By April Moreno

In 2006, there are still some well-known and well-loved church congregations worldwide who believe that the voice of a woman in church should only be heard through leadership to women, and that they should remain silent otherwise. I am left bewildered, thinking about how these women communicate in Christ with men at all.

Are women to be forever condemned as misleaders of men?

Women are still being blamed for Eve’s decision to eat the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden and then pass it on to Adam, who knowingly decided to accept it. There is little, if any, regard for the free will of human beings. From the beginning, it is claimed to be Eve’s fault that sin exists, and forever onward it is so often believed that all women remain responsible for what Eve offered to Adam. How can we allow Adam to be free of responsibility, able to say, “She made me do it?” Surely, we don’t even allow children to get away with misbehavior through this reasoning.

Yet, it can be argued that currently, women are demographically the primary attendees at churches, even here in Japan. I look around in the pews and I can quickly count out the males in my congregation. In addition, women are the main volunteers at church. Whether it is for the choir or the cleanup, it is the women who are in the majority.

I want to take this moment to give thanks to God for gathering Christians for Biblical Equality. It is wonderful to know that there are Christians throughout the world who share similar sentiments about the traditionally exclusive character of many Christian churches. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, racism and sexism exist within the Christian church, and this needs to be addressed if we truly wish to live like Christ. I was excited to find out about CBE, because gender
and ethnic exclusion have been big issues in my Christian journey.

I am a 31-year-old American woman of Chinese and Mexican heritage. I am from Los Angeles, and am currently teaching English in Japan. Here, I have found Christ again!

At age 5, I was born again. I was baptized at 17. However, I kept away from Christ for 10 years because of my feelings of exclusion and bitterness, because I had been hurt by the racism and sexism within the Christian community.

Nonetheless, I returned to the church last year, although I am still feeling cautious, especially with regard to gender and ethnic diversity in the church and in the Bible. And although my church has members from 51 different countries and it is wonderful, gender is an issue that my church does not yet address.

I would like to tell you about two instances that had deeply hurt me and my identity as a Christian, and these memories still are painful today:

•When I was in high school, I was the founder and president of my school’s Christian club. However, a male student from a neighboring school’s group heard about it and called me, wanting to confront me about being female and in leadership at my school, telling me I should step down.

•At a summer camp in California, surrounded by hundreds of mainly caucasian people in the audience, one preacher stopped in the middle of a sermon, looked directly at me, and asked if I could understand English! I found that incredibly humiliating.

These are some of the issues that I pray the Christian church would address more! While these experiences were discouraging as a young Christian, and I longed for support at that time, I am grateful to have finally found CBE.

Thank you, CBE, for your work in being a support to Christians who do not fit into the male caucasian identity through which the Bible sometimes seems to be interpreted.

I have strong convictions about this issue, and often feel like the Church does not seem to support biblical equality. I truly believe in the important role of women and ethnic diversity in the Church, and through CBE, I seek to find resolution on this while restoring my relationship with Christ.

Support and a sense of inclusion are important if we are truly concerned with Christ’s mission of salvation in a world of ethnically diverse individuals, female and male.

Please join me in praying for a network of individuals devoted to biblical equality in Japan, so we may form the Tokyo Chapter of CBE and share that neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek, slave nor free is excluded from Christian doctrine.

After all, God is speaking to all of us through his Word. And as Christians from various ethnic backgrounds, male and female, we are set free from the sins of our forefathers and foremothers. As part of the Church, we are equally forgiven and cleansed for our sins through the Blood of Jesus. If anyone can dissolve ethnic and gender exclusion, I pray that it be the Church. I believe that the Church does witness amazing miracles.

It has been said that Japan was once known as a ‘graveyard for Christians’. Hallelujah, this is no longer. The Lord is at work here. Our church is growing rapidly with both Japanese people and foreigners, and the word of God is becoming more and more well-known among Japanese people. It is truly an exciting time.

CBE in Tokyo could help all Christians in Japanese and English, from Japanese to foreign residents, male or female, to understand their equal worth in the eyes of the Lord.

April Moreno
April 24, 2006