Stuff like this really gets to me

This was one of the top headlines on CNN.

WATERTOWN, New York (AP) -- The minister of a church that dismissed a female Sunday School teacher after adopting what it called a literal interpretation of the Bible says a woman can perform any job -- outside of the church.

The First Baptist Church dismissed Mary Lambert on August 9 with a letter explaining that the church had adopted an interpretation that prohibits women from teaching men. She had taught there for 54 years.

The letter quoted the first epistle to Timothy: "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent."

The Rev. Timothy LaBouf, who also serves on the Watertown City Council, issued a statement saying his stance against women teaching men in Sunday school would not affect his decisions as a city leader in Watertown, where all five members of the council are men but the city manager who runs the city's day-to-day operations is a woman.

"I believe that a woman can perform any job and fulfill any responsibility that she desires to outside of the church,"LaBouf wrote Saturday.

Mayor Jeffrey Graham, however, was bothered by the reasons given Lambert's dismissal.
"If what's said in that letter reflects the councilman's views, those are disturbing remarks in this day and age," Graham said. "Maybe they wouldn't have been disturbing 500 years ago, but they are now."

Lambert has publicly criticized the decision, but the church did not publicly address the matter until Saturday, a day after its board met.

In a statement, the board said other issues were behind Lambert's dismissal, but it did not say what they were.


This woman taught there for over 50 years and now they just decide to take the Bible out of context and dismiss her? Obviously, there's a lot more to the story than what appears in the article. Maybe she teaches in a way or teaches a certain lesson that the board is not comfortable with. And to veil it, they use Scripture. It's no wonder that some people find the Bible to be out of date. The fact is in the context there were a lot of women who were causing problems, in terms of teaching incorrect doctrines, having affairs, etc. So Paul was saying to Timothy, a young leader, to be careful of theses types of women. It was a specific situation that some modern feminists are now using against the Bible. So I just wish people (and I'm referring to Christians and non-Christians alike) would do their homework and understand that cultures and situations have changed and they should be looked into before making a claim about the Bible or for that matter, any religious book.