Pastor Kody Woodard has gone viral for claiming the Bible supports female pastors, but BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey disagrees, saying he’s building his argument on passages that don’t support the claim.
“For the record, I do believe that women can be pastors. And the reason I believe that is because Scripture shows me that,” Woodard said in a video on Instagram.
“I study the Scriptures, and I actually see that Apollos, who Paul compares himself to later, was actually taught by a woman. Read Acts 18. In Acts 21, four unmarried women prophesy in church. In Colossians, Nympha was the pastor of the church, and they met in her house. Chloe, same thing in first Corinthians 1. Romans 16, 1 and 2. Phoebe is a deacon. First Corinthians 11, women prayed and prophesied in the church,” he continued.
“OK, not a single one of these examples is of a female pastor. And I see this a lot. Oh, this woman taught this person, or this woman corrected this person’s theology, or this woman shared her testimony, or this woman was told by Jesus to go share what He had done for her,” Stuckey comments.
“I do believe that women are called to preach the gospel. I do believe that women can correct someone’s theology. I think women can talk about theology. I think women can love the Bible and teach Bible studies,” she continues.
“But none of the examples that were given were of a woman leading a church as a pastor. Even the passage about women prophesying or the Holy Spirit coming upon men and women to prophesy has nothing to do with women being pastors,” she adds.
In another clip, Woodard explained that any verses interpreted to command women to be silent in churches or not preach in churches are taken “out of context.”
“People who make this kind of argument, you are banking on your congregation not reading the passage for themselves. That’s it … I saw someone in these comments say, ‘Oh, that was so textual. That was so scholarly.’ It’s not at all. It’s banking on you not reading Scripture for yourself,” Stuckey says.
“So that’s what’s going on here. And you can think that that is somehow oppressive or that is anti-woman. The truth is that women are just as made in the image of God as men, is that we have been given gifts, we have been given talents,” she continues.
“The Bible is not an anti-woman text, but it is an anti-egalitarian text. It is an anti-men and women are the same text and are called to the same function and purpose,” she says, adding, “We are not.”
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