Women pushed back

I was moved by Meridith Armstrong’s essay on “A woman’s place” on this page on March 23. The progress that women have made (at least in the Western world) over the centuries is gratifying, but it’s sad that their equality with men is still well out of reach. This is shown by the failure of the Equal Rights Amendment of 1972 to be ratified and by Arkansas’ failure to put in place a Women’s Studies course in 2022.

The biggest disappointment of all is that in far too many cases, churches continue to push women to the back of the bus. I refer to conservative churches that are locked in on mostly “literal” readings of the Bible. These churches have given little attention to the biblical scholarship of the last 150 years, and they are reading translations of the Bible that aren’t based on the best available Greek manuscripts and aren’t accurately worded. Different parts of the Bible say different things. It takes a lot of study to be able to balance these competing claims and make good judgments.

We do best by relying on the life and teachings of Jesus and on the seven authentic letters of Paul. A big problem is the six inauthentic letters of Paul (especially I Timothy) that are from a later period and are tainted by the culture of that time. There is one passage in Paul’s authentic letters from I Corinthians that’s troublesome: “women should be silent in the church.” A good commentary shows that this is probably an insertion by a later editor. It doesn’t agree with the rest of I Corinthians or the rest of Paul’s genuine letters.

Christians are sharply divided on biblical interpretation. Sadly, in many churches women will long continue to be pushed to the back of the bus as they are denied leadership roles and their voices are muted. The claim will be that all of this is God’s will, chiseled eternally in stone.

SANDY WYLIE

Bella Vista