I mailed letters yesterday to pastors of some Baptist churches in Texas.
I felt sad when I sealed those letters. Sad that it was even necessary to say what I did.
Why should a woman have to write a letter to Baptist pastors asking them to speak out for women?
Picture this:
Every time a woman or a girl walks into a Southern Baptist Convention church, someone places a Bible on top of her head. Imagine everyone standing up to sing. All the women and all the girls have a Bible on top of their heads. The men do not.
That is what it is like when women cannot be equals in the church. The Bible is held over their heads telling them to submit; telling them that women will never be chosen by God to be a deacon or a pastor; telling them that the very fact they were born a female keeps them under the law.
A Bible placed over a woman’s head tells all the boys and all the men that they are superior and chosen by God by the very fact of their male bodies.
To those of you who are saying “that is what the Bible says,” go back and read my posts on Dethroning Male Headship – because it doesn’t have a leg to stand on.
I want to be able to walk into my church and not feel that my church holds it against me that I am a woman
bWe Baptist Women for Equality's Blog 
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Many women hate the Bible because they have been taught that it brings them into bondage based on the man-made lie that women are cursed just because they were born female. Gender-Biased-English-Translation-Theology has caused so much harm and has so much to answer for.
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We’re working to change things, aren’t we? Thanks for the reply.
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The Bible translated and interpreted correctly brings nourishment to our souls, feeds us and helps us to grow and mature. The Bible mistranslated and misinterpretated can adversely affect our souls like junk food or, even worse, poison. When I first became a Christian, I used to love to read the Bible. But the more I was taught to see gender hierarchy as ordained and promoted by God within its pages, the less I opened it up. It was like trying to eat and digest tainted food. It tasted bad and made me feel sick. Understanding that God does not teach sexism/favoritism based on our outward flesh has restored my taste for the Word, and it has brought much needed healing to my soul.
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I just don’t think pastors have ever given it a thought what it feels like for women to constantly hear this submission and you are equal – but sermons. I have changed the focus of my writings to make it personal.
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Thank you! This is it exactly: both the Bible being placed on women’s heads (to hold them down/hold them in their place), and your thought that pastors have not given a thought to what it’s like to be a woman in a church that teaches that.
I know that my husband, who is a layperson who grew up in another tradition that teaches the submission of women, had not thought about what it was like to be a woman in such a church. Since those sorts of churches also perpetuate the cultural idea that “men aren’t good at dealing with emotions”, I imagine that the lack of empathy is pretty widespread…
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I happened to catch a few moments of Tony Evans teaching his listeners about Genesis 1&2. He started off by stating that both men and women were given the dominon mandate…..thats cool. But after that proceeds to take away the womans dominion by asserting that only Adam had authority because he was created before the woman. I knew that this was leading to the chain-of-command teaching that fundamentalists and comps hold so dear. He effectively placed the man between the woman and her God by top down submission; God first, man second, and then woman. So, man only answers to God (not accountable to his wife) and the wife answers to the husband……..I thought how convenient. He answers to the Invisible God in which the wife only has access through via her mediator husband. I just sat there with my mouth open counting all the red flags. Then he proceeded to thank God that “he was born a man.” It made me think of that famous prayer made by orthodox jewish men and of the hypocritical pharisee that thanked God that he was not a sinner like that publican. Needless to say 5:00 a.m. in the morning is to early to be dealing with that bologna.
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Until this past year I was not aware of the prevalence of that kind of teaching. When I started my website in January 2009, I just knew women were not being treated equally in my church and was totally unaware of even the words “male headship.” I hope others are reading these comments so they will see why I say what I do. Thank you for helping us all to understand the magnitude of the problem.
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Yes, we all need to keep posting and commenting, to flood the search engines at the very least. The Big Names own the top page ranking, but we can’t let up. All of us who post on this “elephant in the living room” have to keep pointing to it, in the hope that many more will open their eyes.
We may not be able to change “churchianity”, but there’s nothing stopping us from starting over and modeling what real Christianity was meant to be.
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Amen!
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>>We may not be able to change “churchianity”, but there’s nothing stopping us from starting over and modeling what real Christianity was meant to be.<<
Thank you, Paula, for reminding us that it is never too late to stand up for what is right.
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You’re very welcome, ladies! Glad to help.
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