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| Q: | We are studying the roles of men and women. It has been established that these roles apply to us in the realm of the church and in society. The question that I am struggling with is, can a woman teach at a public university? Now, from 1 Timothy a woman is not to teach (In a public, formal setting), namely to have authority over a men. Does, the heart and attitude of the woman play a factor whether or not the teaching is God pleasing? Does the way that the class is taught (authoritative teaching or a presentation of material) also have to be considered? And if so how would you define authoritative teaching? From the principle I feel that a woman professor cannot be God pleasing. Please, help me understand this specific senario. | ||||||
| A: | The biblical principle of the God-given role for woman is that she is not to exercise authority over a man. In 1 Timothy this principle is applied to a woman if she is teaching in a way that she has authority over a man. As with every other principle of Scripture, there is a large gray area in regard to the God-given roles of man and woman in which it is difficult to judge whether the principle applies or not. One of those gray areas is a woman teaching public college age students because it is not always an open and shut case that the biblical principle is being broken. Whether the teaching is exercising authority over a man depends on a number of factors. Is the teaching of a particular class really exercising authority (i.e. are the men compelled to bend their will to that of the teacher's or is it just a matter of their learning the material correctly)? Are the male members of the class really men or not (i.e. they may be men physically and mentally, but many males do not become mature emotionally until their late twenties)? Therefore, without having a specific woman teaching a specific class to consider, it is best to say that what we should do is this. We will make sure the Christian woman teaching the class understands the principle, and then urge her to consider her teaching a particular class in the light of this principle. If this answer seems like a cop out, consider the following examples. The scriptural principle of giving is that a Christian give generously. But we ask each person to look at his/her own situation and decide what generous giving would be in his/her individual situation in the light of this principle. Another scriptural principle is that we should not be involved in any activity that brings sinful lust into our hearts. But we ask each Christian to judge whether a particular movie or TV program that is rated PG is proper to watch in the light of this principle. In each of these cases, unless it is an open and shut case that a scriptural principle is being broken, we ask each Christian to let the biblical principle guide his/her conscience in the matter at hand. Because of the considerations that must go into a decision about whether a woman can teach a public college class, it is best that we do the same in regard to this matter. | ||||||
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