This evening I preached at Evensong, the final sermon in a series of what it means to be a Christian in the 21st Century
1 Timothy 2:8-15
"I desire, then, that in every place the men should pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument; also that the women should dress themselves modestly and decently in suitable clothing, not with their hair braided, or with gold, pearls, or expensive clothes, but with good works, as is proper for women who profess reverence for God. Let a woman learn in silence with full submission. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing, provided they continue in faith and love and holiness, with modesty."
It may be odd to begin a sermon with a quote from renowned atheist Caitlin Moran, but I feel she might help me to explain what I mean when I say I’m a feminist. When we say “I’m a Christian”, depending upon people’s experiences and influences, it may get a negative reaction, similarly the word feminism has some negative associations, so in Caitlin’s words “I’m neither ‘pro-women’ nor ‘anti-men’, I’m just ‘thumbs up for the six billion’… feminism (is) simply the belief that women should be as free as men”.
Even Disney have realised in recent years that the expectations of girls have changed. They no longer make films where fulfilment is found with the love of a handsome prince- Tiana in the Frog Princess dreams of her own business and works hard to achieve it, in Frozen it’s sisterly love that saves the day and in Maleficent maternal love. In Europe, and especially in the UK, women and men are more equal than they’ve ever been and whilst it’s something that’s still evolving, attitudes are changing.
On the 26th of January we saw Libby Lane consecrated as the first female Anglican bishop in the UK. The first women priests were ordained in 1994 so in the future it may seem incredible that it took us over 20 years to take this next step in women’s ministry.
According The Guardian around a 5th of full time, and a half of part time, c of e priests are women. If you look at the numbers of people ordained in recent years the figures for both men and women are becoming fairly equal. When I look at local licencings, or around the classroom at the people I’m training with, I feel we’ll soon be in a position where significantly more women than men will be trained and ordained.
In the future will we scratch our heads wondering why it took almost 2000 years of church history to place women into these leadership roles? From the outside it may seem that our church is an outdated institution, battling to remain relevant, but these changes and developments have been made under the weight of some very tricky theology, like our reading from 1 Timothy.
At first reading it may seem as if the passage is incredibly anti-women and has often been seen this way. This passage has been used to justify the suppression and subjection of women, both in the home and the church, where it’s been used to deny women those leadership roles.
But as much as it would simplify things to take our scripture at face value, almost all of the bible needs interpretation, remembering that it was written in a different time, in a different language and for an entirely different culture. Context is always important.
Scripture contains both universal truths and advice specific to a particular context, particularly the epistles, for which we only have half the story, as we can only guess at many of the details and questions the letters were addressing.
On examination the way I read this text is that the women in the community being addressed come from societies where women have been forbidden to learn and in many legal systems are property rather than people. Education would previously have been denied to them. The illustration of Eve’s deception is used to show what can happen when someone isn’t educated, because although God taught Adam not to eat the fruit, Adam neglected to educate Eve on that matter!
The emerging church, within its context, is quite revolutionary in allowing women to be educated at all. The issue may not be that these individuals are women but that they are uneducated. The women must first learn themselves, so cannot currently be teachers.
To explain my interpretation I return to the idea that the bible contains both universal truths (to be applied in all situations) and context specific advice. To decide if a passage contains universal truths we must see if its teaching holds up against other parts of scripture.
An absolute truth must be able to be applied to every area of life. We know there were prominent women in the early church; Priscilla instructed Apollos alongside Aquila, Euodia and Syntyche laboured alongside Paul, Phoebe was a deacon, Phillip’s four daughters were prophetesses and Timothy’s own family, Lois and Eunice, taught him the faith.
Looking at the creation story we read in the book of Genesis:
“So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.”
We are all equally made in God’s image.
So what does this mean for us today? We’ve worked through this tricky theology, had women priests for over 20 years and we look forward to seeing Bishop Libby’s ministry develop. But that’s here, in a reasonably equal and fair UK. We are one small part of the Anglican Communion. Where are there inequalities and how can a feminist theology help?
Addressing sexual inequality in education is known to help in a countries development. Failing to educate girls has been identified as a factor in limiting economic growth in the developing world. Because of this the UN set itself a target to eliminate the gender gap in education by this year, 2015.
Some countries such as China, Bangladesh and Indonesia look on target to achieve this but others, particularly Africa, which as a continent has a quickly growing Christian population, won’t achieve this. In secondary education on the African continent figures from 2010 show that for every 100 boys in education there were only 82 girls. Figures from Christian Aid tell us that women make up 64% of the world’s illiterate population.
Education inequality in just the beginning and even girls who complete their education are likely to find themselves in less secure, lower paid jobs. Girls who leave education early are more likely to find themselves in early marriages and more likely to suffer domestic abuse. One in Three women will be exposed to domestic abuse and figures from the UN claim women aged 15-44 are more likely to die or suffer disability from an act of violence than from cancer, malaria, traffic accidents and war combined.
On a worldwide level women are far from equal and the belief we have mostly overcome in the West - that God, and the bible, condone this – still prevails. This is why I think feminism in Christianity is important and needed, and why Christian organisations such as Christian Aid have made addressing gender inequality a priority.
I can argue as a feminist why treating a women or girl as a second class citizen is wrong, but if I’m arguing against a system where the belief is that it’s God’s natural order for things to be that way I will always lose…but if we can open our bibles and say here is where God and our collective history affirms we are all made equally in God’s image, then we have a chance to change hearts and minds and work towards a truly equal and loving world. A thumbs up for the six billion, all equal and all equally loved by God.
