Recently there has been a lot of talk about women in ministry. The call from Southern Baptist John MacArthur to writer Beth Moore to "go home" should be a call to arms for all of us who are past ready to break with traditional patriarchy and affirm that God is fully capable of choosing who God intends to call to ministry without input from us (especially us white men who seem to be threatened by anyone who doesn't look like us who gains authority).
I want to highlight just one aspect of women in ministry that I have found to be essential as I work alongside Joy Warren, my wife and co-pastor at the church where I serve. There are many, many more reasons to affirm these calls, but this one is on my heart today.
Men, in case you didn't know it, women have different lived experiences than we do. People of Color have different lived experiences than whites in the United States. People in the LGBTQ+ community have different lived experiences than straight cis-gendered people. We cannot fully understand one another's lived experiences, but through careful listening without judging we often can make a lot of progress.
I mention people of Color and the LGBTQ+ community alongside women in this post because in the history of religious culture in the Western world, straight, white men have had a consistent monopoly on power for a long time, often using scripture itself to legitimate that monopoly. The fight for acceptance of one marginalized community is, to me, the fight for them all.
In my location, I have found that I am not able to do the same kind of work with people that Joy is able to do. Sure, there are some men and even some women who are reluctant to accept her authority as a clergy person without a Y chromosome. More importantly than that, there are many women who cannot be cared for in the same way by a male pastor.
Some may find this hard to understand, but imagine yourself a victim of violence at the hands of a man. Imagine yourself a woman having been raped, assaulted, objectified by men. Imagine then that the only authority in your church is another man. Can you feel safe relating your story of abuse? Can you feel safe talking about other issues and not be afraid that another man you trust may betray your trust?
I know stories of women who have made that hard decision to trust their male pastor and who have them been victimized by that pastor. It is horrible. It is detestable. It does happen.
Could anyone blame a woman for feeling more comfortable in a counseling setting, in a pulpit setting, or in any pastoral relationship with a woman? I certainly can't.
Us straight white men often have a hard time even imagining that someone might consider us unworthy of being clergy. Or of being just about anything. But take a moment to think about how that might feel, straight white men.
And then think how it would feel to have scripture thrown in your face telling you God had ordained that you aren't worthy. Only people like us are worthy. Only straight white men who worship a Savior who was Middle-Eastern and who they insist was not sexual at all. By the way, many add A to the LGBTQ grouping to represent someone who is Asexual, a term that likely would describe the way many Christians view Jesus.
We've got to get this right. We have to make space for people to care for one another with then authority of God and the authority of the Church behind them. We certainly do when we find a straight white man who was a murderer, and we say that this person can reach out to criminals because he is one of them. But so many won't do the same for good, loving people who are women or labelled some other way.
Is that really what Jesus wanted? For us to fight about who can be called instead of celebrating that God is calling more and more people?
That's the view today...
