Religion teachers' opinions on the role of women

No one group should determine the church's theology. But we should consider carefully the opinions of those who have devoted their lives to the study of the Bible.

Roger L. Dudley directs the Institute of Church Ministry at Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan.

Without a doubt, the subject of the role of women in the leader ship of the church has been one of the hot topics among Seventh-day Adventists in the past several years. This has been evidenced by the discussions of the Annual Councils, Spring Meetings, and study commissions concerning the propriety of ordaining women to the gospel ministry and of allowing unordained female ministers to baptize their converts. To a lesser extent it has been seen in the deliberations taking place in individual congregations over the election of women as local elders and the ordination of deaconesses. Denominational journals have been the forum for a vigorous debate by means of articles and letters from readers.

The issues have been particularly perplexing to leaders and members because of the failure to arrive at a consensus as to what the Scriptures warrant. Seventh-day Adventists have long considered themselves to be people of the Book, and they demand clear Bible answers to religious questions. A number of Adventist theologians and biblical scholars have prepared papers and articles on the subject, but, alas, while finding scriptural support for their positions, they have taken opposite sides. Thus, administrators and lay members who have been looking to the religious community for clear guidance have found themselves more confused than ever.

Part of the confusion has arisen because editors and organizers, when publishing papers or conducting discussions on the issue, have tended to balance the contributions roughly equally between the pro and con views. This appeals to our sense of fairness and has the additional advantage of allowing the reader or listener to explore all sides of the topic. But it also implies that our most knowledgeable students of religion are split right down the middle on these questions, when such may not be the case at all. The present study was undertaken to determine just where our religious scholars stand.

Description of the study

Andrews University's Institute of Church Ministry constructed the "Attitudes Toward the Role of Women in the Seventh-day Adventist Church" questionnaire in 1983 and has administered it to a number of groups since then. The questionnaire consists of 18 statements to which a person may choose one out of five possible responses: "strongly disagree," "somewhat disagree," "uncertain," "somewhat agree," or "strongly agree."

We sent the instrument to each faculty member in the religion departments of each of the 11 senior colleges in the North American Division and of each of the 32 senior colleges or seminaries outside North America. We also sent it to each faculty member of the Theological Seminary at Andrews University. We secured the names from the lists supplied in the current Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook.

We invited the religion teachers to complete the questionnaire and return it to the Institute of Church Ministry offices. The questionnaires were unsigned, thus preserving confidentiality, though it was possible to identify the particular institution at which the faculty member serves.

In all, 131 instruments were sent out to North American scholars. With no follow-up efforts, 94 faculty members, representing all 12 schools, returned the questionnaire. This 72-percent response rate is considered very high for a onetime mailing and reflects the strong degree of interest in the subject that Adventist religion scholars have.

Ninety-nine of the 199 scholars outside North America, representing 28 of the 32 institutions, returned questionnaires. This 50-percent response rate is higher than might be expected, given the variety of languages and cultures and the fact that these individuals had to supply their own airmail postage. Thus, for the world field the analysis is based on 193 responses out of 330 invitations, or a response rate of 58 percent.

The questions and response percent ages are presented in the table that ac companies this article. For ease in comparison the two "agree" and the two "disagree" categories have been combined. The extent to which these two figures fail to total 100 percent for any given statement represents the "uncertain" choice. The fact that the numbers of North American and non-North American teachers who responded are almost equal makes for a good comparison between them. We have formatted the table so that the responses of the total group as well as of the two major components can be seen at a glance.

An inspection of the questions will reveal that they are divided into two groups. On the face of it the first eight have nothing to do with religion or the church. They deal with the role of women in society in general and may be thought of as the society scale. The last 10 concern the propriety of women engaging in various ministries in the congregation or in the wider denominational organization. They may be considered the church scale.

Women in society

The society scale is not original with this instrument. We selected the eight items we used here from the 25-item "Attitudes Toward Women Scale"--a standard social science instrument. We included them to determine to what extent attitudes toward women in ministry may be related to attitudes toward the role of women in general society. We will return to this point shortly.

