Thesis 9: the Women Non-Question

The Women Non-Question

This isn’t a story of why or if women should lead. Biblically speaking, it’s not even a question — women should and must participate in ministry without restriction or limitation.

In the bible, women were involved in every aspect of ministry and faith. They sat with Jesus as he taught, were the first and last at the cross, the first witnesses to the resurrection, and were among the first to receive the holy spirit at Pentecost. They were among the first post-ascension leaders at home churches all over, mentioned many times in scripture as well as scores of extra-biblical sources.

So why are Christians still so obsessed with the debate around women leading churches?

Well, because unfortunately, there are a lot of influential men who still think that women are inferior to men. Not in the sense that women usually can’t bench-press as much as men or grow as perfect a beard as some guys, but in their assessment of women’s basic humanity, intellect, ability, and character.

Yes, despite the existential mountain of evidence to the contrary, there are still men who think that women are less human than they are.

Worse still, there are men who think that women should not only respect this inferiority, but any woman who has attempted to embrace it should abandon whatever they’ve gained from it. (The fight over reproductive rights in the USA has unfortunately brought this silliness out even more. Repent, all you baby-killing jezebels, and beg forgiveness from your men!)

What the actual fuck?

Church is to blame for all of it. If you read your history with a learning mindset, once again you see the fingerprints of men consolidating their power and influence in the early middle ages, the same period where single pastors/priests became the norm, where large, central churches became the standard, where every shred of biblical truth and scores of records regarding how churches should function were wiped out because those men felt threatened.

In short, almost every church on the face of the planet exists because of this, along with conveniently oppressive views of women (hello, complementarianism!). How Church has treated and still treats women (well, anyone who isn’t a white male, really) is an offence against everything Christ lived, died, and rose for.

Oh, I can hear the grumbles now: but hasn’t there been progress?

No.

Progress isn’t progress when it merely slaps a coat of paint over a rotten core. Simply put, when measured against what the bible actually says, women being “allowed” to lead isn’t a victory, but a religious shrug.

It’s easy for socially-minded Christians to point at the reprobate assholes in influential sects like the Southern Baptist Convention as being the biggest offenders, because they’re so fucking loud (and wealthy). It’s also easy to look on the other side of the scale and get warm and fuzzy when influential folks like Rick Warren have a conversion experience. But make no mistake: all these pots and cymbals are still clanging solely in the spirit of strengthening the anti-Christian structure of the institutional church.

And while God wants women (and every other marginalized community) to have their voices rightfully restored and amplified, if it’s done to make Church better or stronger, we should want no part of it.

What we should want instead is for those people to run from Church and back into their homes, using their incredible gifts to serve the kingdom as Christ intended, by loving him and serving their neighbours. Every church should purely be a small gathering place so a handful of believers can feed each other (literally) and the needy soul next door. In those churches, without pastors or priests, everyone shares and everyone leads, just like the bible teaches.

In biblical churches, the question of women, BIPOC, and LGBTQS+ folk (as created by fearful men, that is) never comes up. Actually, a lot of “big issue” questions won’t come up, which means the focus can be where it should be: serving and loving people towards Christ.

Loving and serving IS the story. Fuck all the non-questions that distract us from it.

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PS. Single-source scholars bother me (when they find a patron saint and centre entire books and careers around them), but I will give a nod to one book that really assured me that my deconstruction journey wasn’t crazy-making: I can’t recommend Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola and George Barca highly enough. Caution: if you read it as intended, and seek out more information around its core ideas, it will break your view of Church. Maybe not as thoroughly as mine, but if you don’t cringe at least once while reading it, you’re not really reading it.

Keywords: The Women Non-Question; Faith; Deconstruction; Religion; Christian; Christianity; Church; Sin; Corruption; Scandal; Bible; Abuse; God; Jesus; Stewardship; women in office; feminism; biopic; lgbtqs; baptist