One becomes accustomed nowadays to reading a lot of outlandish nonsense about women’s rights and women‘s ordination, and most of the time it’s best to shrug one’s shoulders and smile a bit. Many columnists and newswriters betray their total ignorance of biblical norms.
One would expect something different, however, when the writer is a confessed Christian and he or she is writing in a magazine whose professed sin is to give a biblical presentation on matters discussed. Sad to say, one’s expectations are often put to shame. Here too, the children of light are often more foolish than the children of this world.
I was reminded of this when I read an article by Mrs. Claire K. Wolterstorff in the August is issue of Reformed Journal about a conference of evangelical women held in Pasadena, California. Approximately 800 women came together to listen, sing, dance and “to receive communion served by a woman.” (Aside from the fact that having communion at these conferences is an un–Reformed practice, it seems that having it served by a woman added a special touch to it.) The purpose of the Conference was to “share a common concern for the role of women in evangelical Christianity today.”
What is further written about this Conference is not my concern right now. I only want to focus on a couple of statements made by Mrs. Wolterstorff in this article. She says: “My acute frustration and anger at being an unskilled, inept, untapped, and isolated woman in a denomination that does not give me the opportunity to become a skilled leader—ah skilled as my gifts will allow—was dissipated somewhat by the feeling that I was caught up in a tide that was flowing and would not ebb.” A bit later, after having expressed the wish that Catholic women had been there too, since they “are together working for the ordination of women to the priesthood,” she writes: “We Protestant lay women are becoming angrier and angrier from continued exclusion or grudging acceptance; we don‘t want to be welcomed in as drudges, kitchen workers, secretaries, and teachers only.” In other words. we want to be accepted as ordained elders and ministers.
What to say about this type of writing? I call it sccular nonsense. How a Christian woman can write such nonsense in a Reformed magazine beats me.
If Mrs. Wolterstorff, and others with her, feel “unskilled, inept, untapped and isolated,” then she has no one else than herself to blame. And if she thinks that the “magic touch” of ordination is suddenly going to change all that, she better think again.
In my ministry I know many beautiful, happy, skilled and involved women who serve the Lord joyfully in the church and kingdom of Jesus Christ, alongside of serving Him as full-time mothers and home-makers. They are wonderful contented women, who aren‘t seeking ordination and don’t feel one bit angry about not being ordained. And they don‘t consider themselves second–class church members either. These women, along with their husbands. are the backbone of the church of Jesus Christ. What a blessing to have such women. How sad that Mrs. Wolterstroff and others are missing out on such blessings.
The Preacher says: “Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child.” I say: Woe to you, O church, when your leaders are unhappy, frustrated, angry women.
