The Christian Reformed Church is moving slowly toward incorporating female religious delegates in its parishes as other religions reaffirm women's abilities to lead in the home or in front of a congregation.
"We have to move slowly and carefully as to not divide the church," said Clayton Libolt, pastor at River Terrace Christian Reformed Church, 1509 River Terrace Drive. "When you have people who believe something so strongly, you have to handle each side of this cautiously."
Recently, the Christian Reformed Church synod, a council of the church, held a meeting to review the issue of women as delegates. They voted against the idea because a majority did not want women in leadership positions.
This debate isn't a new one, though.
For years, biblical scholars have questioned women as leaders in religion.
When it comes to women's place in religion, associate pastor Penny Swartz at The Peoples Church, 200 W. Grand River Ave., said their place is where God calls them to be.
"If I feel called to ministry by God, am I to allow a human understanding of the supposed law of how the church should work to stand in the way of me and God?" Swartz said.
Depending on the religion and denomination, the place of a woman can vary from being missionaries to leading a congregation.
Carole Lyman has been a pastor for 25 years, and said in the Methodist faith, religious female leaders are not a big issue.
Lyman works along side her husband, co-pastor Frank Lyman at University United Methodist Church, 1120 S. Harrison Ave., and said their responsibilities vary but are always equal.
"We both visit the sick, and we both preach here at the church," she said.
But the Rev. Richard Rogers of Bethany Baptist Church, 1000 Lincoln Ave. in Lansing, said leading a church is not a woman's responsibility.
"Pastoral leadership is a man's responsibility," he said. "This doesn't mean women are not equal, they just have different responsibilities, and pastoring a church is not one of them."
Rogers said his church and the majority of Southern Baptist congregations do not ordain women.
He also said Eve was created to help Adam.
"It's a Biblical mandate that men should be pastors," he said. "Eve was made by God to be Adam's helper, not to lead him."
2005 MSU graduate Jonna Garvin has a different interpretation of this Genesis excerpt.
"The word helper in that time meant equal," she said. "One does not work without the other."
Garvin attends Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond in Virginia.
"I always thought about being a minister, but thought I couldn't because I am a woman," she said.
Swartz said different interpretations of the Bible can create issues as well.
"People read the Bible in one of two ways: Either we can read it literally in which everything we read has to be exact, or we can read it metaphorically where we don't seek specifics but the kernel of the truth," she said.
Lyman agrees. "They take the line where St. Paul says women should be silent in church as a revelation that all women shouldn't speak in church," she said. "But it was meant for that time because women were known to talk a lot during church."
The Rev. Steve Mattson of St. Thomas Aquinas, 955 Alton Road, said tradition becomes an issue when looking at women in religious leadership roles.
"The Catholic Church sees women as equal but do not ordain them as priests," he said. "It's just the unbroken tradition of the church."
Jeffrey Surowitz, director of Machon L'Torah Synagogue in Oak Park, said in Orthodox Judaism, a woman is more effective in the home.
"The synagogue is not the center of the Jewish community, the home is," he said. "Spirituality is molded in the home, so women are more effective in the home."
When it comes to Buddhism, Monk Leader Venerable Bhikkhu Khemasanto of the Dhammasala Forest Temple in Perry, Mich., said women and men are equal in the home and in the temples.
"Nuns here are equal to monks, and their position in the domestic area is no more or less than a monk," he said.
He also said men and women having different responsibilities is old-fashioned.
"The Buddha was enlightened and enlightened others and taught that women and men are equal."
Mattson said he didn't understand how women can know internally that they've been called to be ministers.
"When a priest is ordained, the church has to agree that God is calling them," he said. "So how can a woman really know God has called her to ministry?"
Lyman said she just knew.
"How do you know anything?" she said. "You know by prayer and experience; you know in your heart and you really can't argue it."
Jason Worthy can be reached at worthyj1@msu.edu.
