Christianity Women/Leadership Roles
Christian ArtMary Magdalene |
In has been often claimed that Christianity views women as something less than men. This was acknowledged with support found in the New Testament. In the New Testament, there are passages in which have been utilized to demand that women obey their fathers and husbands. It has also been stated that women should be kept away from the ministry positions and banned from any roles involving leadership. The most cruel passages include that women be commanded to be silent during meetings and forbid them from having type of power over men in general. During the inspection of detail in the New Testament and other ancient documents it has revealed a much more complicated image. Women had played important roles in birth the life of the early church and the ministry of Jesus. This has not gone acknowledged. The inspection of this detail has made some Christians reevaluate and rethink the roles women serve today. Simply just looking over at the gospels, we can find many incidences where women are mentioned such as Martha and Mary of Bethany. There are also some gospels with women disciples such as Joanna and Susanna in the Gospel of Luke. These women and many other all served some sort of important role in Jesus' life. These women served as both emotional, and financial support. There were women who stood by Jesus during the moment of his crucifixion. A women named Mary Magdalene played the most important role rather than the other women who served as disciples. She had accepted Jesus as her Savior, she had traveled with Jesus, and was apparently the first witness of Jesus' resurrection. All in all, it seemed as though Jesus treated women equally as to men. Especially in a culture and generation in which speaking to women in public was not something general or common, Jesus talked to women in public without hesitation. For example: In The Gospel of John, Jesus was shown speaking to a women at a well where he was asking her for a drink of water. |