Can Women Be Pastors?

The Heavenly Banquet

In this episode Chad Rhodes and Charlotte Elia discuss recent actions by the Southern Baptist Convention to further suppress women. They then look at the scripture most often used to justify this misogyny and consider some of the absurd non-biblical arguments raised.

Chad: Here’s the thing: Paul is writing letters; he doesn’t see himself as writing scripture. And at times Paul makes explicit that what he is saying is his own position, not the Lord’s. You know, this is not coming from the Lord. In 1 Corinthians 7:12 he said, “This is from me, not from the Lord.” And I think the question we have to ask ourselves is does he qualify that every time he gives his opinion? Probably not. And so I think the onus of responsibility falls on us to discern if what he is saying is from the Lord or his own opinion. And the example I always give is which sounds more divinely inspired to you? “In Christ,” Pauls says this, “In Christ there is neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek.” Okay? Or, “I don’t let women speak in church because Eve was deceived and Adam wasn’t?” I mean, clearly to me the more inspired statement is “In Christ we are one.” This idea that the way that we carve up humanity in groups is- it causes division, and it’s about power. It has nothing to do with the kingdom.