during that time and how it was recorded. Even though not everyone was certain of the way women were treated in Christianity and whether they were accepted and applauded the way they should have and could have been, there were still many mentions of women doing great things. Scholars have begun to look into what women did during Old Testament and New Testament times, in an effort to have a better understanding of Christianity and the role women played in it in the past.

A Research Paper on the “The Contribution of Baptists in the Struggle for Religious Freedom”

“Conservative evangelicals who had returned to the Democratic Party in 1976 now defected back to the Republican Party, solidifying a trend in the making.” The Religious Right had effectively crystallized a general trend in the electorate. After the election of 1980, the Religious Right became “synonymous with the GOP in popular imagination” and socially conservative values became synonymous with the conservative movement. Despite the dissolution of the organizations that comprised the Religious Right later in the 1980s, its influence on conservatism in America had solidified and, until this day, has remained a decisive factor in both local and national

The prejudice experienced by Catholic Americans can be traced as far back as the sixteenth century. Roman Catholicism was the dominating religion throughout most of Europe and the Catholic Church held great wealth, social, and political standing. The loyalty of the people to Rome and the Papacy at that time seemed to be unyielding until an Augustinian friar, named Martin Luther, rejected some of the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church and began to spread his own message of God’s will in the form of Lutheranism. Luther believed the Holy Roman Catholic Empire was corrupted

Women were not held to such a high standard as men. Men had a more prominent active duty in the church and in order to gain their membership they needed to show their commitment to a congregation of people, while women could just make their consult in private. Although men and women still had to have a testimony from a Brethren before they were fully admitted, it was clear that men and women were separated in the church as they were at home.

America’s economic success brought about a series of societal and cultural changes which impacted many aspects of citizens lives, ranging from family life, gender roles, social class, and religion. At the time of the Second Great Awakening, Americans turned to religious revivalists to provide them with resolutions to these fundamental problems facing the United States. While most of these revivalists preached of constructive changes, Johnson and Wilentz highlight the dangers behind our nation’s tolerance of fundamentalists, enthusiasts and visionaries of all sorts. They display our nation's susceptibility to volatile cults and revivals. Motivated by his desire to protect the “ancient truth” and "Despite all of his protestations of faith, [Matthews] was violating the most basic precepts of evangelical manhood, with his unsteady work habits, his self-glorification, and his domestic tyranny" (Johnson and Wilentz

Into the Pulpit: Southern Baptist Women and Power Since World War II, by Elizabeth Flowers, as the title suggest, is a historical account of women and their treatment in the Southern Baptist Convention from the mid 1940’s to present. Flower’s work revolves much around the well accounted for story of the SBC conflicts of the late 20th century, however, providing the often untold story of women in ministry and particularly their mistreatment. The book is broken up chronologically, chapter one and two begin with years leading to the struggle, 1945-1978. Chapter three revolves around the years entering the struggle for women in ministry, 1979 to 1984. Chapter four and five deal with the years of turmoil and destruction within the SBC, and

Existing in this book are fifteen essays, all written by Flynt, and all are relative to the South, religion, and diversity. His essays review southern history, politics, southern regionalism, evangelicalism, traditionalism, fundamentalism, social history, labor history, two case studies; one on the Southern Baptists in Appalachia and of modernization and community; the second one of twentieth-century politics and religion in Florida. Asserts the complexity of social issues and the reforms Baptists felt were necessary to change. He expounds a minister’s battle within a church to not display the American flag because of the death involved behind it and to not be willing for his church life to be separated from his personal convictions. Flynt

. When problems arise and organizational separation was taking place Conservative Baptist speakers were no longer welcomed in conservative seminaries of the Convention.

Therefore, we understand that among those who believe that women should be pastors there are several reasons for them believing so. It seems apparent that in most cases experiential and social agendas seem to fuel the case for women pastors. Though there was once a strong group that sought

In today’s society the controversial subject of what positions in the church a woman can hold; has become incredibly debatable among the nation. Some people believe that women have equal rights with men and can uphold any position that a man can. Today’s society also believes that because a woman can be in political and business power, then a woman can also be in authority in the church. However, that could not be farther from the truth a women’s positions in the church are defined by God.

Gender roles, and the mere existence of a gender binary, has been a recent topic of conversation for many churches, theologians, and individual believers. As the cultural pressure to remove gender-specific limitations builds, many of those aforementioned have turned to scripture for answers. Seldom are women’s roles in the Old Testament characterized by decision making or personal merits. Rather, a woman’s capacity to produce an heir for their husband complements his dominance and responsible faithfulness and allows God’s plan to be fulfilled through their combined efforts. In the New Testament, through the transformative power of Christ, prominent women became less of an anomaly, but were still held to a different set of standards and expectations than men and were usually still praised according to their actions and their faith. The Pauline epistles, written in the context in which the Church still exists today: the age to come, provide a basis for today’s understanding of women’s roles in marriage and in church leadership. Although there are many instances of women fulfilling God’s plans and proving their worth among the community of Christians, the biblically normative role of women is to avoid authoritative church leadership positions and remain submissive in situations of teaching and interpreting the Word.

The bases of keeping women out of the ministry in most religions are more or less tradition. A Bible scripture such as (Mat. 10:2) as Jesus was searching for His disciples he only chose men. Even when he had to replace them, He only chose men. In most of the passages in the bible, Jesus never chose a woman nor did He address the public by speaking to the woman specifically. Some would believe that Jesus was a sexist, but during the times it was only tradition for a man to be the head of everything and the role of a woman during the biblical times were to listen to the man, nurture her family and husband. During the biblical times when Jesus walked this earth, Christianity was a very warous event. People were not accepting of the Christ therefore it leads to wars and battles. (Mat. 24: 6). During those days women did not do battle. As of today the tradition still holds and it plays a significant part in our everyday lives as well as our religious worship. We