A Very Sad Tale of the Southern Baptist Convention

My heart was saddened this week as I read about the ongoing Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). I should start by saying I have never worked at a Baptist church as a musician. I have attended several through the years and my father’s best friend was a Baptist pastor from our time in Bad Axe, MI. So, I do have more than a passing contact with the tradition. I found a couple of things most disturbing concerning their vote on women in pastoral roles. The first was the glee I saw in so many about the outcome of the vote. Yes, they upheld clear Scriptural instructions. But, as an old saw goes: “A soldier in the heat of the battle does not know how the war is going.” As an outside observer, I saw so many dangerous undercurrents.

As I read the arguments “for” women in pastoral positions, I was struck by some phrasing and terminology which sounded so very familiar. While there were certainly arguments framed around a number of Biblical passages which mention various women (usually people identified by Paul), they usually avoided altogether other passages from Paul’s letters which admonished that women should not be in leadership roles. Often these arguments were crouched in social language; reflecting our changing times. This hermeneutics is the same I would hear preached from the pulpit of the very Biblically liberal churches I worked at for so many years. We are seeing in very real time what happens when Scriptural truth becomes dismissed or altered to more conform with current societal expectations. All of these old main line denominations who sacrificed Biblical truth for social acceptance are rapidly disappearing. In another generation or two many may cease to exist altogether.

What I witnessed at the SBC convention was no different than one might see at a political convention these days. Two sides yelled at each other, neither listened to the other, no quarter was offered…and the fabric of yet another institution was torn. I am by no means suggesting compromising Biblical truth, but certainly something other than complete defeat could have been offered! Moreover, we are all completely broken by sin; and a fallen people. But God’s Grace and Providence will not be thwarted. I would pray we all could take a lesson from this sordid tale where pride and sin was on full display instead of the grace and love we are called to hold each other.