One of the most clearly stated topics in the bible, yet most grossly ignored is that men should lead the church and family. Why do we disagree on this basic command, yet not so long ago this was the norm. Women were the caretakers looking after the children and the household while the men were off at work taking care of the finances. All of this worked without a hitch until feminism took hold and convinced women they were slaves, and that freedom could be found in the workforce.
On the same note, men have always been the leaders in the church as pastors and teachers, leading the congregation as they were instructed by the bible. Today there's a riff in this order, as both men and women are starting to incorporate their cultural conditioning and social engineering into the church. No longer is it okay for a male led church in some congregations because "women can do the same job". But can they? We were instructed by God to maintain the order He set forth.
We can already see the impact feminism has made on families and higher divorce rates, which leads to children growing up without a father psychological issues because of it. What sort of impact can we expect if we allow women to take leadership roles in the church?
Let’s look at what some early church fathers said about women. Did these ideas come from god, or from the world?
As regards the individual nature, woman is defective and misbegotten, for the active force in the male seed tends to the production of a perfect likeness in the masculine sex; while the production of woman comes from a defect in the active force or from some material indisposition, or even from some external influence.
-- Thomas Aquinas, Saint, Doctor of the Church, 13th century
Woman is a misbegotten man and has a faulty and defective nature in comparison to his. Therefore she is unsure in herself. What she cannot get, she seeks to obtain through lying and
diabolical deceptions. And so, to put it briefly,
one must be on one's guard with every woman, as if she were a poisonous snake and the horned devil. ... Thus in evil and perverse doings woman is cleverer, that is, slyer, than man. Her feelings drive woman
toward every evil, just as reason impels man toward all good.
-- St. Albertus Magnus, Dominican theologian and Doctor of the Church, 13th century
In pain shall you bring forth children, woman, and you shall turn to your husband and he shall rule over you. And do you not know that you are Eve? God’s sentence hangs still over all your sex and His punishment weighs down upon you. You are the devil’s gateway; you are she who first violated the forbidden tree and broke the law of God. It was you who coaxed your way around him whom the devil had not the force to attack. With what ease you shattered that image of God: Man! Because of the death you merited, even the Son of God had to die... Woman, you are the gate to hell.
-- Tertullian, 2nd-3rd century Churchfather
Clement of Alexandria (150?-215?): "Every woman should be filled with shame by the thought that she is a woman."
Tertullian (160?-220?): "Woman is a temple built over a sewer, the gateway to the devil. Woman, you are the devil's doorway. You led astray one whom the devil would not dare attack directly. It was your fault that the Son of God had to die; you should always go in mourning and rags."
Augustine (354-430): "Woman was merely man's helpmate, a function which pertains to her alone. She is not the image of God but as far as man is concerned, he is by himself the image of God."
John Wesley (1703-91): "Wife: Be content to be insignificant. What loss would it be to God or man had you never been born."
Jerome (345?-420): "If it is good for a man not to touch a woman, then it is bad for him to touch one, for bad, and bad only, is the opposite of good."
John Chrysostom (349-407): "Amongst all the savage beasts none is found so harmful as woman."
The root of the idea of women’s submission to men is the worldly, not godly bigotry towards women that existed at the time of the early church. These men’s attitudes towards women came from their human, sinful nature. Jesus’ treatment of women stands in stark contract to the words of these church leaders. None of those men spoke of equality of value but different roles. The clearly thought women were inferior in every way. To continue to promote their ideas, even in a watered down form, is sinful just as those men were sinful in their denigration of women. Jesus included and elevated the role of women, at a time when women were oppressed and denigrated.
