Still waiting for my Juneteenth

Today is Juneteenth in Texas.  The following is my blog post about Juneteenth in 2011 and we are still waiting.

In June 1995, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) issued a public apology for the role they played in harming African-Americans by promoting slavery.  They harmed African Americans in several ways.  The SBC was formed because the National Baptist Convention did not want slaveholders in the convention.  So the south formed their own group which they called the Southern Baptist Convention.  After the Civil War, they made segregation laws and Jim Crow laws, and continued in their harmful discrimination of the Black man.

Sunday is Juneteenth in Texas.  A day we traditionally recognize as being the day that slaves in Texas learned of their emancipation which happened two years earlier.  It wasn’t to the slaveowners’ interest to tell the slaves they were made free by the government, so they didn’t. 

Finally the government caught up with them and on June 19, 1865, more than 2,000 federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to take possession of the state and enforce the emancipation of its slaves.  Ever since then, June 19 has been celebrated and called Juneteenth.

I am waiting for my Juneteenth by the Southern Baptist Convention.  A day that they will come to us and tell us what we have always known, that we are free from bondage and that they welcome us as equal citizens of Christ.

 It is a long time coming.  It took two years for the slaves to learn they were freemen.  We have waited longer than two years.  More like 2,000 years.

At the Southern Baptist Convention last week they acknowledged that SBC churches are losing attendance and new converts (as indicated by a reduced number of baptisms).  They don’t know why a once thriving and gospel center denomination is on the decline.

Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research, an SBC entity, said ” I also think that Southern Baptist churches have struggled because they’re not engaging their communities well, and so I think there are some methodological shifts that need to take place so that the gospel can be understood in a new generation among people who live where we are — not where we were.”  

I would like to tell Dr. Stetzer that it is not only a new generation, but the female half of the population that needs to see the SBC methodological shift.

Stetzer goes on to say he is hopeful leaders will recognize the changes that need to be made. “We need to engage ethnic leaders and [the] next generation, and we need to be more focused on what we’re for and less on what we’re against.” 

“I pray that all of us will see the urgency of the moment,” said Thom S. Rainer, president and CEO of LifeWay. “We must make the Great Commission the heart of all we do and say. These latest numbers should be received with a broken spirit and a God-given determination to reach people for Christ.”

What about the women, I would like to ask Dr. Stezer and Dr Rainer.  Are you just concerned with the ethnic leaders and the next generation of young men? Or could you possibly be concerned about the next generation of young women who feel the call into ministry, and who are more than willing to lend a new voice to the Great Commission.

This is important to non-Southern Baptists because at the convention Russell Moore  made this statement  “We are the anchor of the evangelical world”

Whether he is right or wrong about that, Southern Baptists have tremendous influence over other evangelical denominations in how they practice their faith, and what they teach.

Until the SBC gets serious about the decline and looks at all the reasons people are leaving, which includes abuse of women in the homes due to patriarchy, and lack of respect for women as whole persons before God, they cannot begin to grow and prosper and win the world for Christ.

We are waiting for our Juneteenth.

Irenic doesn’t live here

I have been told that my book Dethroning Male Headship is not irenic.

Irenic is a good little Christian word which means that you don’t hurt anybody’s feelings. The definition is “tending to promote peace or reconciliation; peaceful or conciliatory.”

Why would I be irenic? Who thinks I would write an irenic book? If my name appears on an irenic book, you can be sure that it was written by somebody else. Those of you who read my blog know that the last thing I want to be is “irenic.”

How do you demand that pastors tear down a wall and still be irenic? How do you attempt to spur people on to actually do something about male headship unless you tell who is teaching it, and what they are saying, and you cannot do that and still be irenic.

I am not going to compare myself with Jesus, but I am going to make a statement. Jesus was not irenic. Read Matthew 23 and see if his words would be acceptable in a Christian book.

But there is a price to pay for speaking out for women’s equality like I do. One of those prices is that major Christian groups will not touch your book with a ten-foot pole. I was told that it will be acknowledged in a June newsletter by a group that has not read it yet, so maybe it will slip through there.  We’ll see.

If you want a passionate book, a book that lays out the biblical foundation of female equality with a touch of humor, and then tells you who and why females are still fighting this struggle in their churches (which should have been the first to show equality), and if you want to know what can be done about it, then Dethroning Male Headship is for you.

If you want an irenic book, go elsewhere.

Pastors, tear down this wall!

June 12, 1987, President Reagan, told a big and mighty man “tear down this wall!” That message should be told to every Christian leader, seminary professor, and pastor who teach that men are to be leaders over all women and that all women must submit to all men.

Pastors, tear down this wall!

We are divided like the former president said of Germany.

