Feminism in the Church

"I'm Not a Feminist!NOT!"

I’ve been very clear about that with many people. I’m NOT a feminist. I’m absolutely not one of those women who goes around breaking barriers and challenging authorities for the right to do anything that women have never done before.

And yet, I am reminded that I am indeed a feminist. By the fact of my birth, my gender places me in the ranks of 50+% of the world’s population. I worked in banking saw the glass ceiling of the management and lending officer training programs in the 70's keep good women from advancing. I've worked in political campaigns of women candidates for congress and saw their battles end in disappointment as they challenged conservative male incumbents with the worst congressional records of attendance. I’m a woman who grew up listening to music which included a repertoire of “I am woman hear me roar.”

But I also chose to be a stay at home mother, rather than immediately enter graduate school, because I saw it as my first responsibility raise up young men with values to pursue peace and justice in their christian lives. As a mother raising my two boys in the 80’s I would tease them with the “wonder woman” twist not just to see them roll their eyes, but more importantly to reaffirm my own power as a woman of ability and accomplishment. It was sort of a mind trick I played with myself for a while when I would begin to feel like my own career had been put on hold, and I was at a loss for my own identity; something other than "Robert's and James' mom." So Yes, I am a feminist. I'm just not a cutting edge "in your face" feminist. I think of myself as more of a heritage feminist. I've accepted as given my opportunities, even as I've worked in small ways to continue the tradition.

The way I read any text, scripture or otherwise is read through the lens which I take so entirely for granted. Coming to that realization is not so completely new, just something that I need to remember. It came home to me recently in this way:

As a Pastor in the United Methodist Church I take our Wesleyan tradition seriously and with pride. I am a student of John Wesley’s sermons. Preparing sermons for my congregation will often include background reading of at least one John Wesley sermon. I was doing just that, reading Sermon 98, “Visiting the Sick” as I prepared to preach on the text Matthew 25:31-46.

In his sermon he calls the people to take seriously the call of Jesus to visit the sick as an act of compassion. He urges the wealthy especially to break out of their protective zone to reach out to the sick and lonely. Then, as he goes point by point in his argument he says, to paraphrase "this is worthy work for women also." (Italics added). At that I snapped my head to attention. All the time I had read the text I was carrying in my head the present day church, the one that I have become so familiar with in America. It sunk in to me all at once that the primary audience seemed very certainly to be Men. At that point I was really ready to give a big AMEN, because what Wesley preached in the eighteenth Century seems just as relevant, probably more relevant, now than in his day.

I am referring to the call of discipleship which is equally valid regardless of gender. John Wesley was a Feminist. And so am I!

I’m especially proud to serve a congregation in a community that has a long history of being served by women pastors. That history reaches back even before 1956 when women were granted full rights as elders by the General Conference. My male colleagues in the United Methodist Church are of kindred spirit with John Wesley (being Feminists) and for that I am also deeply grateful. We may disagree about some specific policies of and social issues adopted by our Denomination through the General Conference, but my experience is that we are also capable of cordial dialogue and civility in disagreement. That is evidence to me that the Holy Spirit is at work in each of us.

Grace and peace,

Barbara