This goes to prove that just because the laws change, the attitudes often remain the same. Even in churches where women can be ministers and rabbis, reactions can sometimes be harsh. This is especially true for Baptists, where women pastors make up only one percent of the total pastors in Southern Baptist Convention, according to Enoch. There were people who hated her without even having met her, she says, for simply being a female pastor. Enoch explains people's negative reaction as resistance to change.
People get angry, defensive.
Elizabeth Dunkser, Austin's first woman rabbi and assistant rabbi at Temple Beth Israel photograph by Kenny Braun Austin's First Not everyone reacts to change so severely. In fact, in the Reform Branch of Judaism, change is welcome, according to Rabbi Elizabeth Dunsker, Austin's first woman rabbi and assistant rabbi at Temple Beth Israel. She explains that Judaism is not just a religion, but a system of law, and that political change plays an important part in Jewish life. Study and discussion are very important to the faith, and argument is encouraged, she says. She was the most intelligent person I had ever met in my life.