Thoughts in a Haystack

Linda Brinson of the Winston-Salem Journal is baking pretzels. Southern Baptist pretzels to be exact, particularly in the contorted person of Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. Brinson recounts the take over of the denomination by "doctrinaire conservatives" during the 1980s, that resulted in amendments to the Baptist Faith and Message concerning women:

One was that "While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture."

The other was that "A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation."

The only restrictions we find in Scripture are, that for whatever reason women are not to be in charge of a marriage and women are not to be in charge of a church. That has nothing to do with governor, or senator or the House of Representatives, or president, or vice president.

[I]sn't it outrageous to glibly argue that it's OK for a woman to be the president of the United States but not OK for her to be the pastor of a church? A woman can lead us all into World War III if she sees fit, but she can't lead us in worship? She can tell the nation's generals and admirals what to do, but she must "submit graciously" to her husband?

I find these questions about 'how can she take care of her children and be vice president' sexist. Nobody asked that question to any of the male candidates. That's a family decision. As long as she and her husband are comfortable with it and they seem to have done a wonderful job with the children they have, it's nobody's business.

Link - Posted by John Pieret @ 10:52 AM