Socrates - Women In Ministry
This is not a sexist view: if men would not set
the example by presuming to lead the congregation in the "act of
preaching" there would be little demand for other performance
"worship" rituals. It is a fact that God only accepts those who
"worship in spirit and in truth." This means that worship is in the
person's own spirit or mind as it communicates with God through His
Word. To understand how those who would make public
performance of praise stand between a believer and their God you must
understand that they will deliberately pervert the revealed Word of
God to do what God is outlawing or warning against: In a discourse between Socrates and Callicles
in Georgias, Socrates begins: Socrates Then a man may delight a whole
assembly, and yet have no regard for their true interests?
Callicles Yes.
Socrates Can
you tell me the pursuits which delight mankind-or rather, if you
would prefer, let me ask, and do you answer, which of them
belong to the pleasurable
class, and which of them not?
In the first place, what say you of
flute-playing? Does not that appear to be an art which
seeks only pleasure, Callicles, and thinks of nothing else? Callicles I assent. Socrates And
is not the same true of all similar
arts, as, for example, the art of
playing the lyre at festivals? Callicles Yes. Socrates And
what do you say of the choral
art and of dithyrambic poetry?-are
not they of the same nature? Do you imagine that Cinesias the
son of Meles cares about what will tend to the moral improvement of
his hearers, or about what will give pleasure to the multitude?
Callicles There can be no mistake about Cinesias, Socrates.
Socrates And
what do you say of his father, Meles the harp-player? Did he perform with any view to the
good of his hearers? Could he be said to regard even their
pleasure? For his singing was an infliction to his audience. And of harp
playing and dithyrambic poetry in
general, what would you say? Have they not been invented
wholly for the sake of pleasure?
Callicles That
is my notion of them. Socrates And
as for the Muse of
Tragedy, that solemn and
august personage-what are her aspirations?
Is all her aim and desire only to
give pleasure to the
spectators, or does she fight against them and refuse to
speak of their pleasant vices, and willingly proclaim in word and
song truths welcome and
unwelcome?-which in your judgment is
her character? Callicles There can be no doubt, Socrates, that Tragedy has
her face turned towards
pleasure and the gratification of the
audience. Socrates And
is not that the sort of thing, Callicles, which we were just now
describing as flattery? Callicles Quite true. Socrates Well
now, suppose that we strip all
poetry of song and rhythm and metre, there will remain speech?
Callicles To
be sure. Socrates And
this speech is addressed to a crowd of
people? Callicles Yes.
Socrates
Then, poetry is a sort of
rhetoric? Callicles True. Socrates And
do not the poets in the theatres seem to you to be
rhetoricians? Callicles Yes.
Socrates Then now we have discovered a
sort of
rhetoric which is
addressed to a crowd of
men, women, and
children, freemen and slaves. And this is
not much to our
taste, for we have described it as
having the nature of
flattery. Callicles Quite true.
Yes, and solo singing or women in musical
worship teams are involved in public speaking or teaching as they
stand up or preside over the flock. Rubel Shelly notes that women
should be permitted both solo singing, choir singing, Bible reading
or teaching along with other "stand up" roles. The elders, long-ago
having lost out to the dominant, ruling "evangelist," should not,
however, be usurped in the policy-making roles!! Haven't they already
lost control? Athene threw a
flute away because playing it reminded the audience of an obscene
sexual practice. Even the vocal contortions during public preaching
as part of a musical worship team is found attractive by men who are
attracted for the musical spectacle: Aristotle on Instrumental Music Aristotle Politics: "[1341b] and all the
instruments that require manual
skill. And indeed there is a reasonable
foundation for the story that was told by the ancients about the
flute.
The tale goes that Athena found a flute and
threw it away. Now it is not a bad point in the story that the
goddess did this out of annoyance because of the ugly distortion of her
features; but as a matter of fact it is more likely that
it was because education in flute-playing has no effect on the
intelligence, whereas we attribute science and art to Athena.
"And since we
reject professional education in the instruments and in
performance (and we count performance
in competitions as professional, for the
performer does not take part in it for his own improvement,
but for
his hearers' pleasure, and that a vulgar
pleasure, owing to which we
do not
consider performing to be proper for free men, but somewhat
menial;
and indeed performers do become vulgar, since the object at which
they aim is a low one, as vulgarity in the audience
usually influences the music, so that it imparts to the artists who
practise it with a view to suit the
audience a special kind of personality,
and also of bodily frame because of the
movements required) Plutarch on
Instrumental Musical Triumph Plutarch, Life of Marcellus,
xiv. 65, and Quaest. Conv. viii. 2. 1, 7, where Plato is
represented as "having been angry with Eudoxus and Archytas
because they employed instruments
and apparatus for the solution of a
problem, instead of relying solely on reasoning."
"But when the envious opposed his (Marcellus)
being brought triumphant into the city, because there were some relics of the
war in Sicily, and a third triumph would be looked upon with
jealousy, he gave way. He triumphed upon the Alban
mount, and thence entered the city in ovation, as it is
called in Latin, in Greek eua; but in this ovation
he was neither carried in a chariot, nor crowned with laurel,
nor ushered by trumpets sounding; but went afoot with shoes on, many
flutes or
pipes
sounding in concert, while he passed along, wearing a garland of myrtle, in
a peaceable aspect, exciting
rather love and respect than fear.
but the manner of performing them.
For they who, having fought a set battle, and slain the enemy, returned
victors, led that martial, terrible triumph, and, as
the ordinary custom then was in lustrating the army, adorned the arms and the
soldiers
with a great deal of laurel. "But they who without force, by colloquy, persuasion, and
reasoning,
had done the business, to these captains custom gave the honour of
the unmilitary and festive
ovation. "For the pipe is
the badge of peace, and myrtle the
plant of Venus, who more than the rest of the gods and goddesses
abhors force and war. It is called ovation, not as most think, from
the Greek euasmus, because they act it with shouting and cries of Eua
(Eve or Zoe): for so do they also the proper triumphs.
"The Greeks have wrested the word
to their own language, thinking that this honour, also, must have
some connection with
Bacchus, who in Greek has the titles of
Euius and
Thriambus.
This is why God ordained the two silver
trumpets to excite the army or panic the enemy or to call the people
int assembly. However, when the "congregation" assembled it was
unlawful to perform this "triumph over" ritual with instruments and
loud rejoicing. This is also why Psalm 41 prophesied that
Judas would try to triumph over Jesus but would fail and do the honerable thing
and kill himself. Did you know that the "Judas Bag" into which the
thief, Judas, put his stolen funds was "a bag for carrying the
mouthpieces of wind instruments." The word is made up of "speaking in
tongues" and "of the world" or a pagan tool to find the lost
"gods." See
Artist View of Judas Trying to Triumph Over Jesus With
Music. A full implementation of the Willow Creek
Seeker model of church government and worship can be seen by
Clicking Here. See
Psalm 41 in the Dead Sea Scrolls proving Musical Attack Upon
Jesus See
The Dead Sea Scroll on the Triumph Attempt Over Jesus
