The studies, articles, links, book recommendations, and churches listed on this site are directed specifically to the churches of Christ where my family's heritage is. However, they apply equally to all Christian churches, regardless of denomination. For information on the "Restoration Movement" churches which include the Church of Christ, the Independent Christian Church, the Christian Church (disciples of Christ), the following link will supply a historical perspective. The Restoration Movement
Over the last several years in the Churches of Christ, we have heard a lot about past (and present) discrimination in regards to race. Racial walls and barriers that have existed in many of our congregations, Christian institutions, and Christian universities are being torn down and sincere apologies are being made where discrimination once existed but was not talked about. However, we still practice a form of discrimination that is equally as bad as discrimination based on race or class and is the oldest form of discrimination known to man. It began shortly after Adam and Eve were put out of the Garden of Eden and has continued over the centuries just as God told Eve it would. Racial barriers and gender barriers in our churches go hand in hand. How many centuries did it take for us to realize how wrong racial discrimination is at any level ? How much longer will it take us to realize that gender discrimination at any level is also just as wrong?
Is God a respecter of persons? Is God a respecter of race? Is God a respecter of gender? Is God a respecter of life status? How did Jesus treat women involved in his ministry? How did the Apostle Paul view women and was he setting standards for all generations in his pastoral letters where women are told to be silent or was he addressing specific situations in Corinth and Ephesus (and other churches in other cities) in reference to the customs, traditions, and civil laws of the First Century and handling the growing heresy of Gnosticism that had infiltrated these churches by the middle of the 1st Century? Have we mistranslated, misunderstood, and misapplied what Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 11-14 and 1 Tim. 2-3? Do we understand how the Apostle Paul used certain words in Greek that are used only one time in the entire New Testament and have we translated the sentence from the Greek properly in our present Bibles? Have we created a whole theology around two verses of Scripture disregarding other Scripture that is in opposition to those two verses? How should we view and apply Gal 3:28? Can females teach, evangelize, minister, participate in worship, and serve in leadership today when they were restricted in the 1st Century by the customs and civil laws of a male dominated society? Were there really across the board restrictions on women being allowed to teach and be leaders in the First Century Church as our churches commonly teach now and did they become even more restricted in future centuries by a male dominated/male controlled society that took total control of the church within 100 years of Pentecost and is that total control authorized by God? Have we just totally misunderstood what Paul was addressing when he wrote to the Corinthians and the Ephesians? How do these changes in viewing the position of women in the church effect marriage? Should marriage and church leadership be viewed as patriarchal, complimentarian, egalitarian, a combination of two or more of the above or none of the above? Should we interpret Scripture as "what is written applies to all generations for all time", or should we interpret Scripture as "in the light of the historical setting which may or may not apply to us today>" Was Scripture written with some restrictions being temporary? Did God intend for the church to be locked into a pattern that tries to duplicate of the 1st Century church in everything, especially regarding how the 1st Century Jewish and Roman societies viewed and treated women, or did He intend for the church to be flexible in its approach to the society it was in at any given time in history in order to become a missional church that was able to reach souls in that society?
There are many more questions that can be asked in this study but these are just a few that are asked and do not receive satisfactory answers from the "traditional" view point! The following articles and studies, the book that is downloadable on this web site, and the reading recommendations you will find listed below will help you to answer these questions for yourself. No one single source answers every question. Some sources attempt to answer only one or two questions, Most importantly, we need to look to Scripture for examples as to how God viewed viewed the role of women in the Old Testament and if he put them in leadership roles or kept them in secondary roles to man. Most importantly, we need to take a very careful look at how Jesus treated females in light of the Jewish customs and laws, and how he used women in particular to reveal who he was. Jesus bucked the system in regards to women right from the start of his ministry. Yet, we want to put women in the exact same place they were in before Jesus started his ministry on Earth. We also need to know exactly how we should understand what the Apostle Paul taught in the light of the latest archaeological and theological research into customs, laws, ancient language, etc, and how that applies to us as we live under different customs, different civil laws, and use a different language in the 21st Century. We need to look at how language has changed over 2000 years and changes in how we understand the ancient language and word meanings compared to the modern translation. In many of our churches, we simply disregard a number of customs such as the holy kiss, foot washing, etc, saying that they were just customs of the 1st Century church so we can disregard them now. How should we view this present day practice in regards to gender?
