Church Fires Teacher for Being Woman

From an AP story of the same title:

The minister of a church that dismissed a female Sunday School teacher after adopting what it called a literal interpretation of the Bible says a woman can perform any job _ outside of the church. The First Baptist Church dismissed Mary Lambert on Aug. 9 with a letter explaining that the church had adopted an interpretation that prohibits women from teaching men. She had taught there for 54 years. The letter quoted the first epistle to Timothy: "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent." The Rev. Timothy LaBouf, who also serves on the Watertown City Council, issued a statement saying his stance against women teaching men in Sunday school would not affect his decisions as a city leader in Watertown, where all five members of the council are men but the city manager who runs the city's day-to-day operations is a woman. "I believe that a woman can perform any job and fulfill any responsibility that she desires to" outside of the church, LaBouf wrote Saturday.

This, IMO, is a major weakness of the traditional view of "women's roles" commonly held by members of the church of Christ and others. The Rev. has spelled it out. Apparently, in his opinion, there are two distinct sets of rules governing how Christians should interact with one another: one set that governs "secular" or "outside the church" activities and another that governs "spiritual" or "inside the church" activities. This duality is not something that I see supported in scripture. If you hold the extremely restrictive view of the role of women (as, admittedly, you might reasonably do based on a certain interpretation of passages like the one quoted above..I don't pretend that the case is a slam dunk for either extreme), then IMO you must apply the same principle to other interactions between Christian men and women "outside the church" if you are to maintain consistency (as some do). On the other hand, if you are unwilling to apply those same principles "outside the church," maybe you should ask yourself why and re-examine your view of what should go on "inside the church." Or at least justify why Biblical principles regarding the role of women apply only "inside the church."