I've listened to, with interest, today the debate surrounding the Church of England vote to not allow women to be Bishops in their church. One of the reasons I've found it so interesting is because our religion (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) is often accused of being behind the times or chauvinistic about the participation of women.
As a woman, I have to admit that I have seen people within the church acting in a manner that is offensive to women and suggests that they really do think of us as a lower class. However, these people are in the minority and while we do have a patriarchal society within the church I have never seen any leader that I respected or was in a high leadership position in the church act this way. The leaders of our church are men who reverence and respect their wives. One such example is found in this beautiful tribute of our past Prophet to his wife after she passed away.
I was listening to Jeremy Vine earlier and two members of the Church of England were on; a woman talking about her sadness at the news of this vote and a gentleman who ended up not being such a gentleman! He began his portion of the debate by reciting scripture; he chose this one though this one would also be a good choice to get his point across. I don't know whether it was his aim to be as offensive as possible but for someone who had just been on the winning side of a vote I couldn't really see why this would be beneficial. He actually used the words, "Women are just not born to be strong spiritual leaders."
I gasped, completely incredulous, when I heard these words.
Firstly, this man belongs to a church who allow a female clergy. It's a bit late to start arguing that women shouldn't be teaching, mate!
Secondly, doesn't he have a mother? A wife? Sisters? Has he never had spiritual advice from a woman in his life that has been as perfectly valid as a man's? Can he really believe that?
He went on to read the end of that scripture where it talks about Eve being tempted by the serpent and the conclusion he drew from his reading was that women are more easily deceived spiritually than men. To me, that statement just seemed utterly ridiculous. Even if on the whole that was true, wouldn't God judge on a case-by-case basis rather than punishing a gender as a whole?
What he didn't quote were scriptural accounts of women who have been spiritual leaders; Esther, Ruth, Mary, Mary Magdalene... there's the story of Rebekah and how she arranged for her son Jacob (who later became known as Israel) to gain the blessing from his father instead of his brother. Her husband, Isaac, would have given it to the undeserving Esau.
But this isn't a battle and I'm not trying to prove anything here about women being better than men. We are different.
I just don't see the reason why a women would be excluded from the role of a Bishop. Does it vary so much? Can they perform things a vicar can't? Perhaps I just don't understand, but to me it seems like there is no difference in the authority they claim from God- they merely perform different roles. If we take God out of the equation at all it's simply a job promotion and therefore it's wrong to discriminate based on gender. Absolutely DO discriminate on spirituality- but let women compete. If we are, as a whole, less spiritual than men, then a man will procure the position because he's spiritual but not because he's male. If women on a whole are slower at running than men, but they race together and some women beat some men- you certainly cannot say that the woman who beat a few of the men is slower at running than men as a whole.
Going back to the church I know for a second; I am in a position in my church which requires me to teach quite often. I teach the 12 - 18 year old girls and I feel that it is such a privilege in my life that I get to do so. It's not a paid position as we do not have paid ministers in our church- the bishop of our ward (congregation) is merely a lay person. Yes, the bishop of our ward and his two counselors are men; but they meet with a group made up of men and women who are involved in running different organisations in the ward. The reason for our exclusion from these particular leadership positions is quite a bit clearer than I find the current situation within the Church of England. It is the priesthood.
The Priesthood is God's authority to act in His name and it was given to Adam and every Prophet after him. In the time of the Israelites only the men of the tribe of Levi had it. If you want to read more click here. Basically, only men hold the Priesthood. It's Patriarchal. It blesses families and individuals without any discrimination on age, gender or race; but it is held by specific people. In this time period, it's held by righteous men over the age of 12.
I guess you could ask why, as a woman, I can't have this power to act in God's name. The honest truth is, I don't know. I could give you a clever and highly speculative answer but instead I'll just tell you how I feel about it. I'm not angry and I'm not bitter. I do what I can to serve and I know I'm blessed for it. I love my husband and having him as the Priesthood holder in my home- I feel that it strengthens our relationship for me to know that he can serve in that way. I think it uplifts him and gives him esteem to be able to serve that way. There's no envy in me. In fact, I'm not sure I'd want the responsibility that comes with that. I'm a traditional kind of girl... you know, the traditional "I'm-going-to-be-a-doctor-one-day" type of girl. I guess by stating that, I mean that I have traditional values. I really do want my husband to be the head of my home because I believe his strength will be a total anchor and asset to our family. However, I'm a strong woman who has ambitions. I want to have a career and my husband has the strength to support me in that and to not feel threatened by it. I believe that feminist women are a response to chauvinistic men. Take away the chauvinism and we don't need to fight. We can just love each other!
I guess I don't know what the end result of this CofE situation is going to be though I'm fairly certain it's not over yet. I simply have faith that God loves those women who are trying to serve Him in whatever capacity. That is one thing that is never going to change.
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