Behind me stands a wall that encircles the free sectors of this city, part of a vast system of barriers that divides the entire continent of Europe. From the Baltic, south, those barriers cut across Germany in a gash of barbed wire, concrete, dog runs, and guard towers. Farther south, there may be no visible, no obvious wall. But there remain armed guards and checkpoints all the same–still a restriction on the right to travel, still an instrument to impose upon ordinary men and women the will of a totalitarian state. Yet it is here in Berlin where the wall emerges most clearly; here, cutting across your city, where the news photo and the television screen have imprinted this brutal division of a continent upon the mind of the world. Standing before the Brandenburg Gate, every man is a German, separated from his fellow men. Every man is a Berliner, forced to look upon a scar. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

 

Pastors, you want the world to hear the gospel but you encircle women and restrict women to teaching other women and children. Come here to this gate! Pastors, tear down this wall!

Pastors, you tell all males that they were born for leadership roles over their wives. Come here to this gate! Pastors, tear down this wall!

Pastors, you accept women’s service, tithes, and kids, yet you put in your by-laws that only men can be leaders. Come here to this gate! Pastors, tear down this wall!

Will you join in with your voice and demand that the mighty men of the church come to the gate and tear down the wall?

SBC rides into town – protect the kids

The Southern Baptist Convention was kicking up dust before they even rode into town.

Gotta git them wimmin in place! Get along little doggie, git along!

Gregg Matte, a head cattle driver of the SBC and senior pastor of Houston First Baptist Church, got busy rounding up their rebel calf and roped her and sent her out on her own. Right into the arms of the blogosphere and Associated Baptist Press and the Baptist Standard.  Read her side of the story here.

Seems Amy Smith is a whistleblower for child abuse of the clergy.

 (story on her blog: Disturbing revelations about former Prestonwood minister.NEWS 8 INVESTIGATES. John Langworthy,a former youth minister at Prestonwood Baptist Church, admits to molesting at least one of his young students in the late 1980s. He was immediately fired, but there are questions about a cover-up

As long as she kept to Catholics and other undesirables, she could blog and speak and do as she pleased.  But of course predator pastors and youth ministers are not just Catholic.  They are Baptists, too. Amy blew the whistle on Prestonwood Baptist Church near Dallas and finally after over 20 something years, that youth minister was sentenced to prison. 

Amy and her husband who are volunteer youth ministry teachers at Houston’s First Baptist Church was forced into resigning last week because the “associate” pastor read their blog.  Of course when someone is as high profile as Amy Smith is, they knew what she had been doing.  But this week it was different.  She was kicking up dust.

Namely, she asked the SBC to let them speak before the group and talk about child abuse and what to do about it among the clergy.

The dust on both sides began to fly.  She can’t do that.  Senior Pastor of Houston First Baptist Church is head of the pastor’s conference and he can’t have one of his own members stirring things up.  So he sent his henchman, one of the lesser associate pastors, Doug, to git this woman under control.  Associate pastor Doug asked her to step down as volunteer youth ministry teacher because “has to look out for the children in the church.”

You can read about it and draw your own conclusions.  Watch for Amy on the news.  She will be holding up a sign of a child who has been abused by clergy, I’ll just bet.

Amy is standing up for what she knows is right.  Will you stand up for women’s equality in some way, like Amy is? 

 

 

 

http://watchkeep.blogspot.com/2013/06/three-wise-monkeys-photo-by-menage-moi.html

Beyond these walls

Years ago when I worked for Baptist General Convention of Texas, we went through a phase like many businesses do. This one was called “Beyond these Walls.” It meant that we were actively seeking to extend our church ministries outside the church building. Of course churches have always done that and still do. But there was an awareness that we had not been doing a good job of it. So we held seminars and talked about and probably did something about it.

You don’t hear those words any more.

So I was a little surprised when my interview with Sarah Neary of the Voice of Russia reported that I said that the issue of women’s equality must be solved within the walls of the church.  I hadn’t said it that way. What I said was that if church didn’t do it (within the walls) then it would have to come some other way.  To me that meant Beyond these Walls.

Jesus was the one who announced to women that he was the Messiah .Also, when he was resurrected, a woman was the first of the genders to realize he had risen, though there were men present at the time. Females did not look for power or competitive roles but rather it was men who did so. However, Jesus Christ forewarned Christians about the people who wanted to have all the powers.

Gender equality continues to be an uphill battle for the majority of females of the Christian faith. However, certain steps need to be taken in order for the genders to become balanced inside the holy church and out. Learning more about women’s equality for men is another crucial piece which needs to be fit in the puzzle of gender tolerance in religion. “They must remember Jesus, from whom we get Christianity. Jesus did not oppress women,” Taylor reminded.

