US preacher defends belief women can’t teach men

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. Baptist preacher has publicly
defended himself for firing a female Sunday School teacher
after more than 50 years on the job because he believes the
Bible bans women from teaching men.

Watertown First Baptist Church Pastor Tim LaBouf, also a
city council member in Watertown, N.Y., said women could
fulfill any role or responsibility they wanted to — outside
the church.

“My belief is that the qualifications for both men and
women teaching spiritual matters in a church setting end at the
church door, period,” LaBouf said in a statement on the church
Web site (http://www.nnyinfo.com/firstbaptist).

LaBouf and the church board sacked Mary Lambert, 81,
earlier this month in a letter that cited the scriptural
qualifications for Sunday School teachers, Lambert said.

“They quote First Timothy Two, 11-14: A woman should learn
in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to
teach or to have authority over a man, she must be silent,”
Lambert said, reading from the letter.

“I was astonished,” she said. “I would not go back and
teach as long as this is their thinking.”

Watertown is 250 miles northwest of New York City.

William Carlsen, executive minister for American Baptist
Churches of New York State, said U.S. Baptist Churches are
autonomous and that there would not be many other Baptist
Churches that share LaBouf’s view.

“A considerable number if not a majority of American
Baptist Churches have been quite aggressive in affirming the
place of women’s leadership roles within the church,” Carlsen
said.

The board of the Watertown First Baptist Church said in a
statement on its Web site that the scripture rules concerning
women teaching men in a church setting had only played a small
part in Lambert’s sacking.

“Christian courtesy motivates us to refrain from making any
public accusations against her,” the board said.