This Just Angers Me
 

Women fired from teaching job for being a female

WATERTOWN, N.Y. (Aug. 21) - The minister of a church that dismissed a female Sunday School teacher after adopting what it called a literal interpretation of the Bible says a woman can perform any job - outside of the church.

The First Baptist Church dismissed Mary Lambert on Aug. 9 with a letter explaining that the church had adopted an interpretation that prohibits women from teaching men. She had taught there for 54 years.

The letter quoted the first epistle to Timothy: "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent."

The Rev. Timothy LaBouf, who also serves on the Watertown City Council, issued a statement saying his stance against women teaching men in Sunday school would not affect his decisions as a city leader in Watertown, where all five members of the council are men but the city manager who runs the city's day-to-day operations is a woman.

"I believe that a woman can perform any job and fulfill any responsibility that she desires to" outside of the church, LaBouf wrote Saturday.

Mayor Jeffrey Graham, however, was bothered by the reasons given Lambert's dismissal.

"If what's said in that letter reflects the councilman's views, those are disturbing remarks in this day and age," Graham said. "Maybe they wouldn't have been disturbing 500 years ago, but they are now."

Lambert has publicly criticized the decision, but the church did not publicly address the matter until Saturday, a day after its board met.

In a statement, the board said other issues were behind Lambert's dismissal, but it did not say what they were.


08/21/06 08:32 EDT

How pathetic can you honestly be? My mother is a preacher so I suppose this offends me more then most but its just sad people like this still exist!

Lets go and stab him and then run him over with our Xs :rant:

ROFL thats what I said lol

It's 2006, not 1906 or 1806 or... you get the point. I guess next he'll start saying Mass in Latin and facing the alter away from the people....

Seems the trouble is that right or wrong too many people decide what they want the scriptures to say rather than what the scriptures really says. Is this Minister right or wrong? Makes no difference. Someone else is gonna have a different view. Even if Jesus Christ walked up and said. "this is what it means" There will be that one group of people who will tell Jesus Well that was then and this is now so we don't really care what you say. this is what it means to us.

People never change.