Jesus treated women differently than others would have treated women during his time, serving as a sort of early feminist, says the Rev. Susan Sparks, senior pastor at Madison Avenue Baptist Church. “Maybe you could even say Jesus was sort of the Betty Friedan of first century Palestine, because you look at how he honored and upheld women,” she says. The sky is the limit for what women can achieve, the Rev. Serene Jones, president of Union Theological Seminary says. “And we see this in that women are in small numbers moving into high-level positions,” Jones said. “I think it’s exciting to see how women lead. And when they take up these positions, they quite often do them differently than men do, and to good effect.”

Reprinted with permission from Odyssey Networks.