© 1993 Merlyn Cox
© 1993 The Christian Fellowship of Students of The Urantia Book
A friend once confided to me that she was dismayed by how much anger she saw in her female colleagues in the ministry. She was also concerned by their apparent need to shape their style of ministry around male models. The two concerns may be related.
It may be that the most significant sign of inequality in our society is that women feel compelled to judge their worth and compete for equality primarily on male terms, buying into a system based on assumptions that are inherently condescending.
This, I believe, is both futile and demeaning. I believe that it is demeaning for women in the ministry, for example, to feel they must define their ministries in terms of male role models. I can’t help but feel that the great contribution of women in ministry will be muted by such expectations. If the respective domains of men and women overlap but differ, and if both domains are divinely ordained and reflective of the nature of the Creator, then the attempt to define worth in reference to only one of them will inevitably leave us impoverished.
It may be that the most significant sign of inequality in our society is that women feel compelled to judge their worth and compete for equality primarily on male terms, buying into a system based on assumptions that are inherently condescending.
The Urantia Book, I believe, serves as something of a trumpet sound for the true equality of the sexes, while recognizing real differences in their psychological make up. This might sound surprising to some first time readers who find it’s language “sexist” as we define it by this generation’s standards. But the message throughout The Urantia Book is clear, consistent, and unequivocal: before God women and men are equal.
“Sex equality prevails on all advanced worlds; male and female are equal in mind endowment and spiritual status. We do not regard a planet as having emerged from barbarism so long as one sex seeks to tyrannize over the other.” (UB 49:4.4)
The Urantia Book suggests that one the most radical and daring things Jesus did was to commission women to teach the gospel and minister to the sick. (UB 150:1.1)
“The charge that Jesus gave…women as he set them apart for gospel teaching and ministry was the emancipation proclamation which set free all women and for all time.” (UB 150:1.3)
“The apostles were first shocked by, but early became accustomed to, Jesus’ treatment of women; he made it very clear to them that women were to be accorded equal rights with men in the kingdom.” (UB 138:8.11)
If this is true, then much of the turmoil we have in our society over issues of equality is apparently an inevitable stage we must pass through if we are to emerge from barbarism to a truly civilized world. A significant portion of this issue of the Journal is dedicated to exploring how the insights of The Urantia Book can help us do this: affirm our equality before our Creator while also understanding, affirming, and appreciating our differences.