These first eight questions bothered a number of the scholars, who responded with written comments. Some suggested that the answers depend upon whether or not the women have children to care for. As one said, "A key problem is how to balance family stability against individual rights." A European scholar suggested that the words "when they have little babies or little children" should be inserted before the word "rather" in item 1. A teacher who strongly agreed with item 3 wrote that there were "also many jobs in which women should have preference." Several commented that Christians should not be worried about their rights.

Many who were concerned with the polarity of the items responded: "disagree with the word 'rather' "; "not an either/or situation"; "should not be blanket statements." Some objected to the "heavy emotional wording" and "biased nature of the questions." One instrument had a huge NO scrawled across the front page and an attached note that read: "Sorry for the remark scribbled on the front page by a worker who apparently feels very strongly about the subject."

We assigned the first eight items scores of 1 (most opposed to women being active in society) to 5 (most favorable) and totaled these to form a society scale with a possible range of scoring from 8 to 40. The lowest score anyone actually obtained was 12. Another individual had a score of 14 and two a score of 15.

At the high end 31 scholars obtained the maximum score of 40, with 9 scoring 39 and 12 each scoring 3 7 and 38. Thus the average score was 32.2 quite favorable as measured against a neutral midpoint of 24. Whatever criticisms the various questions elicited, the scale proved to be statistically consistent (reliability coefficient alpha of .80 for those interested in technical details), and each item correlated with the whole scale in a satisfactory manner.

Women in the church

Items 9 to 18 are the heart of the study. The theoretical basis for their construction was to present a hierarchy of issues on the role of women within the church so that we could determine a curve of declining support. That is, we assumed that nearly everyone would agree with item 9 (although 3 percent did not), but that disagreement would gradually increase all the way through item 18.

In actual practice, the responses did not demonstrate a strict hierarchical ranking. For example, more respondents would permit women to serve oh control ling committees and boards (item 11) than would allow them to function as local elders of congregations (item 10). With the exception that the peak is reached at item 17, however, the pattern seems generally quite consistent. (However, nearly everyone affirmed item 18.)

Overall, these scholars give evidence of overwhelming support for women in ministry. Their agreement with the various items ranges from 62 to 97 percent, while their disagreement ranges only from 3 to 30 percent.

When we compare the North American with the non-North American responses, we find some important differences. But both groups of teachers still favor the inclusion of women in every ministry listed. For the North American theologians, agreement ranges from 78 to 99 percent and disagreement ranges only from 1 to 18 percent.

While non-North American theologians are not as favorable, from 47 to 97 percent of them still agree with the various items, and their disagreement ranges only from 3 to 41 percent. On every item except number 17, an absolute majority of the non-North American group favors the inclusion of women. Even here, a plurality of 47 to 41 percent would deem a woman president of the General Conference to be appropriate. And this item represents an event so unlikely as to be hardly at the center of the current discussion.

The items of particular relevance now are numbers 10, 14, and 15. The first of these, item 10, asks whether it is appropriate for women to serve as local elders of congregations. Eighty-five percent (93 percent North American, 77 percent non-North American) believe that it is. One respondent who strongly agreed noted, however, that "the principle of seeking to avoid offending a weaker brother and doing only that which will enhance the gospel" is a vital principle. Another felt that perhaps a different title for the same office, such as "shepherdess," might remove some of the objections.

With regard to item 14, the appropriateness of women serving as sole or senior pastors of congregations, 66 percent (78 percent North American, 54 percent non-North American) find it acceptable while 28 percent do not. One teacher who marked "uncertain" cited "practical problems, administrative problems, acceptance problems, possibly theological problems." Some respondents emphasized "in areas where the church is ready" or qualified the statement by writing "the right woman in the right church." One explained: "Appropriate, yes, but may not be best because of prejudicial attitudes." Another expressed this opinion: "I prefer team pastoring so the needs of both men and women are met."

