This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today’s edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. 

I was raised in a Christian tradition that had many rules around the role of women in the church. My home congregation in Holland actually divided over the question of whether or not a woman should be permitted to lead prayer at a small group Bible Study in someone’s home when men were present. 

Now, as an Episcopalian, I find myself in a very different church context. One of my favorite Episcopal jokes is that, in our church, the place for a woman in the church is in the seat of the bishop. We’ve ordained women for decades, had a number as bishops, and had a woman serve as our Presiding Bishop in my early years in ministry. I regularly find my female colleagues to be some of the most effective and gifted priests and pastors I know. And I know I’m delighted that my own little girl is growing up in a church where she can enter into any ministry to which she feels called.

At the same time I know there are several churches, of course, that do still restrict the role of women… and also that the church has long unfortunately been complicit in misogyny and patriarchy. So, I thought this week I’d try to break the myth that the Bible is anti-women. Because, you see, it’s quite the opposite. 

This has been on my mind because of the Scripture readings we’ve had in church over the past few weeks. In our church, we follow the Revised Common Lectionary for our Sunday morning readings. That means that last week I got to preach on one of my favorite stories in the Bible, the story of Esther. If you don’t know this story, I’d encourage you to give it a read. It’s an amazing story of a young woman who rises above the evil of oppression, refugee status, and literal sex trafficking to change an emperor’s mind and save her people.

A few weeks ago, we had the story of Ruth—yet another story I deeply love. In that story a Ruth, a Moabite (one of the worst ethnicities, according to some parts of the Hebrew Bible), stays with her mother-in-law after Ruth’s husband dies. Ruth leaves her home country to go back with her mother-in-law to Israel, where (like many immigrants today) she works hard to make a place for herself and to care for what remains of her family. By the end of the story, Ruth marries an Israelite (contrary to the laws of Deuteronomy that forbade this kind of intermarriage). She also recovers her husband’s land and secures a future for her family… with it also being revealed at the very end of the story that this Moabite immigrant is none other than the great-grandmother of King David himself.

Earlier this week, in my Introduction to the Hebrew Bible Class that I teach on Monday nights at 6pm here at St. John’s, we talked about Hannah, the mother of the Prophet Samuel. Even though the priest at the time, Eli, was unable to perceive Hannah’s prayer and her pain, God heard Hannah’s request and blessed her with a child who would play a key role in uniting the tribes of Israel as the final Prophet Judge.

I love these stories because, like so many in Scripture, they raise up women, particularly women who are oppressed. 

In early Christianity, we often forget that women held significant and important roles. The disciples who were women didn’t abandon Jesus like the men did. Mary Magdalene is called in Orthodoxy the Apostle to the Apostles for her role as the first person to proclaim the good news of the resurrection. Priscilla was a Jewish missionary at Rome who likely helped found the Christian community at Corinth. Junia is mentioned by Paul in Romans 16 as an apostle. The same text also mentions Phoebe as a deacon in the church. The New Testament indicates that several women led house churches in the first century. 

Patriarchy is a hard system to undo, admittedly. So it is not surprising that as the church grew in the first centuries, it abandoned the egalitarian ideal of St. Paul who wrote in Galatians 3:28, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” Instead, systems of patriarchy crept in and started shifting the way the church functioned. 

No, no matter the view of your church on the ordination of women, I do hope you think carefully about how they function in your larger community. Maybe you’ll reconsider views you’ve had that would keep them from fully using their gifts. 

I would love for the church to be known as an institution that champions feminism, that casts down misogyny, and that ensures that every little girl grows up knowing that she is valued, she is powerful, and that the Holy Spirit will empower her to do any ministry to which she feels called. 

Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today.