Sexism

MON., AUG. 6, 1984, 6:39 AM
FARM, STUDY

Conversations yesterday dealt with a church’s view of men and women and the practices that came therefrom. The view and the practice were based on a Scriptural passage, one by Paul. What do I, the Holy Spirit, think of such a doctrine, in this culture at this time. You have only to listen, o son, for I am about to tell.

I have told you before that I knew having two sexes, quite different from one another at the extremes, would be troublesome. The important perspective, of course, is that the whole earth scene, with souls incarnated in bodies; with disease, famine, pollution, and war; with evil forces… yes, it is a troublesome realm, and sexuality… sexual difference… was necessary. And, as you also know, at the same time that it is troublesome it is a delightful reality, an aspect of creation I enjoy more than I lament.

Sexism implies a discrimination, a favoring of one over the other, an equality that is imposed rather than just being realized and accepted. The instance in the conversation involved women having authority in the church, authority that would extend over men. Paul said, in this one passage, that women must not have this authority. Should this still be the basis for church doctrine and practice?

Well, there are at least two principles that can be applied, and each produces a different answer to this question. The first is based in another Scriptural passage by Paul – there is neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, but all are one in Jesus Christ. The principle is that in matters of the spirit the sexual distinction is meaningless and unnecessary… and… the functioning of a church is fundamentally a spiritual matter. By this principle sexism is wrong… and also just plain silly.

I have obviously raised up women of great spiritual stature. Another way to describe it is that highly developed spirits have incarnated as women in the earth. Therefore to prevent women from having authority in the church is to lose that spiritual wisdom in decision-making and, in some instances, to give that authority to men with limited spiritual vision.

This principle also tacitly accepts the fact that though the extremes of maleness and femaleness are quite different from one another, in actual humans there are (is) an endless variety of combinations. To put it bluntly, some women are more like men than are some men, and conversely, some men are more like women than some like other men. In actuality the sexes shade into each other rather than being clearly differentiated. Some souls have been in the earth in other incarnations, and some have been man, then woman. All of this boils down to: there should be no distinction in the Church.