The most valuable soul

Originally Posted on August 17, 2011

Lent season has begun and Christians are headed toward Easter and the Resurrection.  The following post was written in August 17 2011 and it describes what happened after Easter to the Mary’s who Jesus recognized at the tomb.  We need another Easter morning so we can start over and get it right this time.  May this Lent season present for Christians everywhere the realization that they need to follow Jesus and allow women the voice that Jesus gave them.

Here goes:

The most valuable souls can be found on Sunday morning in a pew in your church. I am not sure where the scriptures are that tell me this, but I know it from what I see and what I read. The most valuable soul is the same color you are, speaks the same language as you do, and is an adult male.

Laura Rector graduated with her M.Div from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Laura’s timing was bad. The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 was being enforced and in order for her to become a missionary she had to sign this statement of faith. It went against her calling. She wanted to pastor a church as a missionary.

The BF&M 2000 said that a woman can’t pastor a church. She wanted to know how it is that if women can’t teach men, how can they lead all-male Bible studies in prison? Laura didn’t know it, but she had found a soul less valuable. Women can teach those souls. Laura eventually was called by a soup kitchen who wanted her to come and preach and pray with those who came to eat on Fridays. Both men and women. Again, Laura found a group of souls that are less valuable.

When Wayne Grudem told a lady that with her PhD she could teach children, he was showing her another less valuable soul. Our children. The most vulnerable group of all could be taught by a woman who is not scripturally qualified to teach a man. What happens to that child when he grows up and the Sunday school teacher who led him to Christ is now unqualified to speak about Christ to him behind a pulpit?

The most valuable souls can also be found in churches in England. (In August 2011 some Anglican churches in England were allowing women to serve the Eucharist). In some of the Churches of England, congregants are advised ahead of time that a woman pastor will be presiding at the Eucharist, so that those who wish to avoid her taint can do so. They are fortunate; they have the most valuable souls.

Women can teach other women. Women have a less valuable soul.

When you have a hard and fast rule that women can’t teach, and then you find exceptions to that rule, you have devalued the persons you made an exception for. You have devalued the souls of the male prisoners, the children, the hungry and poor, and all women.

To sum it up, women, male prisoners, children, the hungry and the poor can be taught by a woman. If a woman can teach you, you know that you have a less valuable soul. When you go to church next Sunday in a church where women cannot pastor or be a deacon, look at the people around you. They have the most valuable souls. You will know these are the most valuable souls, because the pastor is a man.

Will you join me in speaking up for those who do not have the most valuable souls and for the women who preach to them?