Thousands of Southern Baptists overwhelmingly voted Wednesday to advance a formal ban on women pastors in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, sending a clear message that men alone should preach to these conservative evangelical congregations.
I grew up Southern Baptist, with a lean toward the even more fundamentalist side of things. I’m now Episcopalian. I remember Pastor Lynne, the first woman priest I ever had. Completely changed my perspective on this subject. It’s funny, but the clergy and theologians who have been the most influential to me in recent years have largely been women: Kate Sonderegger, Catherine Pickstock, Kathy Grieb (two of those names were professors of mine in seminary). And my diocese (Hawai’i) just elected the first woman to be our bishop in our history! Saint Mary Magdalene was the first person to proclaim the resurrection of Jesus, in effect making her the first Christian evangelist. Sad that there are still so many parts of the Christian world that fail to heed what Jesus was doing.
That’s what happens when 20+ books are excluded from the Bible.
You’d think that people who claim to love the Bible as much as the Southern Baptists do would relish the opportunity to have MORE Bible!
Not when the missing books contradict their beliefs
What’s funny is that the included books often contradict their beliefs. And how do they handle that? Well, guess how many times I’ve heard a Southern Baptist preacher preach on Matthew 25: 31-46? (This is the one where Jesus says that people who neglect the poor and harm immigrants, etc. are effectively doing that to Him)
I used to live in a city with a very progressive Episcopalian Church (lesbian pastor, Philadelphia pride flag, “protect our immigrants”, actively helped the homeless, the whole shebang) but they were struggling (in terms of congregation numbers and I think finances too) because even though their messaging aligned with the political attitudes of many in this left-leaning city, most of those folks had abandoned religion in disgust altogether. I saw the same with a progressive Catholic chapter in another deep-blue city: their congregation was shrinking because Christianity as a whole had become so tainted in the public eye that the people who would have been most aligned with their message was turned off entirely.
So sad, but true. I recall a comment I read many years ago in response to the Episcopal Church’s progressive stances that said something like “I’m so happy that you’re doing that, but I’m no longer a Christian so… good for you all, I guess.”
There are also those who look at what we’re doing as basically a kind of marketing. While there are probably a few clergy in the Episcopal Church who see us as “Christianity, but not like you remember” or whatever, for the most part we Episcopalians have arrived at our progressive place out of a difficult struggle with being faithful to the gospel. When I hear the criticism that “if what you’re doing is true, how come more churches aren’t doing what you do?” (which can come from multiple angles), I always go back to Jesus saying that “narrow is the road that leads to salvation.” That and “take up your cross and follow me.” Following Jesus isn’t meant to be a path to political power and influence. The only time Jesus was ever in the halls of political power, it was for a sham trial in order to nail Him to a cross.
Wouldn’t the whole Jesus vs money changers thing count as him entering a metaphical hall of political power as well. That involved Jesus attacking those aligned with the established authorities for their own profit in a frothing rage.
Maybe? The money changers were operating in the Second Temple, which was the focus of Jewish religious/cultural identity. The High Priests held significant cultural sway… I suppose this is a fair argument. The money changers were also extorting their own people’s religious convictions for a dime, which feels quite resonant with what we’re seeing today.