On Gender Roles

I’ve already gotten the question: “Are you going to seminary?” I’ve gotten this question many times before, and the conversation usually goes the same way each time. But not this time. This time the question came from a man at Chacko Homes, Abraham, and it went like this:

Abraham: Are you going to seminary when you get home?

Char: I don’t think so; it’s not in my plan.

Abraham: Does the Lutheran church allow women to become pastors?

Char: Oh yes, there are many.

Abraham: I don’t think that’s right; women should not be pastors.

UH OH!!! What was I supposed to say to that? I didn’t really want to argue with a man I had known only a week or so, but I was dying to understand him. So I asked him why women should not be pastors. He responded that pastors are people who have authority and women should not have authority; rather, women are to be submissive to men.

Well, at this point, I honestly didn’t know what to say. What Abraham had said is quite true here in India; women are typically submissive to men. Although there have been several women in authoritative and powerful roles (i.e. Indira Ghandi), it is much more common to find women in the home, where they cook, clean, look after their children, and obey their husbands. Of course there are exceptions, but this is the norm here. Men are in charge, men have authority, and men have the right to discipline their wives when they are disobedient.

Well, I’m not here to change India’s gender roles, so I went a different route in my response to Abraham. I made the claim that a pastor is not necessarily someone who has authority over the members of his congregation; he or she is someone whose purpose is to understand the Word of God and interpret it for others. Well, Abraham did concede that women can preach the Word of God. “Of course,” he said, “women can minister. But they cannot be ministers.”