Here’s a story on gender discrimination that was brought to my attention on Jim West’s blog. It is one of those situations that I am both in disbelief and yet unsurprised.
FORT WORTH, Texas – A theology professor at a prominent Southern Baptist seminary said officials told her to leave because women are biblically forbidden from teaching men. (Read more here . . . )
Update (1/28/07): You can find another reflection on this on the Women in Ministry blog. Through Cheryl Schatz’s blog there, I found a link to a detailed blogging about the controversy by Wade Burlson, a Southern Baptist pastor in Enid, Oklahoma. At the moment there are 352 comments in response to his blog post. He’s hit a nerve! As a matter of fact he has several posts dedicated to this controversy and the issue of women in ministry on his blog.
Ugh. I hang my head in shame. Well, I guess I haven’t claimed to be Southern Baptist for a while now.
One of my favorite professors at Truett was made to feel the same way at SWBTS, which led to her departure from there. Sad.
It is sad, especially after taking Scholer’s class on women at Fuller. The dominant mentality at Fuller (though there are people that disagree) is egalitarian. Even our most conservative professors, with whom I disagree on a number of points, are egalitarian. It’s just hard to believe that this stuff is still out there. Have you read the articles in Piper and Grudem’s big tome? It’s amazing, the arguments they use.
I mentioned the Christian radio station in my comment on the last post too. I like a lot of the music because I’ve been conditioned that way, and I turn it on when I’m tired of hearing people talk on NPR (which is my default radio station). What I don’t like is the stuff in the middle of the songs. This guy got on and talked about how important it is to support our troops who are “serving our country.”
Anyway, they also played this bit with James Dobson. He talked about the importance for “moms” to get a break from the kids. You can’t be with the kids all the time, that would be like a man working 24 hours a day. You can get a nugget of wisdom out of that, taking a parenting break and getting down time is important, but it’s delivered in a gender stereotyped manner. Nay, more than just stereotype, because he believes it is the God-ordained-type. Why can’t we just say stay-at-home “parent” and would be the same as “someone” working an office job 24 hours a day. It doesn’t take a whole lot of effort to be less offensive, but of course it’s a whole hierarchical ideology. Okay, I’m ranting and raving now, so I’ll stop
This issue is the reason me (and my wife) have more or less decided to no longer associate with the SBC. It is sickening.