Letters

Women In Leadership: A Controversial Issue

I was disappointed in your treatment of the women’s issue [CT Institute, “Women in Leadership,” Oct. 3], Bruce Waltke defended the historic Christian position. But Walter Kaiser’s handling of 1 Corinthians 14:33–36 and 1 Timothy 2:11–15 was an embarrassment to those of us trained to accept “the plain meaning of Scripture” as fundamental to our hermeneutic.

This is an emotional and controversial issue. Better-balanced treatment is necessary to achieve our common goal: Using the gifts of women and men to their highest for His utmost.

PHIL MITCHELL

Longmont, Colo.

Two issues were muddled—women in ministry vs. women in leadership. Using these terms interchangeably is clearly a straw man. Rare is the voice raised against women in ministry. The controversy rages over women in leadership over men. This is the critical and unresolved problem.

DAVID A. SHIVE

Parkton, Md.

Bruce Waltke has a sober exegetical approach. But you are evidently bent on your objective to be “fair” to the fair sex so the ladies won’t be mad at God.

WILLIAM H. MCDOWELL

Florida Southern College

Orlando, Fla.

Bruce Waltke’s article was disappointing. He talks about men and women both being equally made in God’s image, and equally receiving and ministering God’s word to God’s people. Nevertheless, he argues that women cannot be leaders and minister God’s Word in the modern church. How can he fail to see this not only contradicts Joel 2:28–32—which predicts the messianic community is that community in which both men and women exercise prophetic ministries of the Word—but also contradicts the Reformed doctrine that affirms the priesthood and prophethood of all believers?

FRANCIS H. GEIS

Lakewood, Colo.

I don’t think the primary purpose for women being in church leadership is the utilization of their leadership or teaching skills, or that it opens new avenues of service. Rather, I believe all avenues of ministry within the church should be open to men and women alike to provide opportunity for obedience to the things for which they are being “perfectly fitted for God’s grace.” If we desire the barriers between male/female leadership to crumble, perhaps obedience rather than rights should be emphasized.

NORMA STEVEN

Santa Ana, Calif.

Although I was converted under a woman evangelist and owe much to her, I prefer to go by what the Bible in simplicity seems to say: It hinges woman’s authority and position on her “created” position as helpmate (1 Cor. 11), not on her later “cursed” position (which is correctly progressively remediable by the efficacy of the Cross). I also believe God as Sovereign has the power and right to make exceptions such as Deborah, Priscilla, Phoebe, Junia. We can, as we are led of the Spirit, also make exceptions, but should nevertheless maintain God’s norm for authority and his restrictions on women prophets.

LAURENCE A. DAVIS

Wichita, Kan.

If the news of the Resurrection (the key to faith, Bible, and church) is conveyed by women, at the Lord’s instruction, to the early leaders of the church, this surely says something very important about the role of women.

REV. CONSTANT R. JOHNSON

Trinity Lutheran Church

Galesburg, Ill.

Walter Kaiser’s interpretation of 1 Corinthians 14:36 is full of unwarranted assumptions. It is certainly true the Greek e may have a negative force, but that is surely not the primary force of this particle. There is not a shred of evidence to take the previous sentences as quotations from the Corinthian church. The real issue, it seems to me, is not the ordination of women per se, but rather, the way we handle Scripture to fit our preconceived notions.

REV. PETROS ROUKAS

Westminster Presbyterian Church

Muncie, Ind.

Kaiser is to be commended for his fresh and creative handling of several traditional cruces of interpretation.

DENNIS L. BURKE

Wilmington, Del.

Your “Women in Leadership” section shows how powerfully the feminist movement is influencing the evangelical wing of the church.

REV. JAMES T. CORBITT

Grier Memorial Presbyterian Church

Greenville, S.C.

I’m surprised there was no mention of the United Church of Christ in your article. Our forebears ordained our first woman minister in the 1870s! For us it is a nonissue. Women continue to be in the leadership in all aspects of church life.

DR. KENNETH CLAUS

Port Orange United Church

Port Orange, Fla.

So tragic to see Kenneth Kantzer and CT reverse the time-honored stand on ordination of women. You began as a prophetic voice and leading light. Now I see doctrinal drift and running after liberalism with a little “me too, me too.”

FRED KERR

West Columbia, S.C.

My dry, parched lips drank up your thoughtful coverage of “Women in the Church.” Can we, the church, be at our best until we truly begin to recognize our “other” great asset—our women?

RUTHIE WEBER

Nampa, Idaho

It was refreshing to see you base all discussion and argumentation surroundianing the traditionalist versus egalitarian/partnership paradigms where it properly belongs—on the Bible, not anecdotal experience or personal prejudice. It was equally refreshing to hear from outstanding Christian women exercising their gifts of leadership within the church and being blessed by God in the process.

