Church Dismisses Teacher Because She's Female

For the last 54 years, Mary Lambert has been teaching Sunday School at the First Baptist Church of Watertown, New York. On August 9th, that ended abruptly, simply because she is a woman. Ms. Lambert received a letter from the minister of the church, Reverend Timothy LaBouf, which quoted the Bible [1st Timothy] as saying, "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, she must be silent." Ms. Lambert said she had no warning that this was about to happen.

I've got to admit that this one has me confused. Is the minister saying the church has been operating in sin for the last 54 years? How can something be biblical for 54 years, and then all of a sudden it's not? The words in the Bible have not changed. The only thing that has changed is that the church has a new minister - one who believes his interpretation of the Bible is correct and that of the church has been wrong for at least 54 years.

To make matters worse, this same minister is on the Watertown City Council, which incidentally has a female town manager. LaBouf has said, "I believe that a woman can perform any job and fulfill any responsibility that she desires to outside of the church." The city's mayor is bothered about LaBouf's views, though. Mayor Jeffery Graham said, "If what's said in that letter reflects the councilman's views, those are disturbing remarks in this day and age. Maybe they wouldn't have been disturbing 500 years ago, but they are now."

It is indeed disturbing. If a church wants to operate with a 1st century mentality, that is fine. But we must make sure that this 1st century thinking does not interfere with our 21st century lives and government. Women have struggled hard to win their equality. They must not lose it to archaic thinking.