I have followed with some interest the Women Ordination debate building up to the 2015 General Conference session of my denomination, the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church. One of my observations is that this discussion is largely entered into not with a learning posture, but by people who are so desperate to read into the Bible what their bias dictates. The truth is that, it is, at best, disingenuous, and at worst, out right dishonest, to claim that there is a clear Biblical injunction for men ordination, and against women ordination and vice versa …
Of course, there will always be those who are creative among us, to base their belief on what they think the Bible implied or did not. That direction has proven dangerous so many times in the past… The truth is that if this issue was as easy as some of us make it out to be, it would have been dealt with a long time ago, by every Bible believing denomination, like ours. The fact that it has not been so, should tell us that it has never been a theological issue, but a socio-political one, and sadly, GC 2015 is going to confirm that. Whichever side wins, would not have done so on theological grounds, but on political ones. What is going to determine this debate, at least in the SDA Church, is not theology, but democracy. The one side with the most numbers at that particular time will be victorious.
Whichever side wins, I will still support my Church. Perhaps I should confirm your founded suspicions: I hope with all my being that the YES vote prevails. But even if it does not, I will still support this church. I am not about to die for the Church, Christ has done that already. Besides, even though the Church has not always gotten it right the first time, this is His Church, and He has a way of letting His Church finally catch up with Him. He did that with Slavery, Colonialism, Apartheid, Nazi Germany, etc. I will be the first to admit that my support for the YES vote in support of Women Ordination is not out of an overwhelmingly convincing theological and Biblical support, there isn’t any. Just as much as there is not any in support of those who are against it.
I just choose to err on the side of justice and fairness. Besides, I know what it is like to be told I cannot do something or be somewhere I would want, simply because of something that I cannot do anything about, that I did not choose, the colour of my skin. (By the way, there was a time when my Church saw nothing wrong with that. And you wonder why I am hopeful whatever the GC 2015 result)… Perhaps my experience betrays my bias towards women ordination. Since I cannot solve it on theological grounds (since no one has been able to), I have decided to look at it through the lenses of social justice. When, I use those lenses, I know exactly what the Jesus of the Bible would have done!!!
