We don’t want silent women in Church

THE EDITOR, Sir: ACCORDING TO the Bible, should women keep silence, or be silent, in the churches? We need to clarify this biblical statement once and for all.

1 Corinthians 14:34 says: “Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law.” But is there a place in the Bible that directly says this: “No woman, even if she is a pastor or a prophetess, should not preach or open her mouth in the house of God”; or “no women preachers are allowed to stand on a pulpit and preach”?

I would really love to hear, from some true prophetesses and prophets of God, if women should not preach in the churches – or what they believe – based on those words. And some ministers agree with that biblical quotation and have refused to allow women to give sermons in their churches.

But my opinion is that they may be wrong. For I believe that women are permitted to preach the Word of God in the churches, just like how they are allowed to teach Sunday or Sabbath school. So, we men should never object to it, because preaching is like witnessing or telling about the Good News of salvation.

Maybe it’s just a limitation on certain women not to preach in the churches, which we have taken out of context, by having the wrong belief.

Finally, how would we manage without women preachers? There are some powerful and dynamic women speakers, pastors and preachers in Jamaica and other countries, such as Joyce Meyer, Cindi Trimm, Juanita Bynum, Beverley Walsh, Petrova Davis, Evon Blair and many more. Women like these are gifted and blessed, and that’s why they are so good and effective in their preaching.