women in the pulpit

This is the sort of thing that gives some people a case of the rash, but our church now has a woman in the pulpit. I'm talking about the First United Methodist Church of Clearwater, Florida. This lady is not a "light-weight." She was pastor of a Methodist church in Oldsmar, just up the road, and led them in a campaign to build a new sanctuary. She became a district superintendent out of Fort Myers. Her district was one of the hardest-hit during last year's hurricane season. She returned to the pulpit after five years when the Florida Conference reduced the number of districts from 14 to nine. We are happy to have her.

I mention this because I (father of three daughters, and married to a most excellent lady) have been thinking about the role of women in many parts of the world, such as the women who walk around bagged head-to-toe in some parts of the Muslim world, and who don't have much of a future even if they are allowed to go out with their faces exposed. The men of such societies don't know the talent they are wasting.

I've also been thinking of the Catholic Church and the radical right religious groups we have right here in the United States, none of whom would allow a woman in the pulpit. They don't know the talent they are wasting, either. It's a scientific fact that men and women do not think alike. It's also becoming more and more self-evident to me that women - or at least educated thinking women - tend to have a view of the world that men should pay attention to.

In my office, half the lawyers are women. The city administrator is a woman. Two of our city council members are women. My doctor and my dermatologist are women. If they were forced to go home, put on head-to-toe bags, and stay at home unless escorted out by a man, we would all be the poorer for it.