Posted on 08/21/2006 4:53:40 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher
A US Baptist preacher has publicly defended himself for firing an 81-year-old woman who taught Sunday School for more than 50 years because he believes the Bible bans women from teaching men.
Watertown First Baptist Church Pastor Tim LaBouf, also a city council member in Watertown, New York, said women could fulfill any role or responsibility they wanted to - outside the church.
"My belief is that the qualifications for both men and women teaching spiritual matters in a church setting end at the church door, period," LaBouf said in a statement.
Mr LaBouf and the church board sacked Mary Lambert, 81, earlier this month in a letter that cited the scriptural qualifications for Sunday School teachers, Ms Lambert said.
"They quote First Timothy Two, 11-14: A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, she must be silent," Ms Lambert said, reading from the letter.
"I was astonished," she said. "I would not go back and teach as long as this is their thinking."
Watertown is 400km northwest of New York City.
William Carlsen, executive minister for American Baptist Churches of New York State, said US Baptist Churches were autonomous and there would not be many other Baptist Churches that shared Mr LaBouf's view.
"A considerable number if not a majority of American Baptist Churches have been quite aggressive in affirming the place of women's leadership roles within the church," Mr Carlsen said.
The board of the Watertown First Baptist Church said in a statement that the scripture rules concerning women teaching men in a church setting had only played a small part in Ms Lambert's sacking.
"Christian courtesy motivates us to refrain from making any public accusations against her," the board said.
I suppose that this preacher also has problems with "those that p*sseth against the wall."
OK. There is no problem for her to teach youngsters.
If that was the case, you should have held a pot-luck and barbecue to celebrate and thank her for her half-century of service, as you announce her retirement.
Actually, there are many churches, my church donomination included, whose policy does not endorse women teaching men.
Not even Mrs. Robinson?
There is also a passage in the bible that says if a man loses one testicle, he must be stoned to death. The problem with something like that is you have to understand the context. It could mean if a guy loses his nut, he should smoke some weed until he is sooo stoned dude, he is like dead man.
Rev LaBouf requires adjustment!
1 Timothy 2:11-12 “A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.”
So that's what the Bible says.
Well, the pastor is standing by standards clearly stated in the Bible, even if his methods of doing it might not have been the best.
LOL. I've never read that verse. Where is it?
To anyone who has a problem with this, why attack the pastor? A church is to follow the principals of the Bible. If you have a problem with the principals of the Bible, take it up with the author.
Not quite as brutal as the Koran, but I do see a common theme between the two.
/dawns flame proof suit
She should shut up, or learn to read the Bible.
There is Scriptural reason to have only men teaching men.
This does not mean a man cannot learn from a woman, but men are also supposed to be the spiritual leaders of the church and their homes.
"Firing" her seems odd in that she had been teaching men for some time already. She should have been asked to step down if the church is standing strong on that relevant Scripture.
This guy sounds like the Mullahs in Iran.
I was asked to teach an RA class ( kind of a Christian Boy Scout class ). I did it about a year I guess. No men volunteered. One day the preacher told me that he had replaced me with a guy. I was really upset and walked away. He followed up and apologized for hurting my feelings and should have talked with me first. After, I calmed down though, I could see that as good a job as I could do, I could not be a male leader. Preachers aren't known for tact sometimes. This lady had been covering a spot for many years that no man probably wanted to do. She should have just been promoted IMO.
You're right. This story proves that Christians certainly don't have the monopoly on tact. On the other hand, if she hadn't ran to the media with this letter, they never would have heard about it either.
I don't know about that.When I was young,I had a couple of older women that taught me about things I never thought was possible.
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