Women and Sexuality Issue in Christianity

  The role of and the place of the Christian women has varied considerably in the history of Christianity. Women held the high position in the early Christianity, but later are viewed as lower than men. Contemporarily the leadership position in church like Priest, bishop and pope are dominated by male in many Christian denomination such as Roman Catholic Church and Eastern orthodox. Therefore, the purpose of this essay is to examine the roles of women throughout the Christian history and issue of gender and sexuality in contemporary Christian communities.  Women were the prominent figure in the first century BCE. In the gospels we see women were earliest follower of the Jesus. After the death of Jesus women played the prominent role in the early movement. One prominent figure in the Bible is the Mary Magdalene who is considers to be the first one to renounces the resurrection of Jesus and to be the first apostle, though she isn’t specially used for her. King stats that later tradition consider her as "the apostle to the apostles." Since, Christianity was illegal at the Roman empire, churches were dominated in the private household; where women played keys roles. Women roles included group worshiping, preaching, teaching, leading prayer and ecstatic public speech. For example, “Paul greets a deacon named Phoebe (Romans 16:1) and assumes that women are praying and prophesying during worship (I Corinthians 11)” (King).    The women were restricted to the silent worship by the end of apostolic age. When the local power began to solidify in the form of bishop, priest and deacon, women were excluded from all three leadership roles. However, two lower office were open to women: those of widow and deaconess. Various spiritual communities for women were established at the third and fourth centuries (Oxtoby et al. 162). Wealthy women in this period also became patrons of the church, lavishing donations of land and money on it or offering support to individuals. Melania the Elder, for instance, provided ample aid to the Christian scholar Jerome (ca. 400 CE), even providing the funds to build and sustain his monastery in Bethlehem (Holliday).  The most significant period for the women was the middle age. It is the time because various forms of religious life for women were flourished. After the monastic movement a new form of communities was formed by women knows as Nuns. The nuns lived together and took the vows of poverty, continence, and obedience that were irrevocable. The abbesses were the leader of the nun community, and had authority to administrate the financial affairs of the estate and enforcing community’s laws. However, the power of abbesses declined by later Middle Ages. When Gratium’s Decretum enforced the legal principle that no layperson could exercise control over the cleric, the role of abbesses was further restricted (Oxtoby et al. 187). Another community emerged in the 11 and 12 centuries known as hermitesses. They were the group of women who rejected the religious life and convent, and lived their life in wilderness. Unless, they chose to accept the counsel of a caring clergyman, they lived largely outside of the churches. Another significant women communities where beguine who were layperson that devoted their life in good works like helping the poor and sick in the urban area. In addition, other two group of women communities appeared know as Tertiaries and Anchoresses. Tertiaries where a group of men or women who raised the alms for living and helping to fight poverty. Anchoress were women who lived the solitary life and was free of life. She remained in the confined quarter in room or house attached to the church (Warren). There was the slight shift in the role and position of the women in the early modern era. During the continental reformation period some of the nuns got marry often with the monk and leave the community. So, a new role of women was born called “Clergy Women”. Likewise, during the revivalism of the modern era different voluntary association with wide range of foci (development of missionary societies, the resurrection of the Order of Deaconesses etc.) were formed by the women. Similarly, the spirit based movement such as Pentecostalism offered women as the preachers and women. For instance, the famous evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, followed her passion to preach all the way to Los Angeles (Oxtoby et al. 209)  As the world enter the industrialization the role of women also gradually changed. In the instructor guide of “Women in Christian Traditions” Rebecca Moore states that, “The missionary impulse begun in the sixteenth century continued well into the nineteenth, with Catholic sisters educating women throughout the New World. The desire to become holy, and to become perfect in love, furthered women’s leadership roles, particularly in Methodist Christianity, and produced a “Holiness Movement” that eventually spawned several new Christian denominations. The new branches of the Christianity like the Salvation Army, the Church of Christ, Scientist, Seventh-day Adventism, and the Foursquare Church were founded by the women in the 19th century”.  However, even today women are struggling for their role and place in the Christian communities. They are not allowed to participate fully in leadership roles in majority of churches. In many churches, they don’t have full ecclesiastical voting rights and are not eligible for ordination with few expectations. The expectation includes some Protestant and evangelical churches that permit women to vote and be ordinated with some limitation on their role (Oxtoby et al. 212). For instance, “the Anglican Church of Canada has permitted ordination of women as bishops, priest, and deacons since 1976, but in the church of England women are still restricted to serving as deacons and priest; a motion to permit ordination as bishops was defeated by just six votes in 2012” (Oxtoby et al. 212). In the contemporary Christian community’s gender and sexuality has become a matter of debate. The homosexuality has been strongly opposed by the Christian communities because it is considered as a sin. It has played major role in Christian church politics as well. For instance, the members in the international family of churches led by Archibishop, the head of the Church of England has been split in recent year. The reason for it was due to the question of whether the Church should bless same-sex marriage and ordain persons openly living in same sex-sex relationship (Oxtoby et al. 413). Matt Staver say, “The issue of homosexuality the cultural clash that we will face with respect to religious liberty.” Also, premarital marriage and Adultery seems to strongly oppose by the Christian community.  The view regarding the homosexuality and same sex marriage has been gradually changing. Some of the local division of the Anglican Church of Canada have accepted the same sex marriage. Many countries in the world are also legalizing the same sex marriage. For instance, On June 26, 2015 US supreme court of USA legalized the same sex marriage on all fifty states (Chappell). Similarly, a recent national poll of Australia revealed that 61.6% Australians voted for the same sex marriage. Though many countries have legalized the same sex marriage, the debate still prevails whether the pastor or priest should bless the same sex marriage or not. If issue of gender and sexuality isn’t fixed, then the religion will crumble. To avoid inevitable clash, the agenda of every people should be met regardless of gender or sexuality.    Work Cited. Chappell, Bill. Supreme Court Declares Same-Sex Marriage Legal In All 50 States. National Public Radio, 26 June 2015, https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/06/26/417717613/supreme-court-rules-all-states-must-allow-same-sex-marriages. Accessed 20 Nov. 2017.  Holliday, Lisa. Women in Early Christian Communities. World History Encyclopedia, Alfred J. Andrea, ABC-CLIO, 1st edition, 2011. Credo Reference, http://proxy.ncwc.edu/login?url=http://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/abccliow/women_in_early_christian_communities/0?institutionId=7764. Accessed 28 Oct 2017.  King, Karen L. Women In Ancient Christianity: The New Discoveries. Frontline, April 1998. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/first/women.html. Accessed 10 October 2017.  Oxtoby, Willard G., Amir Hussain and Roy C. Amore. World Religions Western Traditions. Oxford, 2011.  Rebecca, Moore. Women in Christian Traditions. 6 March 2015. 20 October 2017. https://nyupress.org/teachguide/nyup_guide_moore_women.pdf.  Staver, Matt. How Should a Pastor Respond to a Same Sex Couple Who Wants to Be Married? Christianity, 12 May 2014, https://www.christianity.com/videos/video-answers/how-should-a-pastor-respond-to-a-same-sex-couple-who-wants-to-be-married.html. Accessed 20 Nov. 2017  Warren, Dr. Ann K. Five Religious Options for Medieval Women. Christian History Institute 1991. https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/five-religious-options-for-medieval-women. 24 October 2017.  Westcott, Ben. Australia votes on same-sex marriage: What you need to know. CNN, 14 Nov. 2017. http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/04/asia/australia-same-sex-marriage-explainer/index.html. Accessed 20 Nov. 2017.