No Girls ... And They Mean It!
The Catholic Church is no better but here is some good old Southern Baptist sexism.
A local Baptist association voted 204 to 44 to remove Hillcrest Baptist Church as a member of its body of Southern Baptist congregations because of its decision to hire a woman pastor.
The Oct. 19 vote by the Mobile Baptist Association affirmed a recommendation from two committees that urged association members to "accept Hillcrest Baptist Church's decision to differ with the guidelines for affiliation by voting for disaffiliation."
At issue was Hillcrest's move earlier this year to hire the Rev. Ellen Sims, who was ordained through the American Baptist Churches USA. Hillcrest Baptist Church has ties to the Southern Baptist Convention, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and, until Thursday's vote, the Mobile Baptist Association.
Neither Sims, who serves as associate pastor, nor Hillcrest's pastor, Dudley Wilson, addressed the hundreds gathered for the session. Before the vote, however, a representative from Hillcrest told the delegates that the congregation would accept their decision in the matter.
While several Protestant denominations -- including some Baptist organizations -- welcome women to serve as pastors, Southern Baptists'
statement of faith stipulates that "the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture."
1 Comments:
You'd probably want to check into this story a little deeper to find (as was reported to me by someone close to that association) that the woman involved came from a Baptist church that has as it's senior pastor a woman who is coming from a Unitarian background and is a practicing lesbian living with her partner.
I suspect the lady might have more theological baggage than is acceptable for your typical SBC'er to handle.
In most areas, a woman who was on staff but not the senior pastor, as is the case with this woman, wouldn't raise near the fuss that this stirred up.
YMMV
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