Evangelicals Need to Talk About Women

The new president of Cedarville University, a Christian college in Ohio, has decided that no woman shall teach a man in any Biblical studies. This reflects a long-running debate within Evangelicalism (see here and here) over gender complementarianism and the role of women.

To be sure, this debate is not going away any time soon within conservative Protestantism and Evangelicalism. The North American Lutheran Church came into existence in part because many Lutherans coming out of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America wanted to continue to ordain female ministers. The Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ also lists female ministers on its roster, making them eligible to be called by a congregation. A group addressing the diversity of views over female ordination in the new forms of Anglicanism, the Theological Task Force on Holy Orders for the Anglican Church in North America has entered its second phase. Most denominations connected to the Wesleyan Holiness movement ordain women, as do many Pentecostal groups. When one considers that among five Pentecostal denominations in North America there are over 15,000 credentialed women ministers, almost half of whom are in the Assemblies of God, it seems clear that the issue will continue to be debated and discussed.

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