Unchained Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 Hi everyone! I'm not sure if you have noticed, but recently it has surfaced that the majority of delegates to the GC session are males. See for instance this infographic: http://spectrummagazine.org/article/2015/06/04/infographics-full-breakdown-general-conference-delegates-division-gender-and-age This aroused my curiosity and made me wonder if there are differences in gender when it comes to how we view the issue of female ordination. So please feel free to take the poll in this thread. More importantly I also made a Google survey, and I would encourage as many as possible of complete this survey. The results are public so everyone that are interested can follow the results of this survey! I'm sure that many of you have friends that aren't active at ClubAdventist, so please share this survey with your friends! The more people that complete the survey, the more accurate the results are going to be. The survey can be found here: http://goo.gl/forms/ctyZEaeyoO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pierrepaul Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 Interesting graphic on the sex and age of the delegates. I also wonder what the age breakdown of the women delegates is (unless I missed it, the article breaks down the delegates by sex and by age, but not both sex and age. I've never been involved in church politics, but I have been involved in provincial and federal politics. In my experience, the "youth" delegates to conventions usually had an even 50/50 split between men and women, while "senior" delegates were often 90%+ men. Some of this is generational (we'll see about this is 30 years or so), some is the metaphorical "glass ceiling"; some is attributable to the fact many women, once having children, have little time and energy for such pursuits. I'd be very interested to see how many mothers of young children are delegates at San Antonio vs fathers of young children. Unchained 1 Quote God never said "Thou shalt not think". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unchained Posted June 12, 2015 Author Share Posted June 12, 2015 I see that a couple of people have selected "other" in the poll in this thread... In the original survey ( http://goo.gl/forms/ctyZEaeyoO ) you're supposed to state exactly what you mean by "other". If you're comfortable sharing you're welcome to post in this thread and state what you mean by "other". However, I realize that it's not possible to do this here while retaining your anonymity, so if you'd like to stay anonymous I would encourage you to take the original survey instead. (Which I strongly recommend all to do anyways.) Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unchained Posted June 12, 2015 Author Share Posted June 12, 2015 (edited) Interesting graphic on the sex and age of the delegates. I also wonder what the age breakdown of the women delegates is (unless I missed it, the article breaks down the delegates by sex and by age, but not both sex and age. I've never been involved in church politics, but I have been involved in provincial and federal politics. In my experience, the "youth" delegates to conventions usually had an even 50/50 split between men and women, while "senior" delegates were often 90%+ men. Some of this is generational (we'll see about this is 30 years or so), some is the metaphorical "glass ceiling"; some is attributable to the fact many women, once having children, have little time and energy for such pursuits. I'd be very interested to see how many mothers of young children are delegates at San Antonio vs fathers of young children. Agreed! It would be very interesting to see more data about this... And to state the obvious, the gender imbalance among the delegates to the GC session makes it legitimate to wonder if this somehow will affect the final vote in San Antonio. For instance, are males more likely to be against female ordination, or can we assume that both genders view this question in a similar light? Some key numbers for those of you who haven't read the infographic I linked to: - 83% of delegates to the GC session are men. - 6% of delegates are under 30 years old. - 57 % are over 50 years old. Edited June 12, 2015 by Unchained Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pierrepaul Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 I voted "other" since I don't like the whole idea of an "ordained" professional clergy set apart from the laity. I would rather we ordain no one and were I a delegate I'd have trouble casting my vote either way. Quote God never said "Thou shalt not think". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Tom Wetmore Posted June 13, 2015 Administrators Share Posted June 13, 2015 I understand the view that the whole idea of ordination as it is currently practiced is very far from the NT model of roles in the church. It does need to be reworked. but if one understands the actual time to be voted it really is about freedom to manage ordination regionally at the division level. That means that if a division see merit in a broader reformation of the practice they should be able to move forward on that without waiting for the whole world to agree with them on how best to manage the role, function and qualifications for the clergy. A yes vote means that those that are ready can do so, including ordaining women without interfering with or agitating in areas of the world of a different mindset. A no vote virtually guarantees that no reformation I this area will ever take place anywhere. A no vote insists that nobody can be different. A no vote insists on no change in the way anyone does ordination. A no vote insists that all must act in unison. In the end, it does have little to do with WO, but rather who gets to decide and who is in charge. Quote "Absurdity reigns and confusion makes it look good." "Sinless perfection is such a shallow goal." "I love God only as much as the person I love the least." *Forgiveness is always good news. And that is the gospel truth. (And finally, the ideas expressed above are solely my person views and not that of any organization with which I am associated.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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