I was just reading this Dalrock post, in which he concludes that women should not preach or teach doctrinal issues even over other women. Assume I'm persuaded. Dalrock concludes:

What seems to have happened is somewhere along the line conservative Christians caved on this issue without ever really putting up a fight, and now everyone knows this is what the Scripture means without understanding just what they are buying into. Piper, Grudem, and the CBMW are at best moderates in the fight against Christian feminist rebellion, and when they ceded this ground there was no one left who was willing to point out the gaping holes in the feminist reinterpretation of this Scripture.

There is however another issue here aside from conservative Christians caving on the question of whether women are permitted to preach [or teach doctrinal issues] to women. Just as important is the question of what a lack of prohibition in this regard means. Conservative Christians haven’t just rolled over on whether having women to preach to women is prohibited; they have jumped far past that to the claim that women must preach to women.

Under this framework - that women should never teach doctrinal issues to other women, who is left to disciple women?

There are a few contexts we can talk about here.

MARRIED/DATING WOMEN - Certainly a married woman should be discipled by her husband. I have no qualms there. I would include women in pre-marriage romantic relationships as well. No reason a boyfriend can't disciple his girlfriend. I encourage it.

SINGLE WOMEN - But what do we say of women who don't have a man romantically involved in their lives? Are they excluded from the life-on-life, modeling example of discipleship that Jesus presented? Surely not, as Jesus had women who followed him around just as with his 12.

This context is the one where I have my greatest pet peeves with mainstream churchianity on the issue. Most pastors congregational leaders automatically assume a man should never disciple a woman outside of marriage. I have never found a single one who can give a biblical case for this conclusion. They always default to, "It's unwise." Why is it unwise? "Because it's inevitable that romantic feelings will develop and they can fall into sexual temptation." But isn't that the very context that 1 Cor. 7 says is a good reason to reason to marry? How would the 1 Cor. 7 "burn with passion" situation ever come up for a man if he limits his disciple-making efforts only to other men?

"But what about married men?" someone inevitably asks. "It's too much temptation for the married man to cheat." My gut reaction is simply to note that polygamy wasn't outlawed throughout biblical times as it is in most first world countries today ... so that's a problem the Bible never meant to address because it's a problem we created for ourselves. Not that I do endorse polygamy today, but that's a longer conversation you can read in this sub's history that I don't want to rehash.

My secondary reaction is simply to say that this "too much temptation" argument ASSUMES MEN ARE WEAK. What if we raised a breed of men who are not weak? What if we discipled men to be firm in the faith to withstand temptation and take ground from the enemy?

You see, mainstream church congregation leaders simply can't fathom a man so strong of faith that he could disciple a woman and not succumb to sexual temptation for her. This is the true crying shame.


QUESTIONS

  1. Do any of you have a SCRIPTURAL argument for why women should be allowed to teach doctrinal issues to other women?

  2. If women are not allowed to teach doctrinal issues to other women, is there any other solution as to who may disciple women other than men?

  3. Do you believe it's possible for men - EN MASSE - in today's culture to grow mature enough to disciple women without succumbing to sexual sin?

  4. If this is possible, what needs to happen to raise up men EN MASSE to pass on from being spiritual teenagers (rebellious brats who think they're mature because of what they know, but lack actual wisdom, discernment, and self-control) into spiritual men?

  5. Are you still a spiritual teenager? Or younger? If not, what helped you grow into a spiritual man?


BONUS APPLICATION QUESTIONS

To put your money where your mouth is, if you do believe women should not teach doctrinal issues to other women (and therefore women discipling women would be limited to the Titus 2:3-5 life skills type issues), are you willing to disciple a single woman who doesn't have a husband to disciple her? If so, are you married, or would being married affect your decision on that point? Why would being married affect your decision? Is there a biblical foundation for your explanation or just your own personal non-biblical philosophy?

I am married, and I have enough men in my life who need discipled that I don't have time for women other than my wife and daughters. Even if I ran out of men to disciple, I don't know that I'd be willing to make that leap yet. But I can't find a biblical reason why not. The only real explanation I've heard from other believers is: "Your wife's frame wouldn't like that very much." I suppose that's part of the reason I'm asking about this in the first place. What do you all have to offer on this issue? Or is the underlying premise incorrect altogether - that it really is okay for women to teach doctrinal issues to other women?