Her opponent in the election, David Lowrie, says he is looking forward to working with her. Wow, what a great attitude to have towards someone who just beat you in an election. I would hope that I would have that attitude if ever I were in that situation.

Or at least a president-elect, at this point. As a non-Southern Baptist Christian in Texas, I’ve observed a lot of resistance to the official denominational party-line here in the state. Texans have never taken all that well to having much of anything dictated to them from outside the state. I see this election as evidence from the moderates in the BGCT that the denomination’s conservative voices do not speak for them.

I’m a former SB here in Texas. Believe me, we really don’t like the national leadership telling us how we’re supposed to believe. Texas was a frontier state for much of its history, so we have a tradition of honoring strong women. The idea of women being subordinate is certainly preached in some churches, but it’s unpopular with the population at large, Christian or otherwise.

This isn’t the first time that Texas Baptists have had a run-in with the national leadership. Somewhere on CBE’s website it says that the Women’s Missionary Union got in trouble for refusing to teach the doctrine of subordination, but instead promoting gift-based leadership. Good for them! As I e-mailed to a friend of mine, ‘It makes me proud to be a Texan.’

A while back ago, Al Mohler (head of the national SBC) declared that it was a ‘tragedy’ when a mega-Baptist church in Atlanta elected a woman pastor. Well, as my British husband would say, ‘I bet he’s really got his knickers in a twist now.’