Carol and Chris, two of my recent house guests, riding a beautiful ancient-looking subway car in Buenos Aires as we toured the city on the recent national holiday.Women and Men: remember the They Might be Giants song?
I've read some great books on women and the church in the past 15 years, including Gilbert Bilezikian's Beyond Sex Roles: What the Bible says about a Women's Place in Church and Family, Rebecca Merrill Groothuis' Good News for Women: A Biblical Picture of Gender Equality, and Kari Torjesen Malcolm's Women at the Crossroads: A Path Beyond Feminism and Traditionalism which makes the point that as Christians we should not be concerned about our rights to any church office but rather should be focused on completing God's call in our lives.
I recently had the privilege of hosting two women who are working in different capacities on the next Lausanne Congress which will take place in Cape Town, South Africa in 2010. I met a few of the attendees of a planning conference in Buenos Aires, and was struck by the near-complete absence of women there. This event, combined with the fact that I currently attend a church where I am served communion each Sunday by men only and where I hear frequently about the husband being the "priest" of the home led me to search for Christians for Biblical Equality on the web and become a member. Their recent e-publication mentioned Lausanne, and so I looked into their papers.
There is an excellent, thorough, Lausanne "occasional paper" that addresses this issue. Among other things it states,
"The question of women being empowered along with men to minister to the whole church is an issue of church governance and an assessment of the Biblical stance. It is not an issue which reduces in any way the gospel message and those who take one view or another cannot be criticised on the grounds that Biblical authority has been ignored. Rather, it is a matter of interpretation of the passages that leads us in different directions. Both those who take the position that women should not be in a leadership role and those who grant women leadership respect the authority of the Scriptures and yet both groups advance the gospel message with great passion and devotion."
To me that is critical, and in some e-mails I exchanged recently with a friend on this topic I realized that this is why I almost never engage in discussion with other Christians on this topic and many political subjects . I hide behind not wanting to cause "my brother to stumble" or not wanting to engage in "useless arguments" and shift the focus off of our unity in Christ, when the real reason is that it is so hurtful to have it assumed (as when political subjects are discussed) that my understanding of Scripture reflects less of a reverence and belief for the Bible being the inspired word of God.
Unrelated fun facts:
- Did you know that Tropicana makes orange juice with added sugar? I don't usually drink juice, preferring to eat fruit instead. For some reason today I decided to buy juice and when I tasted it thought that it was rather sweet -- yup, the ingredients are orange juice and sugar. Who would have thought?
- Most Argentines I know get their deodorant from a giant aerosol bottle, not a solid or roll-on. I just bought one just for fun, especially since I couldn't find any solids and the roll-on I bought here wasn't terribly effective. The aerosol says that it doesn't contribute to the destruction of the ozone layer, so it must be aerosolized without CFCs?
- Kumquats are a common fruit around here. My colleagues, Horacio and Silvia, have a kumquat tree in their yard and I've picked off the fruit and eaten just the skin (the inside is very bitter). Last week Silvia made a dessert with syrup and kumquats -- yummy and not too sweet! Click on the picture to see the beautiful fruit.
