Monday, August 21, 2006

The Church Lady and Cialis

The perfect metaphor, above the stunned image of recently fired Sunday School teacher Mary Lambert, an ad for Cialis flashed today. At least we have our priorities straight. Somehow, I don't think that Ms. Lambert, who was removed from her position as a Sunday School teacher at the First Baptist Church of Watertown, NY for the undeniable offense of being female, ever anticipated that she would be selling Cialis.

See, the pastor, Rev. Timothy LaBouf, who also happens to serve on the Watertown City Council, decided that a "literal" interpretation of scripture prohibited women from "teaching or having authority over a man" and that she "must be silent." I wonder whether the Good Rev. has read the Gospel of Luke? He must have missed the part where Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Mary the Mother of James returned from the tomb after seeing the risen Christ and told the apostles what they had seen. That's right, three women were the first to proclaim the gospel. And guess what? The apostles didn't believe the women. Some things haven't changed much.

I should disclose here that I happen to be an ordained minister, seminary trained, in the Southern Baptist tradition. Hold your condolences. The Baptist church was a great tradition, actually the first denomination to advocate for true religious freedom, not just religious tolerance, in the New World. Things have changed just a bit...but still my faith is important to me, and that's why I don't like it when folks like Rev. LaBouf do things like firing poor Ms. Lambert. Shame on him. I hope Rev. LaBouf saw the article, but somehow I doubt he made it past the Cialis ad...

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3 comments:

Button Gwinnett said...

It's so sad to see people use the bible to discriminate against a group of people. Unfortunately, people do it all the time.

Tina said...

I always thought that Paul was referring to a particular church where maybe the ladies had done too much chatting during the service. His letters were directed to particular churches and not to the world at large.

Tina said...

Not really trying to defend Paul, however. An interesting character but not one of my favorites.