The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, describes itself as a place of “Love. Churches display love of their neighbor, their enemy, their community and God’s people.” Except if you are a female. In mid-June, the SBC disavowed women from ever becoming ministers in their organization of churches and kicked out two parishes where women were already ordained pastors.
This radical action and old-fashioned thinking at their annual convention wasn’t even a close vote. SBC representatives voted overwhelmingly to shun women leaders by prohibiting them as leaders. Is this 2023 or 1623?
We have a female vice president, almost half of the Supreme Court justices are women, the US Secretary of the Treasury is a woman, and the governor and attorney general of Michigan are women. Every person born to humankind has a biological mother. Just over 50 percent of the US are female. Women are essential to our outcomes.
I asked Angela Denker, an ordained Lutheran minister and author of Red State Christians, to explain what seems like an irrational move.
Reverend Denker said she wasn’t surprised. Disappointed, yes, but surprised, no. She says there is “a preoccupation with the disenfranchisement of women in the evangelical church.” A fear that if women aren’t in “traditional roles, as wives and mothers,” this somehow threatens men. According to Rev. Denker, these views are reinforced by the misreadings of the Gospel of Paul when he says, “Women should be silent on the church.” She says churches need women leaders, and the SBC plays to emotion. “This is a terrific fundraising device for evangelicals. There is a lot of money to be made to bring limits to women in conservative American churches.”
Rev. Denker’s church, which is Lutheran, has ordained women as ministers since the 1970s. However, even having said that, she says that her gender often comes up with congregants, especially if they are upset. “It’s the number one thing people bring up when they are unhappy with me.”
How will modern Christianity survive with such narrow views on who can be a leader at a time when only about 30 percent of Americans identify as Christian? I asked Rev. Denker what she says, particularly to young women, so they don’t get disenfranchised. “I encourage them to be empowered to read the Bible. To know the role and power of women in biblical history, and the many examples of outspokenness and to not allow misinformation with biblical reading.”
Women’s faith leaders have profound historical relevance to Christianity. Religious scholar, Brandon Sutton, suggests that if there weren’t women ministers at the time of Jesus, we wouldn’t know about the resurrection. “Several women who followed and assisted Him. Then, after the resurrection, the women first announced that Jesus was alive (Matthew 28:1-10, John 20:18).”
Exactly 2023 years later, what would Jesus say? A woman cannot get a leadership job with the SBC, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, but can virtually anywhere else.
I looked at the SBC’s website for job postings for pastors. While the qualifications don’t especially state that women do not need to apply: the job description for a pastor refers only to the male gender. “Devoting himself to prayer, Biblical study, and the ministry of the Word. His character – above reproach, temperate, hospitable, managing his own house well, not self-willed, not quick-tempered – will be an example to the congregation.” And that applicants adhere to “Baptist Faith & Message 2000, which states, “the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.” Well, that’s clear! Women definitely need not apply. Incredible, outdated, and depressing at the same time.
