Jonathan Edwards And Female Preachers
Does the Bible allow women to be pastors and preachers? The recent ordination of three women to pastoral ministry at Saddleback Church in California makes the issue a topic of discussion once again. The discussion particularly roils the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), since Saddleback considers itself an SBC church. The SBC clearly disapproves of female pastors in its official documents. Section VI of the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message specifically limits pastoral ministry to qualified men. Churches who affiliate with the SBC are supposed to agree with that document. Nonetheless, the SBC faces growing disagreement from its own churches with its position against female pastors. How will the SBC resolve this disagreement without losing many churches?
Many denominations settled this question years ago by allowing female pastors. Other denominations handle the issue by never talking about it or by compromising to some extent. One large church in our town has a male pastor and several females with staff ministry positions who have the title “pastor” added to their name. He is the only male with the title “pastor”. When another large church in our town was looking for a pastor, the pulpit committee only considered men for the position but didn’t tell the church because they knew it would split the church.
Some in the SBC who support female pastors use Jonathan Edwards as part of their “proof” for allowing female pastors. The rationale is that if someone with the stature of Edwards supported female preachers, then perhaps we should reexamine our assumptions. The basis for claiming Edwards support is a letter he wrote to 18-year-old Deborah Hatheway on June 3, 1741. (The letter is available here and is one of Edwards’ most popular writings.) The main argument is that Edwards told her to be an “exhorter” to people, including men, and that the word “exhorter” means “preacher”.
These references are in section 94 of the letter where Edwards tells Miss Hatheway “to be much in exhorting and counseling and warning others.” A couple of sentences later, he tells her “When you exhort others that are men, I would advise you to take opportunities for it”. Proponents of female pastors/preacher use these statements to claim Edwards approved of female preachers, especially lay-preachers.
Problem One: “Exhorter” did not always mean “preacher”. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) or any historical research of the word “exhorter” shows that “exhorter” could mean “lay-preacher”, especially in certain denominations such as the Methodist Church (see examples here and here). The OED (Vol 1, p. 925, 1971 Edition [you will need a magnifying glass to read the small print]) states “In various Christian churches, a person appointed to give religious exhortation under the direction of a superior minister.” But the word did not always have the meaning of “preacher”. Many times the word simply means encourager, helper, counselor, leader of a prayer meeting, or any situation which involves trying to help someone with matters of the soul, sometimes in an officially recognized capacity (see historical examples from literature here). In an article about the history of lay speakers in the Methodist Church (see here), the authors state that John Wesley’s father, Samuel, did not allow his wife Susannah to teach mixed groups of men and women. Later, John Wesley himself carefully controlled those approved to speak officially at church meetings. The word “exhorter” could mean a lay-preacher in the Methodist Church but did not always mean “preacher” and often meant a lay person performing some approved ministry on behalf of a church. The instructions and requirements for such people who preached assumed that person was a man. During Edwards’ time and in the churches within which he served, “exhorters” could, at times, preach to mixed groups of men and women. But these exhorters were men, not women. Women served in a variety of ministry activities, but preaching was not one of those activities. To state that Edwards is using the term “exhorters” in his letter to Deborah Hatheway to give approval for her to “preach” to men and women assumes more than Edwards’ limited use of the word can prove. Supporters of female pastors/preachers are making the common exegetical fallacy of assuming one meaning must fit all uses of the word, a conclusion of convenience rather than honesty.
Problem Two: In the letter, Edwards specifically directs Miss Hatheway to use her abilities with certain groups of people and limits her involvement with men. For example, when he tells her to take opportunities to exhort men, he immediately tells her “chiefly when you are alone with them, or when only young persons are present.” That advice is not encouraging public preaching but instead focusing her ministry on people her own age or younger or with men in private, possibly her male friends. Those who use Edwards’ words to justify female pastors/preachers are misusing what Edwards wrote and attempting to give them the broadest meaning possible to support their position. Additionally, Edwards specifically includes references to 1 Timothy 2:9,11-12 after he mentions exhorting men, reminding her of the Biblical restrictions on the extent of her “exhorting”. A few sentences later in the letter, he specifically encourages her to “set up religious meetings of young women by yourselves”.
Did Jonathan Edwards approve of female pastors and preachers? If the only evidence to support that position is the letter to Deborah Hatheway, then the answer is “No”. However, the argument for female pastors/preachers today is not based on logic and sound exegetical reasoning. The arguments rest on emotion, past abuse of women, and a rapidly changing culture which views any restriction of “rights” or behavior as racist, intolerant, and bigoted. In such an environment, many Christians are like King Jehoshaphat, a generally good man who readily allowed the wrong people and the culture around him to influence him.
Wally Morris is pastor of Charity Baptist Church in Huntington, IN. The church blogsite is amomentofcharity.blogspot.com. He has also published A Time To Die: A Biblical Look At End-Of-Life Issues by Ambassador International.