Ambivalent feelings about women in combat and in the priesthood

January 28, 2013

Combat Soldiers & Clergywomen: Problematic Equality
In this opinion piece for Religion Dispatches, Mary E. Hunt expresses mixed feelings about the recent announcement that women in the U.S. Military will no longer be barred from serving in combat and thus no longer prevented from career advancement opportunities equal to those of men. “Celebration of another barrier overcome is tempered by the fact that I oppose combat as much as I oppose sexism,” she writes. “Likewise, I reject a hierarchical, clerical priestly model of the Church as much as I reject exclusion of women from its leadership caste.” Dr. Hunt is a theologian and cofounder of the Women”s Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual (WATER).

Letha Dawson Scanzoni is an independent scholar, writer, and editor, and is the author or coauthor of nine books. In 1978, she and Virginia Ramey Mollenkott wrote Is the Homosexual My Neighbor?, one of the earliest books urging evangelical Christians to rethink their views on homosexuality (updated edition, 1994, HarperOne). More recently, Letha coauthored (with social psychologist David G. Myers) What God Has Joined Together: The Christian Case for Gay Marriage (HarperOne, 2005 and 2006). Another of Letha’s most well-known books is All We’re Meant to Be: Biblical Feminism for Today, coauthored with Nancy A. Hardesty (Word Books, 1974; revised edition, Abingdon, 1986; updated and expanded edition, Eerdmans, 1992). Letha served as editor of Christian Feminism Today in both its former print edition (EEWC Update) and its website for 19 years until her retirement in December 2013.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.