Public The changing, expanding role of women in religions

[Lori Jane]

The changing, expanding role of women in religions

Pope Francis recently announced that women can now read during Mass and instituted the change to recognize the 'precious contribution' women bring to the Catholic Church.

universe.byu.edu

Jehovah’s Witnesses

“All of Jehovah’s Witnesses are preachers, or ministers — including several million women,” the official Jehovah’s Witnesses’ website says.

The webpage continues to say that women don’t participate in the leadership of the church, but have a “full share” in public ministry and “work hard to be an influence for good.”

Resistance against the status of women has begun to occur in different groups of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

An ex-member of the religion spoke out to Independent in 2018 telling them women in the church are viewed as “a complement for a man.” He also said the church believes women should be submissive to their husbands, letting the husband make all important decisions.

A JW support group created a website in 2019 for youth members to have a place they can turn to. The mission of this group is to help youths “cope until they are able to leave home.”

The articles on this website claim the Jehovah Witnesses’ magazine The Watchtower, is not “truth.” They post articles sharing different member’s experiences in the church to help those wishing to learn more about the religion and to discuss the issues people are facing.

JW support said the Jehovah Witnesses are a patriarchal society where women cannot hold positions of authority and are to view men as their head. It also says that Witness women cannot teach unless no men are available, and when they do they must wear head coverings to show “submission to the headship arrangement.”

 

[Rosie]

How did I ever think that was okay? And now, I really enjoy Eric's videos on Women in the Congregation but are my ears just being tickled?

How did following Jesus get to be so hard? How should women be treated under God's kingdom? Man I wish Jesus was here to show us in 2021 what is right and what is wrong.

 

[LeeB]

The way the church is organized since the death of the Apostle John is very different from what existed from Pentecost until Johns death. The serpent attacked the church from outside and inside. Jude tells of men creeping in. The prophets, Jesus and Apostles all told of deception. Once John died there was no longer anyone left who knew Christ personally and over time many false ministers entered usurped the name church of God or claimed to be the church but was not. The number of these false churches spread rapidly to where today we have 55,000 of them. It is a truth that God knew this would happen and even had Ezekiel in chapter 34 write a prophecy about what Gods response to this situation would be. God eliminated men entirely from the ministry and made all His people prophets and prophetesses. Numbers 11:29 , 1 Corinthians 14:5 . Female prophets may speak otherwise why would God make them a prophetess. Amos 3:8 , Acts 21:9 As you can see even in the church with the Apostles women prophesied. Today that is all there is in the scattered church, no other offices exist. This totally eliminates the opportunity for deception.