An Open Letter to Dr. Matthew Becker:
Don’t Try to Argue for My Place in the Church
“Given the plethora of data in nature that support the theory of the evolution of human beings, is it really possible any longer to maintain with theological integrity that a man (‘Adam’) was created ‘first’ and a woman (‘Eve’) created ‘second?’ Has not this traditional view been overturned by physical data and contemporary scientific investigation of nature and natural history…?”
- Matthew Becker, “An Argument for Women Pastors and Theologians”[1]
Dear Dr. Becker,
Before I begin, I want to thank you. You obviously have a deep concern for the women of the Church. Perhaps you see us as downtrodden, denied our rightful place in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS). Maybe you’ve come into contact with women in whom you have seen potential in theology, but who you think have been told that they cannot fulfill their rightful vocation within the LCMS. Speaking out for those who have been slighted is a noble cause, and I commend your intentions in trying to rectify what you seem to perceive as a systematic injustice. However, in your attempt to speak for this group that you believe to be disenfranchised, I think you have oversimplified the broad and complex discussion surrounding the roles of women in the Church, which makes your arguments less than compelling. Additionally, I think you have misunderstood the true nature of that which you use to try to support your arguments, i.e., science. As a female student of theology and science, please allow me to explain.
To begin, let me give you some context. It’s lengthy, but I think it’ll help you understand my position much better. I grew up the daughter of an LCMS pastor, not really knowing that there was such a thing as “Synod.” I simply went to church, attended a school called the “Math and Science Center,” and decided that I wanted to make a difference in the world using my abilities in math and science. So I went off to engineering school – Carnegie Mellon University, to be specific. In 2014 I earned a Bachelor of Science with University Honors in Chemical Engineering, with a double major in Biomedical Engineering. Between academic years I also had the opportunity to work in biological and pharmaceutical research (see here for an example of work in which I was involved). However, as happens to many college students, my ideas of what I wanted to do with my life changed during the course of those four years. I took classes in rhetoric and found myself enthralled, and through the teachings of my parish and campus pastors in Pittsburgh, I continuously discovered how much more there was to learn about theology than I had ever realized. The summer after I received my undergraduate degree, I had the amazing opportunity to go on an almost full scholarship to the International Academy of Apologetics, Evangelism, and Human Rights, to study under the renowned Dr. John Warwick Montgomery. Since then I’ve had the opportunity to share what I learned by presenting at my church in Pittsburgh, and lecturing at another LCMS congregation. One day I hope to teach and speak on apologetics widely, not to mention on other theological topics that I think need to be more thoroughly addressed, such as sexuality. However, for now I’m kept busy by the job that pays off my student loans and other bills.
Dr. Becker, I wanted to give you this background because from this context I want to address two issues: women in theology, and common misunderstandings regarding science.
First, I want address the issue of “women in theology.” Of course I cannot address this issue in full in a short open letter, nor do I think it would advance the discussion much to simply state a one-sentence working definition with which you would likely disagree. After all, what “women in theology” should mean is essentially what is being debated. Instead, I think it will be helpful to first look at how you portray the concept of “women in theology” in the article from which I quoted above, “An Argument for Women Pastors and Theologians.” This examination should help frame my issues with your article, which I will present afterward.
Early in your article, you claim, “a ‘theology of subordination’ . . . has been central for those who seek to restrict the role and service of women in the LCMS.” Later, you claim, “deny[ing] the full humanity of women . . . often occurs in theologies of subordination.” Though you make many points in your article, I find these two excerpts to be very indicative of the article’s overall theme. You seem to write as though there are two options for the motives of those who would support any restrictions on the “role and service of women in the LCMS.” Option one is that they intentionally ignore evidence in a malicious attempt to wrongfully subordinate women, and might even deny women’s full humanity. Option two is that they are unintentionally inconsistent in their application of the relevant Bible passages, blissfully ignorant of the “truth” (as you see it) that women’s ordination follows directly from women having teaching roles in the Church. The final sentence of your article in particular seems to provide for no other alternative: “There is no legitimate biblical or dogmatic rationale for why the LCMS should now prohibit women from serving as theologians and pastors in the church.”
Indeed, in the LCMS there is disagreement on the proper role(s) for women in the Church, and therefore this topic should be discussed if the Synod is to be brought into true unity. However, I contend that your article is actually destructive rather than conducive to the necessary open and honest discussion, because it oversimplifies the situation. For one, I would contend that there are differences between “subordination” (as you call it) and “submission” (which I believe is the word more commonly used in the LCMS). However, although I think word choice is important, I am not interested in speculating about why you chose “subordination” over “submission.” I think it is more interesting that you completely neglect to mention an “option three” for the motives of LCMS pastors and theologians who support some restrictions on women’s role in the Church. Pastors and theologians who fall under “option three” openly and honestly engage the texts and historical background, and this engagement results in a position that acknowledges and even facilitates some teaching roles for women in the Church but affirms the historic and Biblical teaching that women are not called to be pastors in the Church. That is, they do not agree with your article’s largely implicit but critical assertion: that your arguments for having women theologians can and must extend to having women pastors.
