Today women are no longer the docile individuals who stay home as house wives who breed children and spend their lives taking care of the men folk.
Today’s women are corporate high flyers and social and community leaders. Botswana has a number of women in parliament and in cabinet.
Women, like Dorcus MakgathoÔÇôMalesu, Margaret Nasha, Bothogile Tshireletso and Lesego Motsumi grace the halls of parliament and sit on government’s highest decision making body.
Globally, women like Hillary Clinton, Margaret Thatcher and the late Mother Theresa and Princess Diana have made history and left their mark in the world.
Women are taking advantage of their natural ability to take control to take over the world. They are also empowered by women’s magazines like Oprah, FHM, Cosmopolitan, GQ, Marie Claire, Soul and Woman’s Own.
But society has for a long time subdued women. Even the holy Bible declares that women, like children, should be seen and not heard.
1 Corinthians 14: 34 reads, “Let your women keep silence in the churches for it is not permitted unto them to speak but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law.”
I don’t mean to preach, but Christian faith does not spoil women. The scripture has also given reasons why women cannot be priests.
Take the Catholic Church as a typical example; whether good or bad, it’s virtually a man’s world.
It is this purpose that equally religious and qualified women have a lot to offer as priests, as much as do their male colleagues, but inherently there seems to be evidence that women, to a far extent, have never been allowed to assume high ranks of power since the very beginning of time.
If you read the Bible, men have been portrayed as having an upper hand compared to women.
It is that way because there are verses in the Bible which ambiguously deny women equal rights and opportunities in a very kind manner from the start. Even from the prayer, “Our Father,” there’s indication that as men, we are enjoying a complete wealth of inheritance from our forefathers, including the man himself.
The prayer alone gives evidence, apart from the humble and righteous thoughts that are repeatedly mentioned inside the Holy Book, which restrict women to ascend to superiority as spiritual leaders.
God forbid, but women are definitely qualified and proactive enough to serve their purpose in the leadership of their respective churches by now.
So what about those ladies who feel that they have a calling to serve their respective faiths on a full time basis?
Shamefully, such women cannot even dream of elevating to the top post of their particular parish or congregation, because of a simple verse in the bible which cannot be reversed, altered or erased.
If they continue to be sidelined from such positions, it will definitely end up fragmenting most churches.
Church women are increasingly becoming anxious. If anything, they are free to choose other religions and churches just as long as they are willingly prepared to bear the spiritual and emotional distress to their consciences. They must also be ready to block any confrontations which may come from their close friends and families who are going to come with strong opposition.
Any way, there are many other churches to choose from which endorse women as pastors, so hopping churches would not be such a bad idea after all.
Blame it on the past. Unluckily, people of the past who came up with certain ideologies are no longer alive and aware of their actions that have led to such bias.
