Choices: 50 Years of Women's Ordination in the Lutheran Church

Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of ordination of women in the Lutheran church.  I loved watching Facebook explode with pictures of those 50 years of women's ordained ministry.  It reminds me of how radical change is possible.

People who have grown up surrounded by female clergy may be surprised to hear how once it was assumed that women shouldn't be ordained.  People who have grown up surrounded by female clergy may be surprised to hear their stories about the obstacles faced by those pioneering women who were the first to be allowed to answer their call into rostered ministry.

Yesterday was also a day that the Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana law that made abortions all but impossible.  I wrote this comment on a friend's Facebook comment:   "I am as unable to predict Supreme Court rulings as I am the results of U.S. elections. This time, I'm happy to be wrong in my predictions."

The idea of abortion still makes me feel queasy, but that's partly about the cheapening of life that I see all around me.  It's partly about medical procedures in general.  It's partly about how invasive it all feels. 

I do believe that if a woman can't take care of a child, an abortion may be the less bad choice of a lot of bad choices.  I do wonder what future scholars will make of these choices that we claimed for ourselves, to the exception of all the other types of choices we might have demanded.

It won't just be in the area of abortion and reproductive care, of course.  We will think about all the women pastors who never could become senior pastor because of entrenched ideas about gender and jobs.  I suspect a hard time is coming for parents, and that the burden will fall disproportionately on women as we try to figure out how to provide care for children when we can't send them to public schools the ways we have for the past 2 centuries.

It will likely be interesting to see how we frame these questions of choice in this current century.