As a woman growing up in the church, I have always wondered what my specific role is. The Old Testament surely sets up women with a confusing life, with fully subservient and abused wives in the early patriarchy, then praise in Psalms and Proverbs. The New Testament isn’t much clearer, with women being featured, but with little information on them and a lot of information about their husbands. In writing my controversial topics essay, I learned a lot about the Scriptures that are commonly used to promote quiet women in the church, but these aren’t universally accepted as genuine letters of Paul. Usually, Paul praised women for what they did to help the church, through volunteering and funding. I like to think that the early church shunned the gender expectations of the time, because I believe that the death of Christ makes us all forgiven and all equal. Everyone has their own way of interpreting the Bible, and I’m glad many people make efforts to understand the women that were underrepresented in the early forms of the Bible. Furthering the lack of inclusion for anyone is far from what the church is about, and using that information to supplement the Bible’s information is very helpful to all kinds of readers.
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