U.S.

Is It Only A Matter Of Time Before More Women Are Ordained?

Activists are pushing for more ordained women, but many churches are resistant to change.

Is It Only A Matter Of Time Before More Women Are Ordained?
Getty Images / Christopher Furlong
SMS

Hillary Clinton is running for president, Mary Barra is CEO of General Motors and Sheryl Sandberg is COO of Facebook — but a woman running a church? That's still up for discussion. 

"Hey, I was baptized. And this is crazy, but God just called me so ordain a lady," sung members of the Women's Ordination Conference. (Video via Women's Ordination Conference)

The Seventh-day Adventist Church has voted once again to not give women the option to be ordained — a topic they've been discussing since 1881. (Video via Seventh-day Adventist Church)

This vote comes almost exactly a year after the Mormon church excommunicated Kate Kelly for being an activist for female ordination. 

And Pew Research Center found these two religions aren't alone. The Roman Catholic Church, Missouri Synod Lutheran Church, Jewish Orthodox, plus a few more — adding up to at least seven religions in the U.S. — all prohibit women ordination.

Why? The reasons range from following Jesus and his male apostles to a "T," to citing scripture that says women should be students, not teachers. (Video via Mormon Channel)

However, the same study found nine other religions or churches in the U.S. do allow the ordination of women, including Buddhists, the United Church of Christ, American Baptist Church and the United Methodist Church. (Video via United Methodist Church)

That Pew study also reported only about 11 percent of respondents said they had a female head clergy member in 2012 — a figure that hasn't changed in almost two decades.

Many have hoped the Catholic Church would be next to allow women ordination, with a helping hand from Pope Francis. But even he has given it a firm no — twice. (Video via Vatican)

This video includes images from Getty Images.