And just when I thought the human race couldn't get any lower . . .

Sunday school teacher dumped for being female

Monday, August 21, 2006; Posted: 10:43 a.m. EDT (14:43 GMT)

The First Baptist Church dismissed Mary Lambert on August 9 after she had taught there for 54 years.

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." (Watch Church Lady say her dismissal came without warning -- 1:43)

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 story came over CNN's website.

What bothers me isn't the "literal interpretation of the Bible" bit (I've heard that before), or even the bit about women not teaching in the church (I've seen women refuse to teach in the church because they believed they shouldn't teach men, and I respect their convictions), but the rather bald-faced breaking of fellowship and contract with someone under the guise of "maintaining biblical standards."

I don't remember reading any verse of the Bible that says you can break an agreement you made with someone under the full participation (and blessing) of God, and whatever this church pastor believes, it doesn't give him the right to violate Christ's equally biblical command to his disciples: "Love one another, even as I have loved you."

I wish more people became interested in the concept of love than in the minutiae of misquoted verses taken out of obscure portions of the Bible to prove equally obscure points. I'm sure my avowedly conservative Christian readers may villify me for, in their minds, "not taking a stand," but you see, the fact is, I am taking a stand. I just refuse to involve myself in issues, battles, and struggles that are, in the larger scheme of things, unimportant.

Jesus and his disciples lived in an age in which paganism, shrine prostitution, pederasty (that is, sex between male teachers and their male students), and rampant legal, economic, and political corruption were common. Do you see Jesus fretting about any of these things in the Gospels?

I wonder who Jesus would fellowship with now--who the Samaritans, tax collectors, lepers, and prostitutes of our day would be?

Gay and lesbian couples? (married or not, with kids or not)
AIDS patients?
Crack addicts?
Welfare mothers?

I could go on, but the important thing is not who the people are, but what we do when we meet them . . . isn't it?