I know of this third option, Dr. Becker, because the pastors of my church home in Pittsburgh embody it. My church home in Pittsburgh can rightfully be characterized as “traditional,” even “conservative.” For one, women do not serve the parish as elders, lectors, or even acolytes. Additionally, my campus pastor is a vocal and well-known advocate of “traditional” views of sexuality and marriage, whether he’s dialoguing with the humanist or LGBT groups at my alma mater, serving as a chaplain at the recent national LCMS campus ministry conference “TABOO,” or ministering to Christians and others who have same-sex attractions. Essentially, my church in Pittsburgh is probably the kind of church that you think needs to be “reformed” from its backward ways and made to realize the valuable contribution that women can make to theology.
But here’s the thing, Dr. Becker: my pastors at that church have been the biggest and most fervent supporters of my growth in learning and teaching theology. It started when their Bible studies engrossed me, but it grew into so much more. When I wasn’t sure of whether or not I wanted to “take the leap” and study apologetics in France, my campus pastor encouraged me repeatedly, even finding me more scholarship money than was supposed to be available, so that I was able to go. When I got back and expressed interest in sharing what I had learned with the congregation, my parish pastor gave me two Sundays during the adult Bible study hour to teach on historical apologetics. Unlike my campus pastor, my parish pastor couldn’t attend those Sundays, but when he got back, he told me, “I heard you were great. I’m not sure how I’m going to follow that!”
And they’ve expressed their confidence in me as a theologian in countless other ways, from providing me with thought-provoking books when I asked about the theology of chastity, to asking me to review books that they were considering using for our student Bible study, to listening and working with me when I get on one of my rants about how sexuality is not addressed as fully or properly as I would like it to be within the LCMS, to encouraging me to write more and helping me publish those pieces (and many, many more ways). These are the same men who affirm the historic and Biblical teaching that women are not called to be pastors in the Church, and they hold this view not because of blissful or willful ignorance, but because they have engaged the texts and historical background, and the writings of other theologians who have also done so.
You seem to think I need to be liberated from these men. I’m sorry, Dr. Becker, but I don’t. These men are the champions who produced my passion for theology, and I won’t let you bash them or question their “theological integrity.” They are my fathers in the faith, and without them, I wouldn’t consider myself a theologian today, or aspire to be even more involved in theology in the future. So please don’t presume to speak for me or for many other faithful LCMS women when you talk about these issues. I have a place in the Church as a theologian, and it doesn’t need to be won by you.
Now, regarding your attempt to use science to back up your claim, quite simply, your attempt doesn’t agree with how science works. You speak of “the plethora of data in nature that support the theory of the evolution of human beings,” and how the “traditional view [has] been overturned by physical data and contemporary scientific investigation of nature and natural history.” However, this is simply not how science works. Data does not come with a handy guide attached to it that tells the scientist how to interpret it, and what ideas it supports. Scientists are like everyone else; our worldview shapes the way we interpret data, because (as the term suggests) our worldview shapes the way we see the world. For example, my specialty when I was doing scientific research was in DNA. When I was in high school, I was taught that most of the genome was “junk DNA,” which had built up over the millennia of evolution. The cells simply cut out this useless DNA in the process of making proteins, since it was the refuse of the mutation that drives evolution. However, scientists have recently discovered evidence that this DNA is not junk at all; it is actually incredibly important to gene expression, which is fundamentally tied to the causes of human differences and human disease. For years, the evidence (i.e., that this DNA is removed in the process of making protein) caused scientists to believe that this DNA was junk, but now new evidence is making them fundamentally reconsider all they had ever thought and taught on the issue (see here for one example). This is how science works. Sometimes the evidence seems to point to one thing, but then more evidence comes along and fundamentally shifts scientists’ thinking. So please, don’t characterize science as something that can fit into the neat little box of “this data supports this theory, and can never support any other idea.” Please don’t speak as if science should be used to overturn Scripture, when science is continuously overturning its own ideas. And please don’t speak as if we all have to interpret the data in the same way that certain scientists with other worldviews interpret it. Being told how to think seems like precisely the kind of thing that you would want women like me not to endure.
In conclusion, Dr. Becker, I appreciate your desire to facilitate discussion on a topic that is contentious within the LCMS. If the pastors and congregations of the LCMS are to truly have one confession of faith, as we claim to have, we must address this issue until we are in agreement amongst ourselves, and more importantly, until we are in agreement with the witness of Scripture. Unfortunately, your “Argument for Women Pastors and Theologians” oversimplifies the situation and displays misunderstanding of the nature of science. Therefore, I would appreciate it if you would not presume to speak for those of us women who identify as theologians. Some of us don’t like being characterized as victims, or hearing our pastors’ theological integrity questioned. Some of us would simply like to continue as we are, doing the theological work that we love, alongside the pastors with whom God has richly blessed us.
Kaitlyn Nowak
President emeritus, Lutheran Student Fellowship
First Trinity Lutheran Church, Pittsburgh
here: http://www.geothermal-energy.org/pdf/IGAstandard/SGW/2013/Fujita.pdf?
here: http://www.genengnews.com/insight-and-intelligence/what-junk-dna-it-s-an-operating-system/77899872/
[1] Matthew Becker, "An Argument for Women Pastors and Theologians," The Daystar Journal, 10 Nov. 2013. Web. Accessed 6 Apr. 2015. <http://thedaystarjournal.com/an-argument-for-women-pastors-and-theologians/>