JOHN LINDELL, M.D.

Shoreview, Minn.

Affirmative Action Through Guilt?

Is it possible Paul R. Spickard’s belief in affirmative action [Speaking Out, Oct. 3] comes not from his exegesis of Philippians 2:3–6 but rather from a sense of guilt over his ancestors’ prosperity? This Scripture doesn’t even remotely suggest a social experiment in which less-qualified minorities are preferentially hired due to past discrimination. Affirmative action hurts society because we lose the services of those (white or minority) who will do the best job. But more specifically, it reinforces a permanent sense of inferiority among minorities who are left feeling they can’t make it unless the rules are slanted in their favor. Here is a classic case of two wrongs not making a right.

ROBERT MCGREEVEY

Austin, Tex.

Spickard’s defense of quotas was unconvincing. How can discrimination on the basis of sex or race be unacceptable if it harms minorities and women but acceptable if it harms only white males? By Spickard’s logic, if blacks ever become a majority, then it will once again be acceptable to discriminate against them in hiring and promotions. So-called affirmative action is nothing more than old-fashioned racism and sexism in a new, liberal guise.

LUCY ELIZABETH RUDENBORG

Menomonie, Wis.

Many people have worked hard to achieve their reward, and it is not fair for them not to be able to receive it just because they were not the right race or gender.

KHALIL HAZOURY

Miami, Fla.

Karl Barth’S Orthodoxy

Yes, “Thank God for Karl Barth” [Editorial, Oct. 3]. His orthodoxy was tested and established before God and man in the Barmen Declaration, which he drafted and, with other believers, made in the teeth of a triumphant, anti-Christian Nazi state. His confession of Jesus Christ was clear, biblical, bold, and, costly. He risked his life, lost his job, and had to flee Germany because of it. This should be remembered by all who would evaluate his orthodoxy from a place of safety in a land where believers have not yet been faced with persecution from an anti-Christian government.

ROBERT W. MEARS

Laconia Christian Fellowship

Laconia, N.H.

No matter what Karl Barth’s system’s limitations, on the anniversary of his birth he deserves more than a cavalier cataloging of his “heterodox” tendencies.

PETER HUFF

Bloomington, Ind.

North Dakota: Not “Main Street”

I was somewhat startled and disappointed by “On the Road with Kenneth Kantzer” [Oct. 3]. North Dakota is not “main street” U.S.A. Getting lost on a gravel road is not unusual in any mid-western state. Kantzer is an excellent writer and communicator, but I believe he showed lack of tact and common courtesy to rural people in general, and the North Dakota farmer in particular.

THORNTON A. JANSMA, PRESIDENT

Inland Empire School of the Bible

Spokane, Wash.

Where Relief Giving Is Up

Your article, “Relief Agencies Confront a Major Crisis of Their Own” [News, Sept. 19], did not differentiate between World Vision U.S. and World Vision Canada. The figures reported are those of World Vision U.S. only. Be advised that in cash donations, World Vision Canada has shown a 3 percent increase over the unprecedented response of ’84–’85.

WILLIAM J. NEWELL

World Vision Canada

Mississauga, Ont., Canada

Is God Triune?

J. I. Packer [“What Do You Mean When You Say ‘God’?” Sept. 19] summarizes ingredients of historic Christian theism as “plainly biblical.” If so, the councils of Nicea (A.D. 381) and Constantinople (A.D.325) and the theological turmoil that accompanied them would never have occurred. The “plainly biblical” theism of God is one and only one. There is not a single Scripture that declares God is triune, three persons, a trinity.

FORREST H. SCOTT

Middletown, Ohio

Thank you for Packer’s excellent article on God. It is a rare and refreshing experience to read or hear a message concerning the nature of God. Give us more about God.

RAYMOND G. JOHNSON

Vidalia, Ga.

Pigskin Piety

I’ve heard the charge that ours is a secular society, but I don’t believe it. There are plenty of worshipers—if you look in the right place.

I first became aware of our subtle new sanctity one Thanksgiving Day when I realized that Eagles and Seahawks had joined the turkey as the focal point of our afternoon. A holiday given to godly gratitude, albeit expressed mostly by smacking lips, was soon accompanied by grunts from the Saints—and the Lions.

After that, I began to wonder if it were mere coincidence that the National Football League chose Sunday as the day to attract the faithful to its 75,000-seat circular cathedrals. I took comfort, however, in the fact that the liturgy didn’t begin until 2 P.M., allowing those who praised both God and Green Bay to fulfill their dual obligations.

But now, more and more games are starting at noon, which creates a quandary for those whose allegiances are tied as tightly to the Bears, Broncos, or Bills as they are to biblical exposition.

Civil religion isn’t dead—it’s just changed denominations. All that is left is to move kickoff up to 11 A.M., the sacred hour.

EUTYCHUS

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