FORT WORTH, Texas — Southwestern Baptist
Theological Seminary has adopted a policy statement that declares men and women
equal before God but created for specific roles of headship and submission in
the church and home. _ь_ь
Seminary trustees voted Oct. 21 to add the Danvers
Statement on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood to the seminary’s policy manual under
“Guiding Documents and Statements.” _ÑŒ_ÑŒ
The statement,
composed in 1987 in Danvers, Mass., by the then-new Council on Biblical Manhood
and Womanhood, responds to “widespread uncertainty and confusion in our culture
regarding the complementary differences between masculinity and femininity” and
“increasing promotion given to feminist egalitarianism” in church and culture. _ÑŒ_ÑŒ
It affirms, among other things, that “Adam and
Eve were created in God’s image, equal before God as persons and distinct in
their manhood and womanhood,” that “distinctions in masculine and feminine
roles are ordained by God as part of the created order” and that “Adam’s
headship in marriage was established by God before the Fall, and was not a
result of sin.”
BP file photo by Matt Miller Paige Patterson |
“Complementarianism,” a conservative theological
view that men and women have different roles and responsibilities in marriage
and religious leadership, has been gaining ground in the Southern Baptist
Convention for 20 years. _ь_ь
Detractors say it is nothing more than Bible-sanctioned
male chauvinism. But proponents say
that choosing to live by what they interpret as God’s design is in reality a
form of women’s liberation. _ÑŒ_ÑŒ
The opposing view, known as “egalitarianism,”
takes a view that values giftedness over gender distinctions. Egalitarians say
men and women should share equal authority and responsibility in marriage and
have equal leadership opportunities in the church. _ь_ь
The Southern Baptist Convention chose sides in
the debate in 1998. That year, the group inserted a family article into its Baptist Faith and Message confessional statement that says the husband “has the
God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family,”
while a wife “is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her
husband.” _ÑŒ_ÑŒ
Two years later the convention again amended the
confession of faith to add, “While both men and women are gifted for service in
the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.” _ÑŒ_ÑŒ
Mimi Haddad, president of the Minneapolis-based Christians for Biblical Equality, said it is illogical to say on the one hand
that men and women are equal but different in their access to authority.
“To claim that men and women have equal access
to salvation and equal access to the spiritual gifts is to suggest that the
Holy Spirit may provide individuals with gifts not according to human
prejudice, but according to God’s pleasure, as we clearly note throughout
Scripture especially in the New Testament,” she said.
who has a Ph.D. in historical theology, said a good example of that principle
is Lottie Moon, a famous Southern Baptist missionary to China in the 19th
century whose unconventional ministry was so influential that an offering named
in her honor is collected yearly in SBC churches to this day.
The Baptist Faith and Message remains
Southwestern Seminary’s only confessional document, meaning professors are
required to teach within its confines.
The additional statement, seminary
President Paige Patterson said in a news release, will be used to establish “the
general posture of the school” regarding gender roles. _ÑŒ_ÑŒ
Patterson, who had a hand in drafting the
Danvers Statement, said it will serve as a guide in hiring and evaluation
processes. In 2006 Patterson terminated Sheri Klouda, an Old Testament
professor hired by his predecessor in 2002, saying he did not believe 1 Tim.
2:12-14 permitted a woman to teach the Bible to male students in a seminary
classroom. _ь_ь
Klouda sued
the seminary for gender discrimination in 2007, but a judge dismissed
the case the following year. He said the dispute was over a religious matter
protected by the First Amendment. _ь_ь
Klouda, now associate professor of Old Testament
at Taylor University in Upland, Ind., said the Danvers Statement “makes a break
with the realities of a fallen world” in its idealized view of family
relationships. She said the statement assumes that all Christian husbands
exemplify superior biblical leadership in a marriage, which may be desirable
but is not always the case. She said it also reinforces the notion that spousal
abuse by husbands is in some way the fault of the wife — and it fails to
address a course of action for wives who must work outside the home to support
their family for reasons of illness, disability or death of a husband.
“There are no allowances for the stuff of real life,”
Klouda said. “I have experienced several of these situations, and the church
failed me consistently.” _ÑŒ_ÑŒ
Also in 2007, Patterson announced
the seminary would begin offering a new bachelor’s degree with a concentration
in homemaking. Parodied
by one popular Baptist blogger as the “Mrs. Degree,” Patterson said the program
was a way of “moving against the tide in order to establish family and gender
roles as described in God’s Word for the home and the family.” _ÑŒ_ÑŒ
In April Southwestern Seminary dedicated
the Sarah Horner Homemaking House, an educational building equipped with a teaching
kitchen, clothing and textiles lab, formal dining room and parlor in addition
to library and classrooms. It is home to Southwestern students working toward a
B.A. in humanities with a concentration in homemaking. _ь_ь
The concentration requires 22 hours of instruction
in a wide range of homemaking skills like meal preparation and clothing
construction out of a total 127 hours to earn a bachelor’s degree. _ÑŒ
The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
has offices on the campus of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in
Louisville, Ky. The group’s president, Randy Stinson,
declined to comment for this story.
(EDITOR’S NOTE — Allen is senior writer for
Associated Baptist Press.)