The Christian Wrong.
Another rare religious post from me. Read on.
This makes me furious. A female Sunday School teacher was dismissed after 54 years of service because… she was a woman. Yeah, you read that right. 54 years of service means nothing to Rev. Timothy LaBouf (who also serves on City Council in the apparently overwhelmingly unenlightened town of Watertown, New York). He issued a statement saying women should not teach men in Sunday school, according to his interpretation of the Bible.
Rev. LaBouf, I’m guessing, is probably self-appointed as a minister. I am willing to place odds that he did not attend a respectable seminary. If he had, he might have learned a little something in his studies.
As a graduate of a Christian college (Meredith College), I have studied the Bible. I’ve also put in time as a Baptist Sunday School teacher, as has (and currently does) my mother. My mother was also a deacon, the victim of this “new” thinking by narrow-minded members of the Baptist Church; after a number of years as a service, she was also informed that women could no longer serve as a deacon. As I’ve mentioned before, I challenge anyone who knows my mother to find one bone in her body that isn’t deeply Christian. She is more of a servant than any person that I have ever known: she has put in countless hours visiting the sick and elderly; when we had no money growing up, my mother still insisted that we give our money to those
who needed it more; she spearheaded efforts to raise funds for needy children at Christmastime; she collected school supplies for needy children; she made dinners for the homelesss; she traveled around teaching Vacation Bible Schools; she taught illiterate adults to read in our home. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: when it comes to service, my mom is the kind of person that people of God should aspire to be. How dare some small-minded group of allegedly Christian men say different.
And yet, folks like Rev. LaBouf are at it again. And they’re wrong.
Rev. LaBouf quoted 1 Timothy 2:12: “But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.” Words directly from God, right? Not at all. 1 Timothy is a series of letters written by the Apostle Paul to a new pastor (Timothy). That’s right, 1 Timothy is Paul’s advice to Timothy. Mortal, flawed Paul.
Perhaps Rev. LaBouf should read on… The same chapter goes on to say that women shouldn’t wear jewelry or expensive clothing to worship; I wonder if Rev. LaBouf’s family observes that verse? I sure hope so, because 1 Timothy 3:5 notes “For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?”
1 Timothy 3 goes on to cite qualifications for the ministry, including “blameless”, “of good behaviour” and “vigilant” (meaning “temperate”, a word with which I am sure Rev. LaBouf is not familiar).
Finally, Rev. LaBouf would do good to put aside his “vain jangling” and remember the following: After a man betrayed Christ, after a man denied Christ, the men fled and hid. It was the women (Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and “many other women”) who stayed to witness the crucifixion. And when Christ arose, he appeared not to the men, but to those faithful women who cried for him. He told them to go tell those in hiding that he had arisen. I am sure that Christians everywhere are glad to this day that those women - those women of God - did just that.
August 21st, 2006 at 4:20 pm
Oh, I’m sure there’s a ton of stuff in the O.T. that the good pastor is doing that he shouldn’t be doing (I hope he doesn’t like lobster or pork).
And I totally believe him when he says that he doesn’t let his feelings about women carry over to his political position. Right.
August 21st, 2006 at 4:28 pm
Even back when I considered myself a believer, Paul irked me. That man had issues.
August 22nd, 2006 at 9:15 am
Amen.
August 22nd, 2006 at 11:48 pm
You nailed it. I love how these guys always seem to pick and choose which verses to take so. darn. literally. Oh, yeah, the ones that give them more power.
August 23rd, 2006 at 9:18 am
It is amazing that Rev. LaBouf holds this belief as an ABC pastor. Although we have a wide range of interpretations as ABC pastors, predominately our denomination demonstrates it confidence in women in leadership as demonstrated by the number of female pastors, regional and national female leaders.
I would remind Rev. LaBouf that Paul said the following in Timothy 2: 5
having been reminded of the unfeigned faith that is in you; which lived first in your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice, and, I am persuaded, in you also.
It was the model and faith of women that Paul wanted Timothy to learn from and rely on.
In the Gospel of John, Christ first disclosed his identity to a woman and instructed her to go and tell what she had learned. She obviously was a very convincing “Sunday School Teacher,” because we are told that many believed after being led to Christ “by a woman.”
Is that not our mission today?
In my personal faith journey, it has been female pastors who taught me the most about an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.
Rev. Ken Scarborough Sr