Leslie Lopez

EN 101A Fall 2015

Professor Streamer-Veneruso
Essay 3- Second Draft

Cause and Effect

In this essay I will be talking about cause and effect in my church
community. I go to a Spanish Pentecostal church every Saturday and Sunday.
In my church there are about 200 members which includes women, men and
children. In the church we have a pastor then right below him are the
deacons/leaders which are people that help the pastor and also help the
church followers and have responsibilities like ushering, administrative work
etc. then there are the church members that look up to most importantly the
pastor then the deacons. Sometimes the way these leaders interpret the
bible can impact women in a negative way.

To start off one way a leaders interepretation of the bible can impact a
women negatively is that it can lead to them wanting to control how women
dress. For example since in my church often times my pastor lets
deacons/leaders preach on Saturdays and on this one Saturday the pastor let
a relatively new deacon to preach because the pastor was confident that this

man would preach a good word of God. Once this man starts preaching he
began to preach about how women shouldnt wear earrings or in general just
jewelry which was a big shock to us because in a preaching you shouldnt
preach about that and most of the women in the church wear jewelry
including me. Basically this man kept bashing women on what they wear and
you could tell that the pastor was not at all pleased by his preaching because
instead of making women feel better he is just pushing women away.

Furthermore often times leaders in the church tend to want to restrict

womens roles and leadership in the church. Although this issue has been
getting better as the years go by, there are still a few men that believe that
women should have absolutely no rights and privileges in the church. For
example a verse that gets misinterpreted a lot by men is in Corinthians 14:
34-36 which states Women should remain silent in the churches. They are
not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. If they
want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at
home; for it is disgraceful for a women to speak at church. This does clearly
say that women should have no rights which is why many men think that
women shouldnt preach, sing, lead etc. in the churches. But now a days
times are changing and women are allowed to do anything they want and
this should be the same in churches. But on the counterside there are people
that believe that women should have rights and give examples according to
Women Pastors: What Does the Bible Teach? Melick (1998) states that yes

Its true that the bible doesnt really support women but then in the new
testament you can see how useful and valuable the women are then he gives
examples from the bible like when Lydia helped a pastor named Philipi with
his congregation and mentions that Lydia was very beneficial and doesnt
know how the church would have been without her. This just comes to show
that women were included and had privileges in churches back then so it
shouldnt be any different now because women bring a lot to the table in
churches. But because of the Corinthians verse men think that they should
be above the women and the women have no rights and be submissive
although now a days times are changing and people are evolving.

Another way church leaders interpretations of the bible effect women

negatively is because they make women have low self-esteem. You may
think to yourself well shouldnt a church help you from getting low selfesteem? Well thats not always the case. Sometimes leaders think that they
are doing the right thing by bashing women or just taking a privilege away
but thats not the best thing to do and can lead to low self- esteem. For
example I used to sing in the church ministry but I stopped because some of
the church leaders of the church or deacons thought that the dresses or
skirts I wore were short just because they were a little above my knee. The
leaders kept saying that saying hurtful stuff and saying that I wasnt a true
women of God because of how I dressed which really brought me down and
made me come to the conclusion to stop singing in the church ministry. I felt

that the leaders where especially going on me because I was the first girl to
be in the church ministry and they wanted to find any flaw in me so I
wouldnt be able to sing. As church leaders they shouldnt be discouraging
people of the church because that can be very hurtful to people just how I
felt when they were bashing me about my clothing. In fact they should be
encouraging people and not judging them on what they wear because that
can just push them away from the church.

In conclusion like in any other community my church community has

causes and effects. Often times the way church leaders interpret the bible
lead to negative impacts on women. Because the bible mentions some bias
things against women especially in the book of Corinthians leaders often
times believe that women should have no rights in the church when in fact in
the bible there are examples when women were very useful in the church.
Some of the rights include having privileges in the church like singing,
preaching, leading etc. Leaders think that they should control what women
wear for example jewelry. And lastly sometimes things leaders say or do can
lead to low self- esteem upon a women. Just how I felt when I stopped
singing in the church ministry. Now, a church shouldnt have all these
negative impacts on a women because in a church you want to feel
welcomed and at peace and when leaders are controlling on what you wear,
dont let you have privileges, and make you feel discouraged this often leads

to pushes women away. Which is why sometimes I do think about leaving the
church and I have seen women leave the church because of these reasons.

Richard Melick, R. M.,(1998),Women Pastors: What Does the Bible

Teach, (p.1).

http://www.sbclife.net/Articles/1998/05/sla5