"Do you feel these bodies should continue this practice of female exclusion from ordained ministry? If yes, explain why. If no, what can be done to effect change in these bodies that refuse full inclusion of women in the life of the Church?"
"Then I saw an angel coming down from Heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and locked and sealed it over him, so that he would deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be let out for a little while." (Revelation 20:1-4)
Unfortunately I'm not sure he was ever put away. If women are called to preach, I say preach. I'm a feminist, which is to say that I believe in equality of the sexes, and beyond that, I am a radical feminist, which is to say I believe that we aren't going to solve the problems of the patriarchy by making small adjustments in the patriarchal system, such as allowing women to become CEO's or Bishops or Pope's, as a liberal feminist (according to the common definitions I learned about feminism studying Women's Studies from 2003-04) would suggest. Giving women access to the already warped structures of patriarchal capitalism just forces women to take on roles of unhealthy socially constructed patriarchal masculinity. You want access to the rat race? Have at it, and welcome to hell. Women are entering the competitive, emotionless world of power and control which dominates patriarchy. It used to be just men competing with men, and women were capital in the game, but now women are entering the game and competing just the same, sacrificing their emotions, their, humanity, as men have been doing now for hundreds of years, pitting themselves against each other in a selfish, individualistic, reality, right out of the Bible.
And that's really the problem. The god of the Bible created each one of us, and judges each one of us, separately, and when we are rewarded, it is often at the expense of someone else, or they are being punished for being bad, and we are being rewarded for being good. It's a competition, and it is fear based, and it's about power and control, control of a destiny after death based on actions in life. We try to control our behavior, not because we care about our fellow man, our tribe of mankind, and our mother earth, but because we want the individualistic rewards of God for ourselves. So we think that we, the individual, matter, and very often our benefit it is at the expense of someone else. And BANG, welcome to present day reality, as we rape Mother Earth, and try to keep her performing like some drugged up baby momma, popping out oil and food just as fast as we damn well expect her too, hence depleted oceans, overpopulation, completely exhausted top soil, drought, starvation and lack of potable water in huge portions of the world population, while we buy Evian bottles over here in the "1st world" at a higher price per weight than we pay for gasoline.
"Thus the LORD said to me: Make yourself a yoke of straps and bars, and put them on your neck." (Jeremiah 27:2)
We've kept that yoke on far too long. The Bible is full of it, from Genesis 3:16, when God curses woman for her little forbidden meal, "in pain shall you bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you," all the way to Paul's words on the matter which classmates have discussed.
What I don't understand is why women would want anything to do with representing any church which calls the Bible their sacred book. As Adam and Eve were forced "by God" to leave the garden and toil the fields and eat bread, so have we continued over the past few thousand years murdering and forcing native people's who still lived in the Garden, in harmony with their Mother Earth, off of their land, and into the same curse we have been living out, all for a little snack and becoming "like one of us" (Gen 3:22). Maybe it's time to close Pandora's box. Jesus had some great things to say, but me thinks he was trying to liberate people from the curse, but instead what once was only the curse of the Jews, has become, through a whole lot of missionary work, the curse of mankind. You could cut down the teachings of Jesus to a nice small pamphlet, and ladies and gentlemen who want their humanity back could preach that.
But hey, I'm for equal rights, so if women want to join "the church," have at it, and may God have mercy on our souls.
best,
Andrew
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