It is amazing, and at times disconcerting, to see to what lengths some of the advocates of women in (ecclesiastical) office will go to promote their view. It has been said, e.g., that the promise contained in the charge to those who make public profession of faith, namely, that “all the privileges of full communion are now yours” has never really been true for the female members of the church. That argument holds about as much water as saying that husbands have never had full parental privileges over their children because they never actually gave birth to the children.

Another one of these absurd charges we find in a recent article by the Rev. Frank Breisch in an issue of the Christian Home and School Magazine. Says Breisch: “We’re beginning to realize that for centuries the church has looked, to take just one example, at the passages that Paul writes about women in the church with the blinders of a bad case of male chauvinism.”

Now the first thing that ought to be said about that statement is that it is a blatant lie. And the second is that it is a “bad case” of prejudiced judgment. And finally, it is patently an unchristian charge and not only contributes nothing toward the discussion of the matter, but rather makes such a discussion an impossibility. It muddies the waters terribly.

The over–riding reason why the church for centuries took the stand it did, and why many in the church still take that stand today, is simply because they sincerely believe that the Bible allows no other stance. They just want to be loyal to what they believe the Scriptures clearly teach. It had and has nothing to do with male chauvinism whatsoever.

What is more, it is rather clear from a statement such as this that the Women‘s Liberation movement has deeply influenced the thinking of some regarding the matter at hand. Here, if anywhere, there would be some justification indeed for speaking of a “bad case of women‘s liberationism.” The very fact that such absurd arguments are used to propagate the idea of women in office is clear evidence of a very jaundiced eye.

If we can‘t come up with anything better, let the ink remain in our pens. Putting such thoughts black on white only poisons the atmosphere and reveals our ignorance.