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| Q: | Some Lutherans say that the relationship between men and women can be dealt with in two "categories": 1) Between wife and husband 2) to the one who teaches and has pastoral care Are there other categories? Between a woman and other men except her husband? Often those things about women are downplayed today, why do you think the right view is still important today? Some say that women could practice pastoral care to other women better than a man. Could there be a women who exercises pastoral care but is not teaching? What about women helping at communion? What about women reading the readings in a service or giving pre-approved messages? | ||||||
| A: | These are not questions that can be appropriately or adequately answered in a short question and answer format. They need to be studied in the context of looking at the full range of what Scripture says about the subject. That is why we regularly refer questioners on this and other topics to the fuller published statements and Bible classes we have on this subject and other doctrinal topics or to the appropriate volumes in the People's Bible Teachings series. Your questions are discussed, for example, in chapters 6 to 10 of the Bible class, Man and Woman in God's World. Chapters 1-5 of that class discuss the underlying scriptural foundation. In brief, the Bible talks specifically about the relationship of husband and wife and about the relationship of men and women in general. I suppose in that sense you could speak about two categories, though there are many different levels of relationship in the second category. In connection with the roles of men and women, the Bible does not treat pastor as a special category, but deals with authority in the church in general without limiting the discussion to one office. The reason the discussion of these issues is important today is that we cannot change priciples which God has set in his Word. We also need to be constantly testing our applications of those principles. The reason a woman cannot serve as a pastor, elder, or as a voter in authoritative assemblies of the church is that in our system of church government these offices all exercise authority over the congregation. The place for you to begin with addressing your questions is to undertake a thorough study of the biblical principles, followed by an assessment of the nature of various offices and activities in the church. The Bible class mentioned above provides an outline for doing that. | ||||||
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