People will hate and disagree with me about this one, because while they can shrug off my comments about sex and other scandalous things, they will fight to the end to defend their religion. So to begin, I want to point out that I’m saying it OFTEN is. Not ALWAYS, and not ALL DENOMINATIONS. So calm down.
This morning I read an article on CNN.com about Lifeway Christian stores. It appears that the Southern Baptist Convention decided to place the latest issue of GospelToday (a Christian magazine) behind the counter because it features women pastors on its cover. This disagrees with the 2000 proclamation by the Southern Baptist Convention that only men could be pastors. On their website, they say that while women are equal in value to men, their roles are not identical, meaning that they cannot be ministers.
This article (and I’ve read it, oh yes) is an incredibly well-written piece of journalism. It’s about these five pastors being able to break the glass ceiling in religion. It’s about their struggles at being accepted as valid spiritual leaders, which makes it even more upsetting that LifeWay chose to treat it in such a manner. I can’t believe that someone would put the issue behind the counter because it’s offensive. More than anything, it makes my heart ache for the women in this religion that actually believe they are inferior to men.
I grew up Baptist. The religion closest to my own personal beliefs is traditional Baptist doctrine (not Southern Baptist). My church decided during my high school years to become Southern Baptist, though at that point I had already distanced myself. My family – I have a 16-year-old sister – still attends the church as active members, with my dad teaching Sunday School, my mom on a church softball team, and my sister playing for the youth group’s band. I have always respected my old pastor, whether I agreed with him on all stances or not, but this makes me doubt him as a spiritual leader because the church is a member of the Southern Baptist Convention.
The Bible is blamed for this little difference. And yes, it does say that women are not equal to men, but let’s be real here for a second. During the time that the Bible was written, people were stoned to death for adultery, divorce was unacceptable, and poking out someone’s eye meant that they got to poke out one of yours. Now, all of these sins can be forgiven and any man can choose to become a pastor no matter what his previous sins, but apparently a woman has committed the ultimate sin of being born female, because she cannot overcome her own gender in order to be a minister.
It’s an endless struggle for women in religion. In my opinion, women struggle for more respect in religion than in the business world, or even in the political world. The Bible has portrayed women in three roles: temptress, dunce, and benevolent saint. No woman can live up to the last one, I guarantee you.
–> The Virgin Mary and other strong, godly women in the Bible are fabulous, but the closest we’ve gotten lately is Mother Teresa. It’s setting an unrealistic standard of benevolence.
–>As for the other two, Eve was the biggest idiot in the world to listen to that snake, but that doesn’t mean that the entire female gender is stupid. People believe that we are, but just because people believe it doesn’t make it true. Otherwise, Elvis would be alive, the war in Iraq would be successful, and O.J. would be innocent.
–>The temptress issue hits close to home for me. Unless your significant other has called you Jezebel for “tempting” him by simply looking nice, you don’t understand how deep this idea runs in Christianity. The idea that women use sex to bring their husbands down and gain control over them has been blown up in the media, but people would be wise to remember that the original idea came from the Bible.
It would be an incomplete article if I didn’t mention that the SBC is right there with Sarah Palin on opposing abortion in all cases, even rape and incest. I’m sorry, but I simply cannot believe that anything that is a product of a violent crime like that is God’s will. If I did, I’d hate God. But I leave people’s beliefs about this issue to themselves, mainly, I just happen to believe that a woman shouldn’t be forced to have a baby she doesn’t want, to endure a pregnancy that might kill her. But I understand why people think that all children are sacred.
Of course, women aren’t the only ones who have it bad. Homosexuals? You’re screwed, unless you renounce your lifestyle and admit that the affection you feel for people of the same sex is wrong. Then you’re golden. But I don’t think that it should be like that, again with my opinion.
Overall, something that even I didn’t want to know is that Christianity is often sexist.
Here are my sources for this blog:
Inspiration articles: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/09/23/martin.hairston/index.html; http://www.ethicsdaily.com/article_detail.cfm?AID=11088
Facts about Southern Baptist Convention: http://www.sbc.net/default.asp
Magazine Website: http://www.gospeltoday.com/index.php
Jessica Said:
on September 25, 2008 at 5:57 am
You are not allowed to be entertaining and thought provoking when it’s way to late for me to even be conscious.
thefuerstshallbelast Said:
on September 25, 2008 at 6:37 am
I am a Southern Baptist and I am ASHAMED at the action of my denomination. We have a history of not only sexism, but also racism. It is so frustrating.
I would just like to comment about one thing, though. There are good, alternative ways of reading the Bible which does not support a male-hierarchy. Many Christian scholars have suggested ways of reading those ‘oppressive’ texts in ways which allow full equality. So, yes, gender was construed differently, but that doesn’t mean God considered men and women inequal.
Cheers to you,
tom