Recently I’ve found myself on an interesting journey.
There is one very simple observation one instantly makes upon meeting me. I, am a woman. Perhaps an observation that is taken for granted.
My entire life I have been told conflicting things about my role in society as a woman.
I grew up with a very strong mother and supportive father. I was told repeatedly that the world was at my fingertips. That anything I wanted to make happen, I had the power to (with the exception of flying and things of this nature).
I also, however, grew up in churches where it was accepted that women are not to be in pastoral roles. As one friend put it, I was told I could be anything from entrepreneur to president; I just couldn’t be a pastor. An idea that I really had no qualms with.
I went to a college where it was mandated that we attend convocation once a week. On the rare occasion that a woman was to speak, there would be men that would leave the room, claiming women may have no authority over men.
I now attend a church where there is a female pastor.
Needless to say, I am conflicted on an issue that has everything to do with my role in relation to God and society.
Herein I have not presented any biblical support for either side, and very intentionally. I am not writing to give answers. I have come to some conclusions but am still on a quest for wisdom and understanding. I want to more fully understand biblical femininity and the role of women in this life.
I share all of this only to let you know that this is an issue worthy of attention. One we often take for granted and make countless, often unfounded assumptions about.
I had a professor ask once (with reference to literature) "What great works have been lost to the oppression of women?" And I can’t help but wonder if I should be asking whether the oppression of woman continues, masked by false interpretations of scripture.
It sounds as though I have made up my mind, or that I am approaching this subject with bias. I assure you, I am not. I am simply thinking—welcome to my brain.
