112 FEMINIST VIEWS THAT UNDERMINE SCRIPTURE
In fact, if an employee of a parachurch organization is involved in con-
duct that brings reproach on the organization (for example, if a Christian
school teacher were discovered in sexual immorality), the organization
would dismiss the employee, but the elder board at the person’s church,
not the school board, would pursue church discipline for that person.
Therefore when Paul says, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exer-
cise authority over a man,” the kind of authority he has in mind is suffi-
ciently different from the kind of authority a governing board member
generally has in parachurch organizations, and the argument “We are not
a church” is a helpful distinction in this situation.
To take a somewhat different example, the person serving as an aca-
demic dean in a theological seminary is supervising a number of men
(the male faculty members) in their Bible teaching ministry. He does
“exercise authority” over these men with respect to what they teach and
their conduct as they teach and relate to students and to each other. His
role is very much like that of a pastor or elder to these faculty members,
and therefore it is appropriate for only men to have this role.
To take another example, the campus director of a parachurch min-
istry on a college campus has a supervisory authority over the other staff
members on that campus that is very similar to the role of a pastor or
elder in a church. Therefore, in my judgment, it is not appropriate for a
woman to have the role of campus director in such a ministry and to
“exercise authority” in such a direct way over the men in that ministry.
That would be doing what Paul said not to do.
On the other hand, supervisory positions in other types of organiza-
tions may be different. Are these roles mostly like the role of a pastor or
elder, overseeing and supervising people’s whole lives as they minister to
others? Or are they more like the role of a supervisor in a secular work-
in that situation (except perhaps in a reverse sense, in that I as a teacher felt some responsibil-
ity for the spiritual lives of my students). On the other hand, Westminster Theological
Seminary in Philadelphia decided that the role of a board member was similar in many respects
to the role of an elder in the church, and it decided to require that its board consist only of peo-
ple who had previously been ordained as elders in Presbyterian or Reformed churches, subject
to the qualifications in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. Within the conservative Reformed circles that
Westminster serves, this rule effectively meant that all board members would be men. (The sem-
inary at one point was threatened with loss of accreditation by the Middle States Accrediting
Association unless it added women to its board. The seminary decided to fight this in court on
First Amendment freedom of religion grounds, but before the matter could go to court, the
accrediting agency, under pressure from the U.S. Department of Education, backed down.)