By Samuel Koranteng-Pipim, PhD
Director, Public Campus Ministries , Michigan Conference
Author, Must We Be Silent? and Receiving the Word
Introduction
Regardless of one's position on women's ordination, this one fact is incontrovertible: Ordaining women as elders or pastors is new light that the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist church is being urged to embrace. 1 For more than 100 years, Adventists have been unanimous in their view that no precedent for the practice of ordaining women can be found in Scripture or in the writings of Ellen G. White and the early Seventh-day Adventist Church . 2
By the 1970s, however, this established position began to be reversed in favor of ordaining women as elders and pastors.
This new trend was created by the converging interests of feminism; liberalism; church leaders' desire to enjoy United States tax law benefits to ministers; questionable church policy revisions and Church Manual alterations allowing women to serve as elders; calculated attempts by some influential North American churches unilaterally to ordain women as pastors; the silence of leadership to this defiance of two General Conference (GC) session votes against women's ordination; a well-orchestrated strategy by influential thought leaders and pro-ordination groups to domesticate the practice in the church; a determined effort by some church scholars to reinterpret the Bible and early Adventist history to justify the practice; the systematic and aggressive lobbying by liberal and feminist groups for the church to issue unisex ordination credentials for ordained and nonordained employees of the church; the hijacking of official church publications, institutions, departments, and certain other organs and events of the church for pro-ordination propaganda; and the silencing, coercion, or persecution of individuals who challenge the un-Biblical practice of ordaining women as elders or pastors. 3
Initially, the campaign to overthrow the long-standing Biblical position of the Seventh-day Adventist Church was spearheaded by a relatively few, but influential, liberal and feminist thought leaders within the church. But today, as a result of the converging interests identified above, and as a result of a wide range of arguments being employed, an increasing number of church members are not sure about what the real issues are in the debate over women's ordination, nor about the Biblical correctness of the practice.
In this article, I will (1) briefly summarize the arguments that have been employed over the years in defense of women's ordination, (2) identify the crucial issues in the campaign for women's ordination, (3) discuss the role differentiation between men and women, and (4) set forth the Biblical and theological obstacles against ordaining women as elders or pastors.
I'm writing this article from the perspective of one who used to support the practice but who has since changed my mind on the strength of the evidence from the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy, as reflected also in the understanding and example of the Adventist pioneers, including Ellen G. White. 4 |