Can a Biblical Woman Be a Chaplain?

The mayor of a small Connecticut town recently announced that his community is adding the first female chaplain to their corps of Police chaplains. The new chaplain, Dr. Helen F. Streeter, is a local ‘Apostle' of her church and cable television preacher. My earnest hope is that she will serve as a spiritual chaplain for the many females working in law enforcement as well as women of the community who find themselves in trouble with the law, or victimized or in the prison system.

Because I love the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and because I was for seven years a police and prison chaplain in a large U.S. metropolitan city, I can speak firsthand to the massive need for a gospel-rich message of hope in the lives of women in the civil arena.  Women officers, perpetrators, victims and victim's families desperately need Christ in the midst of what becomes one of the most traumatic and vulnerable episodes of their lives.

Female chaplains bring an understanding, an ability to connect with women, a spiritual insight and compassion that often surpass what male chaplains can offer. There are times when only a female chaplain will do. To whom Dr. Streeter will minister is unclear. It simply says Dr. Streeter will join the other male chaplains "in providing spiritual guidance and support to the members of the Stamford Police Department."  If this refers to an appointment of a female chaplain ministering to men, I am grieved at this news. Here's what I mean.

My first thought is this: Scripture makes it clear that a woman being placed in spiritual authority over men is forbidden. I Timothy 2:12 says, "I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercises authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet."  One cannot exercise the duties of a chaplain without significant spiritual authority. For a woman to take on this authority over men violates Scripture.

Along a similar line, if a spiritual leader reverses or ignores, for any reason, one text of Scripture, that leader's trustworthy stewardship of the entire remainder of Scripture is questioned. If one clear passage of Scripture governing the design of God in creation can be by-passed, texts with more nuanced meanings are in even greater danger of being misused or discarded. This erodes the trust that is so essential to spiritual leadership.

Another concern is that the exemplary role of spiritual leaders is marred.  Hebrews 13:7 says, "Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith" (ESV). To a woman's attempts at spiritual leadership, godly men likely will withdraw spiritually and women will understandably stall in their maturity as they experience spiritually mixed signals.

The Gospel itself will be muted. Chaplains are viewed by all they serve as having a pastoral role. That role cannot be divorced from the message it bears. The Apostle Paul likens marriage between a man and a woman to the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Ephesians 5:22-33. Specifically he calls wives to submit to their husbands as the church submits to Christ. To portray this truth, God calls men, and not women, to lead spiritually. This means that for a woman who loves the Gospel and wants to make it known, she will not seek the role of spiritual leader to men. Rather she will seek to model Christ in his gospel-rich acts of submission to those in authority over her. She will serve in the myriad of ways that bear witness to the saving power of God in Christ to the lost and confused community in which she lives.

Finally, for men to relinquish the role of spiritual leadership to women, results in dishonor to those very women.  She who is asked to lead men spiritually is placed under stricter judgment to teach the whole counsel of God who requires an account for the blood of those led (James 3:10; Acts 20:26-27). She is made vulnerable to an erroneous view of leadership that equates gifting with calling.  She is placed in a position of error in the eyes of all who read the plain sense of Scripture.

And all of this says nothing of the physical harm that could come to a woman who is asked to go late at night to the home of a stranger, in a seedy part of town to announce the death of a family member at the hands of an enemy gang. Shame on any man who lets a woman take his place knocking on that door.

It may be that Dr. Streeter will focus her service as a chaplain to women. I hope so. However, this sounds unlikely. I will pray for the Mayor of Stamford, CT, and many leaders like him, that he will not ask a woman to do what God says should be done by a man.