One Asian scholar wrote at some length that the biblical record indicates that God's first choice for spiritual leadership of His people is men, "but when and where God intended women to take over the helm of affairs, His people accepted it." So if the church decides to continue with all-male leadership, it is "not to maintain male hegemony" but to show "respect for precedent" and to com ply with "God's preference and choice."

As to the key statement, the one asking about the appropriateness of ordaining women who have demonstrated their calling to the gospel ministry (item 15), 69 percent of the religion scholars said it is appropriate and 24 percent said it is not (83 to 13 percent North American, 57 to 33 percent non-North American).

Strong feelings

Vigorous feelings surfaced among the minority. One who strongly opposed wrote a page alleging that "there is a biblical restriction on women serving in the 'office' of bishop/pastor, one who takes the leading role in teaching/preaching the Word of God. This is not a form of oppression, but representing the will of God requires submission from us all."

Another wrote: "Frankly, I think your survey is strongly biased to favor women's ordination and cast anyone who disagrees into the role of male chauvinist." This brother overlooked the fact that since the items allowed for a full range of agreement-disagreement, the survey was neutral—only the responses could be biased.

Finally, in response to the item on women's participation in shaping the theology of the church (item 18), one scholar wrote: "They must be encouraged to do so. Women must be given opportunity for theological education and for participation in significant committee discussions." Another replied: "It better be [permissible], given the role of Ellen White."

As in the case of the society scale, we gave each of these 10 items a score of from 1 to 5 and totaled them to form a church scale. The scale ranges from 10 ("strongly disagree" to all items) to 50 ("strongly agree" to all items). Two teachers did score 10, and one each obtained scores of 16 and 17. On the high end, 86 obtained the maximum score of 50, and another 28 were above 45. The average score was 42.6—highly supportive of full opportunity for female ministry in the church (neutral midpoint is 30). This scale had even higher statistical consistency than the society scale (reliability coefficient alpha of .93), and all 10 items were good contributors to scale reliability.

We made the society scale part of the survey to allow comparison of attitudes toward the role of women in society with those toward the role of women in the church. We found the two scales to be correlated at .67, a rather strong relationship for an attitude study and statistically significant at the .001 level. Though one scholar wrote that "a distinction needs to be made between opportunities for women in secular circles and in the worship order of the church," most of those surveyed did not agree. The general trend is for those who are favor able to an expanded professional role for females in the wider culture to also affirm their equality in the various ministries of the church.

Some conclusions

A scholar outside North America raised an issue that deserves brief consideration. He wrote: "I understand that this questionnaire is on attitudes and not on theology," one having nothing to do with the other." I do not share his assumptions, for I do not believe the two can be separated. I assume rather that our theology informs our attitudes and that our attitudes determine our approach to theology.

The scholar continued: "Why should the opinion of the scholars only guide the decision of the world church [a claim not made by the questionnaire]? Is a feeling of a scholar more valuable than a feeling of a layman?" This question assumes that the responses of the scholars came only from the seat of their emotions without passing through their minds. I would not so interpret these data. I have every reason to believe that these religion teachers—who have spent years in diligently studying the Scriptures—wrote down what, to the very best of their understanding, they regard as the will of God. A feeling based on study and information should be considered as more valuable than a feeling not so arrived at.

Let me hasten to add, however, that this study does not establish a truth. Truth is something "out there" that is not determined by a vote. The survey only represents the perceptions of truth held by the respondents. Still, the results deserve consideration. While on the one hand we should not let the opinions of scholars be the only, or even the decisive, factor in establishing church doctrine and policy, on the other hand we should not disregard them precipitately.

If the Scriptures are to furnish us guidance in dealing with these momentous issues, then the reasoned opinions of those who have had the most thorough training in biblical and theological studies and who have spent their professional lives studying the sacred documents should be taken seriously. And without question, those opinions are overpoweringly in favor of removing all barriers to full participation of women in every phase of the ministry of the Adventist Church.


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Roger L. Dudley directs the Institute of Church Ministry at Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan.

August 1987

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