A Woman Pastor

I believe that God gave a circumstantial prohibition against female leadership in Christianity -- along the lines of, "if it offends, don't do it".

If, as was the case during biblical (and most of post-biblical) times, women seldom if ever were allowed to exercise leadership roles over men, it would not be expedient for a woman to lead.

It would cause more harm than good if the flock would not follow -- regardless of how qualified the woman was as a shepherd. The commandment for a Christian leader is to "feed my sheep". That's a little hard to do if the shepherd can't catch 'em.

However, in a congregation where there is no angst about or objections against a woman leader, I doubt if God cares about the sex of the shepherd. If the shepherd can efficiently "feed" God's sheep, I imagine He'll be pleased.

There are personal issues both men and women have to manage in order to be efficient leaders. Many are the same for both sexes. Some, like the evolved instinct of most primates to require a male Alpha will create extra problems for a woman leader.

Considering the fact that almost all of recorded human history demonstrates male dominance, the Alpha male is probably the norm for our species. (However, bonobos -- who are as closely related to us as any other primate -- accept females as Alphas.)

I fully understand the feelings some have about this because of my SBC (and social) heritage. What I believe intellectually sometimes clashes with what I feel emotionally. After six decades I still feel uncomfortable in a congregation that has a female pastor. In fact, I would probably feel uncomfortabe in a nation with a female President.

However, I choose to allow my logic to overrule my emotions in this (and many other) instances.