Letter of the Day | Women and men were created equal
Published:Sunday | February 25, 2018 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
The hidebound pedant Mr Steven Anderson is at it again, this time blasting Jamaican male preachers for allowing women to move into leadership positions in some local churches (Sunday Gleaner, February 25, 2018). He considers this to be unbiblical and cites 1st Corinthian 14 and 1st Timothy 2 as bases for his anachronistic view.
No one who reads the Bible with an unbiased and logical mind can claim that everything in it is directly inspired by God. Most of what is passed for the command of God is the opinion of the preachers (1st Corinthian 1). The scriptures referenced by Mr Anderson offer no real basis for the exclusion of women from leadership position in the church.
In one of the scripture quoted, 1st Timothy 2, Timothy claims it was the woman who was deceived and not the man as one of the reasons why women should assume a lesser role than men. However, a closer examination of the Eden story will make a greater case for the woman than the man. The devil is said to have once been the right-hand man of God and must therefore be of unearthly wiles. Therefore, if a woman is believed to be of inferior intelligence, how could she withstand the sophistry of such a being.
After she was deceived and come to Adam, the superior mind, should he not have sympathised with her and mediated on her behalf? Instead, with no deceit and no pressure, he ate the fruit also, thus completing the act of disobedience. It follows therefore that it was the act of the man that plunged humanity into a state of moral dilemma.
If women are indeed inferior to men, why would God give them brains equal to that of men? So far, there is no scientific evidence of any difference between a woman and a man's brain. That difference exists only in the ego of man.
E. Elpedio Robinson
Red Hills, St. Andrew