We have a very strong tendency to take a very literal understanding based on our present translations of the ancient Greek of what Paul said without understanding the customs and the civil laws of the 1st Century in Corinth, Ephesus, Rome, and most areas of the near East and without understanding how those 1st Century conditions should or should not effect us in the 21st Century. The correct translation of some Greek words Paul used is still not totally understood and to properly understand what Paul was saying, we have to possess some idea of the historical usage of those words, how he would have viewed a particular situation within the framework of the laws and customs that he and the 1st Century Church lived in, who he was writing to, why he was writing to them in the first place, and why he chose words in the Greek language that are used no where else in the Bible.
The attempts to understand the roles women should have in the churches of the 21st Century are not new to our generation. By reading what Sister Selina Holeman wrote to the Gospel Advocate in 1888, you will get an idea that the same concerns were being voiced over 115 years ago. The Restoration Movement, as it has come to be called in this century, was an outgrowth of a reform movement toward simple Biblical Christianity and unity that started in the late 18th Century and which became more organized and distinct during the early years of the 19th Century under the guidance of Alexander Campbell and Barton W Stone. It was less than 80 years old at the time Sister Holeman wrote to the Gospel Advocate. From the original RM churches have come four major church groups: the Church of Christ, the Independent Christian Church, the Christian Church/Disciples of Christ, and the International Churches of Christ. Of those four, only the DoC has really opened its doors to women in ministry and that has just been in the last few years.
It is my opinion that the issue of women's roles in the teaching, worship, ministry, and leadership of the Churches of Christ (not to mention most fundamental and evangelical style congregations) will be the single most discussed and divisive issue in the next few years, followed closely by the rethinking and application of the Lord's Supper and baptism. The present homosexual issues, which seem to be at the front of the hot topic list, will actually be a minor issue compared to the gender issue in the next few years. Individual Christians, as well as whole churches, have already begun expressing their opinions and taking action to correct this issue of inequality and injustice. However, others are digging deep trenches to fight a war of no-change from the status quo, totally disregarding new historical and grammatical knowledge that makes more sense than previously held knowledge. The following links are to articles on my website, other web sites, and churches that are in support of the Gender Equality issue in the Churches of Christ.
Having three daughters (one of whom is a Children's Minister with an M.S. in Christian Ministry from ACU's Graduate School of Theology), and a precious granddaughter who, at 3.5 years old, has no understanding of this issue and the fight that is coming for removing all barriers to women in the church, makes this a very close to my heart issue. What I have seen happening in regards to my oldest daughter over the last several years as she has tried to pursue her career in children's ministry and what I have witnessed in our churches in regards to how women are treated in general has just reinforced my view that the present practice by our all male leadership of restricting the roles of females in our churches is not scripturally supportable and just plain wrong. What I pray for is that our granddaughters will not ever have to feel the frustration and limitations that many of our women and daughters feel now and that our children and grandchildren, male and female together, will someday be able to work and worship in equality before God in the Churches of Christ and each person will be able to use the talents God has given them for the growth of the Kingdom of God. We have made great strides in the areas of race equality and social status equality, but have made only tiny little baby steps in the area of gender equality.
My wife and I hope and pray that the following articles and links will help you understand the issue of removing barriers based on gender and help you to make an educated and wise decision on this issue. Of course, we hope you will also come to the realization that the Churches of Christ in general need to change their practices towards the female gender to be more in line with God's Word. Too many women who have heard God calling them into a life of full time ministry or volunteer service have been deeply hurt and have had the spirit quenched in them because of the attitude of male superiority that prevails over most Churches of Christ. There is more than enough information available just through this web page alone to make for very in depth study and intelligent decision making. However, there are volumes of serious study published in print and on the web seriously questioning traditional translation techniques and the present understanding of these passages regarding women in the church. It is our prayer that you will join with those of us who are traveling the less traveled road of gender equality and support true gender equality before God and in His church. We need to make this the most traveled road of all! As Floyd E. Rose said,
"It is an idea whose time has come."
One last comment. You will not find any recommendations regarding study material for the "traditional women's role" views that are held by most traditional, conservative, Old Path, and non-institutional Churches of Christ. Most of the readers of this site will have been thoroughly indoctrinated to that side of the study of gender for many years and these views can be readily found on in most church libraries and book stores.
Grace and peace to all who are in Jesus Christ
Wiley and Linda Clarkson
If you are a supporter of gender equality in the Church and have written a paper/papers or taught a class/classes on this subject and would like to have a place to publish your work, please email me. I will be happy to read what you have written and if it fits into the overall purpose of my web pages on Gender Equality, I would love to publish it here. This is especially important if you are a associated with one of the following church groups: churches of Christ, the Independent Christian Church, the Church of Christ (instrumental), and the Christian Church (DoC).