2. One of the questions we are
challenged to think about in this
week’s forum is why Christian
women teachers, preachers and
prophets are so liable to experience
discrimination from the church.
3. Puritan women consistently
outnumbered men in church
(Noll, 181). However, then and
now, women continue to be
marginalized in the world and
within the Church. For example,
Anne Hutchinson was
excommunicated from her
congregation in 1638 when she
over-stepped her bounds as a
leader (MacHaffie, 133).
Photo source: www.politicalchips.org
4. Sisters, Sarah and Angelina
Grimke, became two of the
first prominent female
abolitionists in the 19th century,
writing and speaking to mixed-
gender audiences about the
issue. Despite the sisters’ noble
work, many Christian leaders
from both within and without
the movement denounced
their active involvement as
“unfeminine” and “immoral”
(MacHaffie, 168).
Photo source: http://stacienaczelnik.hubpages.com/hub/Political-Women-in-History-The-Grimke-Sisters
5. In a 2010 Barna study, of 603
randomly sampled women across
the 48 continental states, 27 percent
said that gender restrictions prevent
them or hold them back from doing
more for God (Jim Henderson, The
Resignation of Eve, p. 277).
How are we doing at supporting women
leaders today?
6. One of the categories Jesus flipped on its head was gender. We
see this in his ministry when he interacted with female
“outsiders” – dining with them, meeting with them at the well,
healing their diseases. In spite of the discrimination women
have encountered and continue to experience in the Church,
Jesus has ushered in a new era in which male and female are
one in Him. As we move through this class, we have much to
lament about the way women have been treated throughout
history. But we can also celebrate the influential women of our
past such as the Grimke sisters. We can give thanks for how far
we have come in promoting equality, and we can continue the
hard but critical work of gender reconciliation and justice in the
world and in our churches in Jesus’ name – our risen Savior.
