The CBE Scroll

Right on the heels of this year’s Sheri Klouda debacle at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary comes yet another example of president Paige Patterson’s move to ‘establish family and gender roles as described in God’s Word for the home and the family.’

This fall, Southwestern Baptist will be offering a new academic program in homemaking, a bachelor of arts in humanities degree with a 23-hour concentration including such classes as ‘Clothing Construction’ and ‘Meal Preparation.’ Such classes, Southwestern Baptist must believe, are in keeping with their stated goal of letting a woman (and I mean woman, as no men are to be admitted to the program) ‘choose from a variety of programs what is appropriate for [her] own diverse interests and unique giftedness within the boundaries of biblical priorities.’

Southwestern’s dean of women’s programs stated for the Associated Press that the program was instituted in order to strengthen families, as a woman’s ‘first priority is her family and home.’ In the words of president Paige Patterson, ‘If we do not do something to salvage the future of the home, both our denomination and our nation will be destroyed.’

National destruction? Quite a price to pay for a lack of homemakers.

The online journal E-Quality is seeking papers for its upcoming issue, themed ‘Youth Groups and Equality.’ In it, we hope to provide practical resources for youth workers and parents as they address biblical equality with their students. Article ideas include, but are not limited to:

1. What are the unique needs of our students today? Do they need to hear the message of equality? How do we reach them with that message?

2. How do we encourage our students to care about justice and advocate for those who are oppressed? How do we present the issue of women in leadership as not only a theological debate but also a justice issue?

3. Does a focus on racial reconciliation help students better understand gender reconciliation? How do we foster youth group environments that celebrate and encourage guys and girls of all races and ethnic backgrounds?

4. A Bible study geared for students on the biblical basis for shared leadership between women and men.

5. A book review of Ginny Olson’s Teenage Girls.

The deadline for this issue is September 7th. Please write Megan at mgreulich@cbeinternational.org as soon as possible if you are interested.

Is a woman’s value based on the shape of her body? How many of us were influenced through our culture to believe that the most important thing about being a woman was her visual appeal to men?

In my case, my family was very good in the way it valued women. My father didn’t look at other women, even though my mother was overweight. There were no suggestive magazines around. But even though my home environment was positive, the overall culture emphasized that what was most important about a woman was the shape of her body. Women who dressed suggestively were praised and favored by men. They were celebrated by the culture. I found myself tempted to dress in a manner that emphasized my body. Thankfully, between my home environment and my Christian faith I was able to resist the temptation and never acted on it.

Through the grace of God I no longer have this temptation. It’s not that I don’t want to get married, I do. But, I no longer see the shape of my body as being important.

How seriously are women being deceived by our culture into believing our value is based on the shape of our body, with those women with more curvy features being considered more valuable than women with less curvy features? I know it affected me as evidenced by the years it took for me to lose the desire to dress suggestively.

How has it affected your life?

Well the CBE conference is over, like a whirlwind, so I’m catching up with some posts about the last two days.

The Saturday sessions we chose were filled with in-depth historical examinations of empowered women in the Church. Starting with Mimi Haddad’s excellent lecture on ontology, gender, and women’s authority in the church, we looked at Paula, Apollonia, Hildegard, and Catherine of Siena to name very few. These were all women who behaved contrary to the popular ontology assigned to them by the culture of the day. This was especially true from the patriarchal absorption of the church after Emperor Constantine.

Also discussed was the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy. The church’s reaction was a form of anti-intellectualism. This in turn resulted in a fear of liberalism, trading a more rigorous interpretation of Scripture for a ‘plain reading’ of the Bible. Hence, so much unchallenged complementarian thinking polluted the church’s waters. I loved this statement from Mimi: ‘Just because you challenge assumptions of tradition doesn’t make you impious.’

During the question and answer period, there was one particularly bold question asked by a man in the audience, one that I’d like to ask again here and see what you all think. The man asked why it was that women continue to attend churches that only oppress them. There was an array of answers given by many gracious women in the room. I felt very enlightened by all their impassioned, thoughtful responses.

But what do you think? Why stay in such a church?

Greetings, bloggers, from the Denver CBE Conference!

First, a little introduction is in order. Hello, I’m Rob.

And I’m an egalitarian.

Until now, I’ve only supported The Scroll from behind the curtain with occasional technical issues. Many kudos to Marissa, Megan, and Will for their dedication to the blog! But now, I’ve been asked to contribute since my wife and I are attending the Denver conference. So, if you’ll humor my clunkiness, I’ll post some of my observations.

We got to the conference in time for the evening dinner. We met some really interesting people at our table from all walks of life, one of whom was an Episcopalian bishop from Burundi, Africa. Mr. Simeon jokingly asked me how many cows I paid my in-laws for my wife as a dowry! We discussed how much of Africa is still very stuck in old-world traditions. He told me that he is convinced that the church doesn’t grow without the co-leadership of women.

After dinner was a lecture by Roger Olson, author of How to Be Evangelical without Being Conservative. Olson ascribes to the Wesleyan Quadrilateral, which uses four sources for a theological framework: scripture, tradition, reason, and experience. His talk tonight revolved around the latter. Olson considers himself a ‘post-conservative’ having attended a church led by a woman pastor for several years. He joked that while his church experience might suggest otherwise, they do in fact believe in the ordination of men.

He spoke mainly about the need for interdependence between women and men. From a Christian perspective, Olson says gender differences should be ontological, not behavioral and cultural. Such artificial differences are the result of a breakdown in healthy interdependence.

In Olson’s experience, a church for women is not inherently better than a church for men. The better solution is a church for both women and men, wherein the leadership opportunities are shared openly with those that are gifted. After all, truth – not office or role – is the ultimate authority.

He said that when true interdependence breaks down, one gender tends to be marginalized and withdraws from participation. Olson offered a case in point as many men today are not actively seeking leadership positions in church.

One of Olson’s analogies I appreciated was in describing true Christian interdependence as a ‘sibling solidarity.’ If we begin to see each other as fellow sisters and brothers in Christ, then we can more truly bind together in an interdependent community.

This first day was a wonderful start! I’m very excited to be attending. Stay tuned for more updates tomorrow…