Naturally, a progression of equality amongst the genders within the church unit would be a sound benefit to the stability and respect of women in the church. Taylor says though they have set a course of male headship and female submission that is detrimental to Christianity. Now, we struggle in the 21st century trying to make genders just and fair outside the church, when perhaps solving the issue should come from within church walls.

Read the whole article “Christianity puts men in power and ignores women’s rights.

This is what I actually said.

What can society do? First, they can understand exactly what it is that churches are telling women. Women in the United States are educated and have freedoms that are denied by other women in other countries. These freedoms should be promoted inside the church. Sadly, it will more than likely have to come from groups that are outside the church to make it happen. As I say in my book, most women in church do not want to make a fuss about equality. But a fuss must be made before change will come. So if church women abdicate their responsibility, some other group must step up.

Read the interview. The whole world should know what is going on in our churches. We egalitarian Christians will have to get out of the huddle and get our message out into the world. It will have to become a social conscience. Because the church is not going to do it.

The Southern Baptist Convention is meeting in Houston next week. They will issue a statement against gays and Boy Scouts. They have settled the question of female submission and it has been adopted and swallowed. Over and done with. No need to even talk about it.

But we must talk about it. Will you bring the conversation out into the open? Reporters love stories. Sarah Neary contacted me the first time when she was writing a story about women’s equality, but I contacted her the second time. Let’s get the word out Beyond These Walls!

Eve-teasing

Everyone loves a hero. I once asked a man cited for bravery about what he had done to earn the award. He said, “What I did was really stupid.” That made me realize that doing the ordinary, or safe things, are not those things that bring medals and awards.
The ordinary person will take the easy, expected course. That is not bravery.

Bravery is doing something that is difficult, dangerous, and may even be called stupid.

So it is with Christians.

Did you know that in India there is a game called Eve teasing which is sexual harassment or molestation of women by men?  They can do it because of the sin of Eve. Those activists blame the rising incidents of sexual harassment on the influence of “Western Culture.” When they refer to Western Culture, that is the United States they are talking about.

What they do not know is that churches in the United States have adopted Eve teasing as theology. Women are told they must submit to males because of the sin of Eve. 

This theology of female submission comes from many sources: The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 ( a bi-product of Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and of course The Danvers Statement on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.) The Bible does not teach female submission as a biblical commandment, even though it is most often the source cited.

I wonder what women in India would think if they knew that every Sunday morning in American churches, many women hear that they are equal to men, but have different functions, or roles? These roles they have assigned to women are, of course, roles of submissiveness. Would they recognize this as Eve teasing?

Would women in India believe that in churches all across the United States of America, Christian women are denied equality before the God that made all people?

It takes courage to step up to your pastor and tell him that women are equal.  No buts.  No different functions.  No male roles and no female roles are set forth in the spiritual kingdom.

We need a hero who will tell pastors that Eve-teasing is insulting, denigrating, and dangerous to women. We need a hero who will tell pastors that other countries may denigrate their women, but we will not set that example in our pulpits for them to follow.

Everybody loves a hero.  Will you be a hero?

EXALTED? No, denied

“These feminist groups say the Bible diminishes women. GOD! gave you a position comparable to the Holy Spirit! You are EXALTED!” So says the pastor of BBC (Big Baptist Church) in my hometown.

I was wondering what they would say after my book signing event made the newspapers. This pastor’s sermon was on the Trinity, and you see how he managed to diminish God, the Trinity, and women in his sermon.

Pastor, you have misled your congregation. You have been dishonest with them.

1. Women are not EXALTED! When a woman cannot be a deacon, usher, take up the collection, read a bible scripture, say a prayer or teach a mixed group of men and women, she is not EXALTED!

2. Women are denied these positions and it is written the church by-laws what women cannot do.

3. Women are not comparable to the Holy Spirit.

4. The Holy Spirit is not comparable to women.

5. Feminist groups do not say that the Bible diminishes women. 

This pastor was talking about me when he spits out feminist groups. We know he was talking about me since you may remember in a previous blog I told you that he wrote me that it would not benefit either of us to discuss anything.

I do not say that the Bible diminishes women. I say that pastors diminish women. Preachers diminish women. Seminary professors diminish women. Women in the congregation who buy into this EXALTED stuff diminish women.

This pastor is guilty of the biggest sin of all. He diminished God.

I believe and teach that the Bible empowers women. You can read about it in my book “Dethroning Male Headship” which, by the way, brought forth the comment by this pastor.

Read for yourself what Christian feminist groups say. This pastor did not say “Christian feminist groups” because when he used the words feminist groups, he diminished Christian groups. Feminists is a dirty word to Christians in the south. He knew that.

Will you promote Christian feminist values? Will you stand up to these pulpit bullies? Will you help educate those who have been influenced by this dishonesty?