"I do not permit a woman to...have authority over man."
It seems that this is the ultimate point of the "traditional values" movement.

The bible is anti-woman. Can't blame them for trying to be consistent but you can blame them for believing in a sexist god.

It makes me wonder why women continue to participate in these churches at all, or marry men who do. Can this sort of news be used to migrate people into a generally less harmful sect, for instance the Unitarians?

Talk about a huge leap back into time. Next week they won't be allowed to show their ankles or wrists.

Here's the website for the Baptist church. Here is his email address- tklabouf@msn.com.
Perhaps we should send him an email and share our opinions of his archaic decision. It wasn't Jesus who forbade women but Timothy and even then it's suspect because the New Testament has been "edited" frequently to suit the attitudes of the times. I sincerely hope Ms. Lambert finds another church with a more enlightened pastor.
http://www.nnyinfo.com/firstbaptist/

It's been my experience with churches that Baptist churches are usually more accepting than other streams of christianity (maybe with the exception of united...) so it shouldn't be too hard for her to find a new church.

Ederlore - good call, I plan on e-maling.

Call me crazy, but don't Sunday school teachers teach children, not men. If women are to have no authority over male children, then how can they be expected to raise them? Are mothers just supposed to let their three-year-old sons do what they want until daddy comes home?

Back when I was still actively exploring religion (early 1990s, California), the Baptist churches I attended had two Sunday School sessions, split for kids and adults, so it isn't specifically for children.

oh my gawd!This is just like the extremist muslims- what next: stoning a women for having sex outside of wedlock?

What gives these religions the 'right' to exempt themselves from our governmental rights?There ought to be a law against this-no religion can cross that line!

freewmn:

Er, exactly what rights are you thinking of? Baptists churches aren't a governmental agency.

There is a very special place in Hell for wretched tax-exempt organizations that are simultaneously permitted to shun employment discrimination laws.

I grew up surrounded by people who believe that women aren't allowed to teach men or even talk in church. Both sets of my grandparents (Church of Christ) believe this, and I had a roommate just after high school who believed that "women should make less money than men because god made women worth less than men. That's just how He made the world so quit fighting for equal rights... they are sinful"
So the only part of this story that shocks me is that they waited until she had been teaching for 54 years to can her.
Damn, 54 years is a long time.

Huh. That's interesting. I wonder if there's an ulterior economic motive at work. Is her job going to a younger, less experienced man who will cost less? Is there a pension plan at stake?

it is actions like these that make me outraged as a youth minister. These actions misses what God, Christ and the Spirit are about.

As For
"The bible is anti-woman. Can't blame them for trying to be consistent but you can blame them for believing in a sexist god."

i understand where this feeling comes from. i feel that the bible has been missed used for far too long against women and others. And there are parts that over look or devalue what the women leaders of our faith have done because it was written within a patriarchal system.

Yet its message is one of equality.

i pray that the Fundamental misunderstanding about women within the church dies out soon.

Sunday school teacher is a volunteer position; this is not a violation of employment laws. It would give me pause about LaBoef's place on the city council, though.

Patrick, for 2,000 years there have been Christians who used the bible to enforce a fundamentalist view, to discriminate based on sex, and to support violence and slavery. Why would you imagine that's going to change now?

I saw LaBouf on television last night, and one of the things that was so striking to me is that he is a rather young pastor. It's scary to see that in some ways the new generation of fundamentalist Christian leaders are more hard core about putting women in their place than their predecessors.

What I thought was quite interesting was the little blurb at the end of the article that alluded to a disagreement she had with the pastor over the way the church was being run. Sounds to me like he used the women in church rule as an excuse to get rid of someone who he thought was being a little too uppity (and probably reminded him of his mom, telling him what to do). Puts me in mind of the Salem witch trials focusing mainly on the wealthy widows who weren't keeping in their place well enough.

zed,
I mean no religion can just fire a women from a job (voluntary, or otherwise) just for being a woman. Women's rights don't stop once she walks into a church. You can't have a society which has parallel rights; one outside of church, and one inside it. This would not happen within a business (at least not openly). Why should this happen inside a church. I would want a law that that says no church can override the nations existing laws to oppress a person (such as a gender)based on religious interpretation. What happened was wrong, and if this happened to me, I would want some sort of legal repercussion.

The same people who whine about there needing to be a separation of church and state and who are upset about any type of prayer in schools think that the church should have to take employment discrimination laws into consideration for a volunteer position? Please.

You don't get to have that separation whenever it suits you but revoke it from the Church itself.