Also, you cited that envy and jealousy is at the core of a female pastor. Can we really know what is in a person’s heart? Maybe the female pastor has come to a different understanding of what scripture teaches with respect to demonstration of giftedness, which btw does not make distinctions between gender. I would say that is a separate issue from authority but should not be presented as women not having certain gifts (such as teaching). Afterall, there were women teachers in the early church who probably taught men. What do you do with that?

Btw, I think if anyone were to get mad, it would not be because of the content of what you said but the way you said it. A little grace might be in order.

I would encourage all women out there to turn (repent) from their sins and belief (have hope and trust) that God will cleanse you completely and utterly clean (white as snow) as the scripture states: (1 John 1:9, 1 John 3:8-9, John 8:31-36, 1 Peter 4:1)

Many times people IGNORE their place in the body of Christ. Men who aren’t called to be pastors become pastors for the sake of money, and I won’t name some bozo pastor who runs a mega church on the east coast. Whatever your place is then I would advise you to follow.

A woman is not to have authority over a man or to be put in a position to teach (when speaking of the context of the church as whole). These are outlined by the Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy when advising this young Pastor on the “qualifications” of pastoral ministry. A women is not suited to be in the positions regardless of how you argue it. The same could be that the man is not suited to have children.

People look at their position in the church and they get filled with envy and jealousy. This is the sinful lust at the core of a female pastor. Regardless of how you put it there is a right way and a wrong way. I encourage everyone who reads this and gets mad to REPENT of their sins and hope in Christ. For the gift of God is eternal life, and that life is so much better than the one that you will acquire through your own wrath. The wrath of man (or mankind) does NOT produce the righteousness of God. (James)

Also, it is not necessary for a woman with a ThM to obtain a doctorate degree for successful employment. It depends on what one wishes to do. Some women end up getting paid ministry leadership positions in churches or parachurch organizations, some work with mission organizations and participate in Bible translation, some go back into the seminaries and participate in admissions, student development and alumni placement. There are many other opportunitites as well. I know of a friend of a friend who is head of school at a prominent Christian school here in the Dallas area. She got her ThM from my institution a few years ago and has interned with Dan Wallace. I believe she is working on her PhD now and I hear she is brilliant.

So to say that women opt not to pursue a ThM degree because of a lack of opportunities, I think is fallacious. As for me, I do hope to move on to doctoral studies, teach in a ministry training institution (most likely Bible College) and have an interest in teaching the Bible as an elective in secular high schools. Admittedly, my areas of concentration would preclude me from teaching in some (not all) institutions. But I don’t worry about what doors might be closed because I am most confident that as I tend to the working out my giftings in practical ways, God will open the doors to position me where He will get the most glory. Those opportunities know no bounds.

I have to admit that I don’t really know for sure – but what do you want to do with your degree? I am following with interest. I had to put my program on hold at the moment for a variety of reasons. (Fortunately I enjoy the job I have right now.)

I also know that many women want to be chaplains or work in a hospital. I know that this seems like it fits a woman’s temperment, but the women I know often simply feel that they are more likely to get this kind of job.

What do you think?

Not sure this can be supported. What evidence exists that indicates women with ThM degrees don’t get jobs?

I have been turned off by lots of women’s groups. But I have learned that men aren’t much different. Okay, different topics, but really, often descending to fart jokes.

I find that in general women are just as focused, just as intellectual and academic as the best of men. The one simple reason that few women follow an M. Th. is that it is very expensive to invest in studies that cannot lead to paid employment.

I don’t think it is helpful for women to distance themselves from their own sex. I am proud to be a women and to think with and learn from other women.

Thank you for further sharing about your experience. I do think it takes courage, and faith, to press beyond one’s ‘comfort zone’ of sentimental piety in order to gain a truer faith, and for many women this may be a ‘cost’ they are unwilling to pay. I’m fairly certain your experience was not unique. But I am not sure how much more prevalent this is among women. Not all are sentimental, just as not all men are non-sentimental (don’t know percentages). I think men hide sentimentality or couch it in different terms; they run up against much greater cultural resistance.

On men being more inclined to view faith as occupation, that could be. Yet if this view is based upon superficiality, or an emotionally gratifying misunderstanding of what the true occupation of faith is, then it’s not that much different from a woman being attached to her own emotional attachment to God.

If knowledge and emotional connection are not mutually exclusive, then neither should reading the Bible critically as well as devotionally be. I realize it can be very difficult to read it both ways at the same time, but this could be for several reasons: (1) not being taught how to approach the Bible properly, (2) treating the Bible itself as if it were God, (2) treating the Bible as if were not the living Word of God, (3) reading portions of the text as if they were prophetic for us specifically, individually, when they may not be, and (4) making an idol of either knowledge or our own emotional doings. I’m sure there are other reasons.

I do think that full apprehension of Biblical text can take a very long time, especially the more obscure parts; some we may never fully understand. And we all have varying degrees of maturity in different areas – we are all “works in progress,” as they say. I’m sure we’ve all had our “desert” times, and scary times, along the way; I certainly have. (BTW, I’m envious of those who get to study Bible or theology at the university level; I’m a middle-aged mom of 3 with a BM in music who may never get that opportunity…)

So while I am infinately glad I learned, among other things, to read the Bible in its original languages, and I’m glad for the journey my soul took as I learned to see the Bible with new eyes, it is true for me that for a time, pursuit of knowledge meant that I had to sacrifice my attachment to my emotional experience with the text. This is just honest. Whether it ’should’ or ’should not’ be this way, this was my experience. It was frightening, and lonely, and I simply wondered if this were an experience unique to myself, or if perhaps this could represent an experience that is perhaps not altogether uncommon for women, because our relationships with God tend to be more generally about attachment than about occupation? And perhaps the study of theology by its nature offers more emotional undergirding, and this is why you don’t seem to understand what I am speaking of? Most women I know simply do not have the time or energy to have their faith journey disrupted in such a way… Without the inner passion to pursue truth for truth’s sake, it is alot to bring upon yourself, even if it is the right, noble and wise thing to do. I don’t know how much a person can ‘dabble’ in these things, either… You know what they say about a little knowledge…

All this to say, I do not see knowledge and emotion as being opposing forces in our pursuit of knowledge of the Holy. Obviously not. One cannot read the Bible without realizing that God is a very passionate, emotion filled Being. I only suggest that for women there is a temptation toward being satisfied with, or sometimes even preferring, sentimental attachments to…