The Bible and Beyond Podcast Episode
How a Conservative Christian Finds Biblical Justification for the Equality of Women
An Interview with Marg Mowczko
Margaret Mowczko
Marg Mowczko, from an evangelical church in Australia, researches the topic of egalitarianism in the Bible. She holds both a deep faith in the Bible and the essentially equal nature of men and women. She spends many hours each day answering questions about women’s roles in the church. Her primary study centers on what Paul and other New Testament writers say concerning Christian ministry and leadership. She concludes that the Bible supports the idea that men and women are essentially equal. Interview questions include a discussion on 1 Timothy and other troubling passages.
A CORRECTION: Marg meant to say ‘Deutero-Pauline,’ rather than ‘deuterocanonical’ at 8:34 in the podcast.
Her MA degree is from Macquarie University, where her award-winning thesis was on deacons in the apostolic and post apostolic church, with a focus on Phoebe – the woman mentioned by Paul in Romans.
She has written several book chapters, including one now that will be published by the World Evangelical Alliance. She reminds her many inquirers of a quote from Carolyn Custus James, “Patriarchy is the backdrop of the Bible, it is not the message of the Bible.”
I want to find her position meaningful. I struggle to see how she finds, from the text in 1 Timothy, that Paul is addressing one married couple. Marg uses “I think,” etc., as her reason for dismissing the difficulties with a fully egalitarian view.
Where is the ample or clear evidence of women as Bishops or elders in the early Church? I would agree with the criticism that a hard complementarian view dismisses women in ministry in general. I get perplexed trying to grasp the concept that women must be silent in Church when they can pray and prophesy. Would that be referring to being silent on authoritative teaching or church discipline? Again, that is pure speculation without other sources to see how the Church practiced that statement.
Without clear statements in the text and historical documentation, arguing from silence isn’t a positive argument. I’d like her to strengthen the Complementarian view, then demonstrate how early church practices challenge its assumptions. Further, how does it work in practice? How does Biblical authority work? I remember Al Mohler being pushed on the point by President Clinton’s spokesperson. She made the statement that basically meant How could any woman be expected to submit to a man? Mohler then queried her: “Well, when you had an opinion that differed from the President’s, and you went out to speak to the press, did you speak your mind, or did you obey the authority of the President?” She said, I submitted.
The presidency has a matrix that defines who can and cannot be the President of the United States. While it is gender neutral, it does have somewhat arbitrary parameters. Why 35 y.o.? Why not 40 or 30? Why natural-born citizen?
So why would we come to the text assuming that egalitarianism must be its intention? You have to be a Christian to be a Pastor. You can’t be a new convert. So why would we assume that, despite several passages indicating a distinction in roles and a matrix of expectations, we should dismiss the idea that God has arbitrarily, in our minds, limited the role of Elder to men?
Understand that I am a soft complementarian. I believe that eldership is limited to men; I think as long as the women in the Church are relationally in right standing with the elders and function under their leadership, they can speak, teach, and lead worship. But where there would be theological or practical disagreements, they must respond the same way men must respond to governmental authority over them. I am willing to be wrong. I want a more concrete and robust treatise than what I’ve seen. Preston Sprinkle’s new book offers nothing new. It’s just repackaging the idea that the New Testament set a trajectory that would lead people toward egalitarianism. Maybe that’s a good argument. But I have not seen a textually robust response to the difficulties; I observe a lot of “I think” and “I can’t imagine” when referring to the unpalatable portions of the text.
Thank you so much, Marge, for your most enlightening research. I learned a lot! And thank you, Shirley, for this presentation. The truth is powerful and continues to motivate us to a more egalitarian society!
Thank you for this deeper look at women in Paul’s writings. It’s so good to find out how he spoke to men and women as equals, and how important it is to go to the original Greek meanings of words which have been mis-translated in the past. Context over single verses that are quoted so much! Many thanks for sharing your years of devoted study with those of us in different fields of work.