Southern Baptists get people talking

The national news from their convention opposing women as pastors has people of all faiths talking about the role of women.

By MAUREEN BYRNE

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 1, 2000

Negative press isn't anything new to Southern Baptists.

Three years ago, many ridiculed the Southern Baptist Convention when it passed a resolution boycotting Disney for extending health benefits to the partners of its gay employees.

A year later, the nation's largest Protestant denomination got more flak when its members passed an amendment to their faith statement on marriage that said women should submit to their husbands.

This year's annual convention wasn't any different. Protesters gathered last month at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando to challenge the denomination's lastest move: the passage of a revised statement of faith opposing women pastors and homosexuality.

"It seems like every year we get bad press," said the Rev. Bruce Crawford, pastor of Countryside Baptist Church in Clearwater.

Yet Crawford says the uproar over the vote isn't coming from the majority of women who belong to the Southern Baptist Convention.

"There was a tremendous group of women there, and none of them felt like they were being dumped on," he said.

Marilyn Jensen, a member of Countryside Baptist Church, has been a Southern Baptist since 1951. "I think it was the right thing because of what Scripture tells us," she said of the decision to limit the office of pastor to men.

"I don't feel like women are put down," said Mrs. Jensen, a retired schoolteacher. "There are many places women can serve without being a preacher."

Mrs. Jensen says she keeps very busy at her church volunteering as a leader of missions and hospitality. "But I don't agree with women as being the shepherd of the church," she said.

Crawford was one of the delegates, known as messengers, who approved the changes in the Baptist Faith and Message, the core statement of Baptist belief that was first adopted in 1925 and revised in 1963.

"The vote in our convention did not really change our opinions, but simply expressed what we already hold true," Crawford said.

Though the Faith and Message statement represents the official stance of the denomination, it is not a binding document. Baptist churches are autonomous and each congregation interprets the Scripture on its own.

The new provision is also largely symbolic. There are reportedly fewer than 100 women pastors or co-pastors in the entire convention of 41,000 churches. The denomination has no female pastors in North Pinellas.

Crawford said the Southern Baptist Convention supports women's involvement in church ministry, such as Christian education or mission work, but not as pastors or deacons.

"It's not a gender issue," he said. "It's a Scripture issue. We're just dealing with what the Bible says."

And while many view the revised statement as one of intolerance, Crawford says the 15.9 million-member denomination is only following the word of God.

"It's the common viewpoint of Southern Baptists," he said. "It's not that we changed our mind or did anything different."

Yet according to Dr. Raymond Guterman, pastor of Northwood Presbyterian Church in Clearwater, it is a matter of how one interprets the Bible. The denomination to which his church belongs, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), endorses the role of female pastors and elders.

In response to the changes in the Baptist Faith and Message, Northwood Presbyterian ran an ad on June 22 in the St. Petersburg Times.

In bold, large type were the words Where Women Stand in Our Church. In smaller type followed If you believe men and women should share equally in the sacraments and service of Christianity, join us where God's calling can be answered by everyone.

"We did that because of the Baptists," Guterman said.

The ad is not meant as a protest, he explained. "It was just an invitation for those who are looking for a church in which men and women can serve in all offices of the church equally," he said.

The Presbyterian Church was one of the first mainline Protestant churches that allowed women to serve as elders and then as ministers. Women were first ordained as elders in 1930, and women were ordained as ministers beginning in 1965.

The controversial move eventually caused a split in the denomination in 1974 that resulted in the formation of the Presbyterian Church in America. The more liberal of the two branches, Presbyterian Church in America merged in 1983 with its northern counterpart, the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, to create the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

According to 1999 statistics released by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the denomination had 3,544 female pastors out of 20,940 ministers. The numbers were about even for male and female elders.

The Presbyterian Church is not without its problems. The 2.6-million-member denomination was scheduled to discuss the issue of homosexuality, mainly same-sex unions, at its annual meeting this week in Long Beach, Calif.

Presbyterians are the second major Protestant denomination to tackle the issue of homosexuality this summer. In May, the United Methodist Church upheld its ban on gay ordination and same-sex ceremonies, and next week the 2.6-million-member Episcopal Church will deal with the same issue.

As far as the issue of women pastors is concerned, the Rev. Richard Landeen doesn't see any reason why women should be excluded from the position. The argument that the disciples were men doesn't work with him.

"In reading Scripture there were also women who were very important to (Jesus') ministry," said Landeen, pastor of the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Seminole. "I think women right from the beginning have been a part of ministry."

Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd is one of nearly 11,000 congregations belonging to the 5.2-million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the nation's largest Lutheran body. The Lutheran Church in America, one of three Lutheran denominations that formed the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, approved the ordination of women in 1970.

"(Men and women) ought to work together," Landeen said.

In the United Methodist Church, an increasing number of women have been admitted to the ordained ministry, appointed to the district superintendency, elected to positions of denominational leadership and consecrated as bishops. In 1980, Marjorie Matthews was the first woman elected to the church's episcopacy.

It became legal to ordain women as priests in the Episcopal Church in 1977, and the hierarchy in the Catholic Church has long been restricted to men.

"There are different churches for different people, and we believe God thinks that's fine," said pastor Guterman of Northwood Presbyterian Church.

The Rev. Richard Pierce Sr., pastor of Holy Spirit Ministries, a non-denominational church in St. Petersburg, sees it differently. He believes it is wrong to keep women from the pulpit.

"That's not biblical," he said. "If you're called of God, you're called of God. God can anoint anybody."

Times files were used in this report.

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