God Gave Women Authority, Too
While Genesis has a beautiful story about the beginning of life, it also has a story that has anchored and fueled many conversations known as “the battle of the sexes.” One such discussion is can a woman lead? Should women have positions of authority in the church? Authority is something that can be given or taken and is often challenged. When contemplating leaders, I think of a person who is able to handle positions of authority and the challenges that come with it. In the creation story God gave both male and female authority over everything on earth, with one exception, they were not allowed to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Gen 1:26; 2:17). The serpent, who convinced them to challenge God’s authority, subsequently lead to God taking authority away from the woman and man and punishing them. In Gen. 3:16, the punishment the woman received has been used for generations as one of the acceptable reasons why women should not hold positions of authority in the church or even society.
Was this punishment meant to last forever or are we choosing to continually operate in a curse possibly overturned by Christ? If scripture tells us that sin came in through one man and salvation was given through one man, Jesus (1 Cor. 15:21), why do we assume Eve’s curse or punishment to not be pardoned? Can we assume that Jesus reversed this curse too? Often I find that when the scriptures are taught or preached, wife is synonymous to woman; husband is synonymous to man. How did Gen. 3:16 come to mean that all women should be ruled by all men? If this was God’s intention God could have easily said to Eve that because of your actions, all women will suffer this fate. God could have said the same to the man.
Let’s look at that conversation in Gen. 3. Perhaps when reading the creation story we are superimposing a social context not present in the text. First, Gen. 3 addressed the man, the woman, and the serpent. Second, when God was disseminating punishment he addressed all three. What is interesting is that God did not send the man to regulate the woman. God spoke to the woman directly.1 While this story is used to create division amongst women and men, we may be missing an important lesson, which is that all of creation must submit to God’s authority, and a usurpation of that authority brings consequences. So instead of ruling together, they were now in a power struggle.2 Why do we continue to operate in Eve’s curse or punishment? Although we teach that we are redeemed from the fall, it seems that we are still operating in the punishment that came with the fall. Should we not be striving to get back to what was before the fall when both male and female had authority?
Does scripture celebrate the leadership of women or of those who broke the norm? I would say it does. Prophetess Miriam leads Israel alongside her brothers Moses and Aaron. Deborah was a judge, a leader of Israel, and a prophetess. Queen Esther saved a nation, by putting her life on the line. Then you have Proverbs 31, which speaks of a seemingly business savvy woman. Let’s consider the story of the Samaritan woman who Jesus was waiting for at the well, who became one of Jesus’ messengers by evangelizing to her people. Then there was Mary, the sister of Martha, who Jesus allowed to sit with the men to learn, something uncommon for that time. In Acts 1:14; 2:3–4, women were present in the upper room, devoting themselves in prayer alongside the disciples and present when the Holy Spirit came, causing them too to be touched by the Holy Spirit. Can it be said, that perhaps God intended for women and men to work together in the church, since both male and female were present in the upper room? So, why was this paradigm shift not sustained by the church? Instead as time progressed, women were pushed to the side and men became the primary and sometimes the only voice representing God’s word.
Now fast forward to the beginning of the Pentecostal/Holiness movement. Women played a pivotal role in the creation of the various churches coming forth during the creation of this denomination. One example is Church of God in Christ. In the beginning of this church’s establishment women taught alongside the men, although they often had to find ways to justify their position as teachers. It seems that these women were often mindful of the social norm, so they had to make sure that they were never seen to be in opposition to the pastor, who was often a man.3 Despite the limitations that they had they worked to change the perception of women in ministry and the notion that women cannot be leaders. Unfortunately, it appears that the struggle to eradicate these perceptions continues.
What are possible causes of some men uneasiness with female leaders? Perhaps the malaise that men are experiencing is that they may have not been taught that women can be leaders. What is more perplexing are women who have the same discomfort. It is possible that women have learned and accepted the same teaching that it is natural for men to lead and for women to follow.
When it comes to leadership roles I do not think God is concerned about whether a person is male or female (Gal 3:28). This is more of a human issue. God in his infinite wisdom has called various women to lead. Despite the various attempts to silence the stories of these women, they are still known. If God did not need his daughters then Joel would have never been instructed to prophesy of this nor would Peter have recalled the prophecy on the Day of Pentecost. Women should take ownership of their authority without apologies.
Notes
1. Philip Barton Payne, Man and Woman, One in Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Study of Paul’s Letters (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, ©2009), 49.
2. Ibid, 51.
3. Anthea D. Butler, Women in the Church of God in Christ: Making a Sanctified World (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, ©2007), 35–36.
