Why are women allowed to speak in church when it is forbidden in the Bible?

Question

Dear Gramps,

I’m hoping that you can clear up a matter between a co-worker and myself. He say’s that women are not to be teaching in church according to the bible. 1 Corinthians, chapter 14, verses 34 & 35. I say he is mis-interpreting this. He says that mankind has changed the rules so that they are easier to follow. Who is right? Thanks

Lynda

Answer

Dear Lynda,

In the Jewish culture at the time of the Savior it is true that women were not given the right to speak out in their religious meetings. However, man didn’t change the rules, God did! Does your friend think that the Lord’s kingdom on the earth today is run by “mankind” rather than by the Lord? Who does he think authorized the organization of the Relief Society, and invited worthy women to participate actively in all non-priesthood functions? When President Joseph F. Smith spoke at the Silver Jubilee Services for the Relief Society on March 17, 1892, he spoke of the Relief Society as being “divinely made, divinely authorized, divinely instituted [and] divinely ordained of God.”

Your co-worker would do well to divest himself of the worldly notion of male dominance and superiority, and recognize that from the same scripture that he cites, we read that

Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord. (1 Cor. 11:11).

Gramps