Lutheran Principal Fired for Suggesting Women Are Equal

The principal of St. John's Lutheran School was fired this weekend for espousing the shocking doctrine that maybe the church is in error and men don't have total authority over women. Is that equality I hear? Scandalous! We can't have our children exposed to such disturbing arguments.

It gets better. At the six-hour meeting to decide whether or not to fire John Hartwig, women were banned from speaking. Many of Hartwig's supporters were -- you guessed it -- women, who apparently didn't have a problem with their kids having a principal who believes that the female sex doesn't have to utterly submit to the authority of the male sex. St. John's Council President Don Finseth clearly never got that lesson in school, since he's the one who decreed that women could very well keep their mouths shut during the discussion. Don't want the little women meddling with the men while they're discussing important business.

People were shocked by this action, the first time the Council President has used his male authority to silence women altogether. Of course, as PZ Myers points out over at Pharyngula, maybe they shouldn't have been. Though women are usually so-very-generously permitted to speak at these meeting, they never have the right to cast a vote. With such a restriction already in place (and the subject up for discussion the very rights of women), this further infringement doesn't seem too odd. Though most of the Lutheran Church has far more progressive views regarding women's rights, St. John's is part of a conservative, literalist segment that holds some awfully backwards views on women.

The decision to fire Hartwig and silence women might cause a divide in this church, some members say. If so, I hope the dissenting group instates Hartwig's principles on women's equality, and not only lets women speak their minds, but also cast their vote.

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