Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Book Review: "How I Changed My Mind About Women in Leadership"

Personally, I am not sure that I have ever changed my mind about women in leadership.  I was raised in a conservative rural Baptist church and my Dad came from a brethren background so it was a given that women did not have leadership roles within our church and there was never any mention of women pastors etc.

I left these safe environs in 1972 and headed to DDIAE (now USQ) where with three other (female) friends we started a small Christian fellowship group.  They were exciting times as we shared together how best to witness for Christ on campus.  It never occurred to me that there might be a hierarchy in our leadership - we laboured together.  Much of my spiritual growth and development in the following years took place with the para-church setting of Scripture Union where, thank God, women exercised leadership and had a heavy influence on me - women like Betty Benn, Ruth Armstrong, Glenys Palmer and many others.

So for many years, while I understood that I was in a minority with my 'liberal' views on women in leadership, the issue did not bite until recently when at the church I attend, we decided to invite Greg and Ruth Peckman to out church as pastors.  Without going into a blow-by-blow description, suffice to say that a number of folk left the fellowship over this issue.  Suddenly it became real and not academic - suddenly I knew people with strong feelings on both sides of the debate!

I loved reading this book - it is not a theological book (though it does deal with the theological issues very well); it is not vitriolic book (though there is much passion and emotion in many of the stories - Tony Campalo does state his views with typical robustness!) - it is a book filled with 'eyewitness' accounts of what it has been like over the past 50 or so years to deal with this issue; to be branded as rebellious, liberal or unbiblical to hold a more inclusive view.  I felt sometimes saddened and mostly heartened as I read the stories.

Here is a taste of the various stories of how different leading evangelicals changed their mind on this topic

In the introduction (page 13), editor Alan Johnson writes:

"I was struck a few years back by a statement from the distinguished News Testament scholar, Dick France [who wrote that] ... 'he knows many evangelicals like himself who have changed their minds about women in leadership and pastoral ministries from a more restrictive view to an inclusive view. but he has never met an evangelical who has changed their mind in the opposite direction.'"

Chapter 2 was very moving.  Ruth Haley Barton describes her journey from a brethren style background and in a few short pages she describes both the journey and gives a succinct overview of the relevant biblical teaching.  While she did not directly deal with the 'difficult' passages relating to women in ministry, I appreciated her explanation of why not:

"One of the hermeneutical principles that I allowed to guide me ... was the idea that we are to look at the broad themes of Scripture and look at difficult passages in light of those great themes [such as] ... freedom for all who are oppressed ... when we require women to pay over and over again for Eve's transgression with their silence and submission, we negate the full redemptive power of the gospel.  Rather than becoming an example of relationships that have been redeemed, we model the curse ... I learned that an examination of Scripture's themes reveals that 'more than a hundred passages in the Bible affirm women in roles of leadership, and fewer than half a dozen appear in opposition,' and I was shocked to realise that we as Christians have built an elaborate system of belief and practice on only a few difficult passages.  These passages have loomed so large that we have allowed them to colour everything else we read."

I was particularly struck by her gracious approach.  I loved her concluding comment:

"By God's grace, I rarely find myself in settings these days where women are not received as equals in ministry, and this is a great blessing.  I have chosen not to speak on these issues anymore, nor do I even argue the point.  I have become convinced that it is much better for me to just do it - ministry that is - as God leads, and to do it to the best of my ability." (Page46)

A number of the authors, no doubt due to the fact that most come from an American background, draw a comparison with abolition of the slave trade.  Stanley N. Gundry (Chapter 7) explains how, during his doctoral research on American church history, he noticed that many church leaders opposed abolition stating that, "The defenders of slavery within churches all claimed the Bible as their starting point, and all developed their defense by appealing to Scripture ... With one voice Southern churchmen defending slavery charged that to reject slavery as sinful was to reject the Word of God."

He goes in to say that, "I had heard this reasoning before ... I was appalled and embarrassed that such an evil practice had been defended in the name of God and under the guise of biblical authority ... it slowly began to dawn on me that I heard every one of these arguments before ... to defend heirarchialism and argue against egalitarianism ... it hit me like a flash.  Some day Christians will be as embarrassed by the church's biblical defense of  patriarchal hierarchialism as it is now of the nineteenth century biblical defense of slavery."


The strength of Cornelius Plantinga's chapter (15) is his defense of the hermenuetic used by egalitarians to develop their position.  His explanation is based on a comparison with the hermeneutic used to defend the abolition of slavery.  Two relevant quotes will suffice, the first from FF Bruce:


"In general, where there are divided opinions about the interpretation of a Pauline passage, that interpretation which runs along the line of liberty is much more likely to be true to Paul's intention than one which smacks of bondage or legalism." (p194)

"Alongside the pain and humiliation it visits on women, besides the dminishments it brings to churches that drain or dam half their talent pool, the policy of exclusing women has become deeply embarrassing.  Males discuss somberly whether we ought to 'allow' women into church offices.  The discussion sounds so much like that of parents trying to decide whether their adolescents are ready to assume adult responsibilities.  It sounds so much like the majorities dithering over whether they ought to invite minorities into their club. It sounds like the church belongs to males." (p195)


All in all, an excellent read and one I would commend to those on both 'sides' of the debate.  Frankly, I found the theological arguments presented compelling (but then again, you would some would say!).  But more than that, I found the overall graciousness and humility of the various stories humbling and very encouraging.  For those who use this issue as some sort of test of Christian orthodoxy, please read and listen carefully! 

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