"I would not go back and teach as long as this is their thinking," said Lambert.

NEW YORK — A decision by the minister of a US Baptist church to fire a female Sunday School teacher after more than 50 years on the job on the ground that the Bible bans women from teaching men has touched off a firestorm of public controversy.

"I was astonished," the 81-year-old teacher, Mary Lambert, told Reuters in her first public comment on her dismissal.

"I would not go back and teach as long as this is their thinking," added the woman who has been a member of the Watertown Baptist church in the state of New York for 54 years.

Watertown First Baptist Church Pastor Tim LaBouf, also a Watertown City Council member, has defended his decision in a statement on the church website.

"My belief is that the qualifications for both men and women teaching spiritual matters in a church setting end at the church door, period," he wrote.

LaBouf argued that women could fulfill any role or responsibility they wanted to -- outside the church.

The minister and church board sacked Lambert on August 9 with a letter explaining that the church had adopted an interpretation that prohibits women from teaching men.

"They quote First Timothy Two, 11-14: A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, she must be silent," she said, reading from the letter.

"For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became sinner."

Personal View

"My belief is that the qualifications for both men and women teaching spiritual matters in a church setting end at the church door, period," LaBouf said.

William Carlsen, executive minister for American Baptist Churches of New York State, said US Baptist Churches are autonomous, believing not many other Baptist Churches share LaBouf's view.

"A considerable number if not a majority of American Baptist Churches have been quite aggressive in affirming the place of women's leadership roles within the church," he told Reuters.

American Baptist Churches USA (ABCUSA) is a group of Baptist churches within the United States; headquartered in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

It is a member of the National Council of Churches and the Baptist World Alliance.

The most well known American Baptist Minister in the 20th century was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Mayor Jeffrey Graham was bothered by the reasons given for Lambert's dismissal.

"If what's said in that letter reflects the councilman's views, those are disturbing remarks in this day and age," Graham said.

"Maybe they wouldn't have been disturbing 500 years ago, but they are now."

Click to read LaBouf's statement in full