Role Of Women In The Church Essay

, Research Paper

The Role of Women in the Church

In today s society the is a debate among several Christian denominations including the Anglicans, Presbyterians and Roman Catholics as to the issue of the ordination of women and the general role of women in the church. There are people in these churches that believe that women should have no input nor any influence in the church and therefore their ordination is something that is by far out of the question. Theses groups take their inspiration directly from the Bible and use it to back their case. On the other hand, there are people in the churches that argue otherwise on the matter of women in the church and believe that women should have equal rights in the church and equal status and therefore have the ability to be ordained. These peoples take their beliefs from the changes in society and claim that some relevance that the Bible has, no longer applies in today s society of equal rights for women. They believe that society has changed and the Bible was written for a certain society.

Since the 1970 s when most women throughout the world gained many rights according to law, people have further soughed for women to gain other rights, and in this case, equal rights in the church. Other people in the church dispute this and from this comes the debate between the two groups arises. There are many occasions in the Bible where people can show that the role of women is for them not to be ordained and not to have equal status in the church. This can begin with Genesis chapter two and three where it states that man was created first and women as the helper of man. It goes on further to tell the story of how the woman was deceived into eating from the tree of good and evil. This example just goes to show that women should not be in places of authority as the woman, Eve was week and gave in to the snake and them persuaded the man, Adam eat from the tree. The woman was not strong enough to resist or make own mind up, and the reason why Adam ate was because Eve was his helper and was put there by God therefore Adam should not question her motives. From this time forth women have been placed less than men. Although this is from Genesis and some may say has no relevance for today, 1 Corinthians, which is a book of the New Testament, has evidence to show where the role of women should lie. 1 Corinthians 11:7-9 states that A man ought not to

cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man. For man did not come from woman, but woman for man: neither was man created for woman but woman for man. The message here is clear and is used as a strong point for the group of people in the church who believe that women s role should be that of what God commanded. These people believe that women should have little involvement also in the church and 1 Corinthians 14:34 is where they draw this belief from. The passage states that, As in all the congregations of the saints, women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says. Such passages prove greatly their point exactly. 1 Peter also has many verses that discuss the role of women. It says that women should be submissive to their husbands and like Sarah who obeyed Abraham and called his her master. It also says that men are to treat women with respect as they are the weaker partner. All these points emphasizes why people believe that the role of women should be where it is as that is precisely how God planed for them to be.

There are people who are strongly against this and have their own points to back their argument of why women should have the equal role that men do. It is a fact that women make up the majority in the church today so it only stands to reason that they should have a greater say then the men. Throughout the time when the bible was written the women were uneducated lower class citizens and a position of authority was out of the question due to this fact. It is true that in today s society that women s right s have now been almost that equal to men and it should follow suit that in the church also there should be no exceptions to this.

Women should be treated as equals and have the ability to be ordained but there are some people who will follow the Bible and everything that it says and take it literally in order not to do anything that is against what is written. This argument is a topic of discussion and great lengths of talks, it has been going on for a substantial amount of time and will continue for some years to follow. Women will not get there equality that they ask for until younger generations to follow are not influenced by the older generation, who generally are in the category of those people who prefer women to remain where they have throughout history.