[GraceAlone]

Aron and gr8ful, I concur with you that the issue of women’s roles in the church is not unique to LSM and its affiliated churches. It’s very much a hot-button issue in Christianity at large. However, I have observed that even within many conservative, evangelical Christian ministries and churches, there is more of a role for, and respect for the contributions of, female members. They may not be lead pastors, but they can be authors, theologians, women’s Bible Study teachers, youth/children’s ministry directors, deacons, guest speakers, curriculum writers, musicians, worship leaders, etc. There isn’t the same notion that any and all leadership positions (not to mention ushering or serving the Table elements) automatically belong to men, with no discussion.

Aron, you hit on something when you mentioned that lack of discussion or explanation. That really frustrated me. I wanted to know WHY (because even the more conservative readings of Paul’s injunctions regarding women teaching didn’t seem to explain the unusual degree of patriarchy in the LC culture — I was even told by another sister once that a text group for YP parents, mostly moms, had to be named and moderated by “the brothers”!).

But as with many other unspoken cultural rules, there was rarely any discussion of the why. Because I suppose that would involve thoughtfully building a logical, biblical case, and that is not how this culture rolls. (Sorry - snark.)

I know that from time to time the coworkers like to throw the sisters a bone by giving messages about how special and valuable they are, but I found these more patronizing than satisfying because they never seemed to come with any real substance. Any attitude of repentance (Aron-style:-)), recognition of how the sisters’ abilities and even personalities get muted to the detriment of both their mental health and the health of the church, and willingness to start empowering them to do more than pray behind the scenes, read more ministry, cook, open their homes, and cheerfully care for young children so their husbands can go to ITERO conferences? Not evident. Hence more of that cognitive dissonance I referred to earlier. It feels a bit like an adult telling a three-year-old, “You’re such a big boy!! ... Here’s a lollipop for you. Okay, time for you to go to bed so the adults can talk.”

And I fully believe that kind of cultural change could happen within the bounds of a complementarian view, as it has elsewhere in Christianity.