For such a time as this

The Southern Baptist Convention reaffirmed female submission to all males this week when they proudly affirmed complentarianism. The church is the last holdout for female equality. The first place where a woman should have been equal is proving to be the last place where she will find equality.

SBC Resolution 1 threw flowery prose at women and patted them on the back for their church service (casseroles, children’s ministry, missionaries). Even declared that God calls and gifts women for certain limited roles according to their gender.

They listed 7 WHEREASes to say all this.

Then they RESOLVED 6 times and repeated the same stuff.

Then they ended with the same message to women that they began with:

RESOLVED, that we call upon all Southern Baptists to encourage, cultivate the diverse gifts, calling and contributions of women in biblically appropriate ways.

There you have it. Nothing new. Women are equal-but. But they are limited by what they do and by all who subscribe to the Southern Baptist Convention’s teaching of male headship.

We live in a country where women have won legal rights, but in this country the majority of Christian women have surrendered their Christian rights.

We should never forget those women who bucked the system and who demanded their rights. It was not just for equality for themselves that inspired them to fight. These brave women were looking into the future to a time when all women would be equal. They would be heart-broken to know that 21st century Christian women willingly give up their spiritual rights.

There was a group of brave women and men who attended the “For such a time as this rally” outside the convention hall last week. There was only a handful there. Just as there was only a handful of women who fought for the right to vote and other legal rights that women now have.

Thank God for this handful. You will benefit from it someday. But what we need now for you to stand up and speak up. We are in such a time as this, almost 100 years (1920-2020) since government recognized that women had a voice and could use it.