How did we get here? When a major religious group such as the Southern Baptist Convention speaks, others listen. It is important to know how that transpired because an unimaginable number of Christians have already been affected by this major religious organization, and their influence continues to grow. The leadership that began the complementarian movement is still in place. They are the presidents and professors in Baptist Seminaries, and pastors of mega churches. What they sowed in 1967 is what we are reaping today. Pay close attention to that date, 1967. This is important because it was the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that gave women freedoms that men always had. These Christian leaders reacted vehemently against women. It was a determined, thought-out plan.
Then in 1987-88, The Danvers Statement on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood was written which bedded Southern Baptists with conservative Presbyterians, among others, and also fundamentalist Christian groups Promise Keepers, and CRU (formerly known as Campus Crusade for Christ). Because of their mutual desire to promote oppression of women, these groups that would not normally join together, put aside their theological differences and linked arms. This is in contrast to what Southern Baptists did in 2004 when they withdrew their presence and partnership from the Baptist World Alliance (a world-wide organization of Baptists) over their support for women in the clergy. This linking of arms keeps the denominations polarized in whatever efforts some may show in favor of reversing the oppression of women.
That is how women got to this point, and since fundamental Christians are the most influential groups, they are keeping us here. That is worth reading about. Below is a paragraph from the book, The Fundamentalist Takeover in the Southern Baptist Convention. A Brief History, by Rob James and Gary Leaser with James Shoopman, produced by Mainstream Missouri Baptists in 1999. They did not know the rest of the story. What fundamentalists have sown, we have reaped.
“The Café Du Monde in New Orleans was the site of the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention. Their plan was written on a paper napkin. Paige Patterson, now president of the largest SBC affiliated seminary, and Paul Pressler were the architects of the plan, and they used their unique knowledge of the inner workings of the SBC to systematically put their people in key positions. This stacked the dominoes in a certain way, and when they started to fall, they continued in the orderly fashion set forth on a table in a café. What began in 1967 was finalized in 1990. “This eleventh election (of a fundamentalist president of the SBC) seals the fundamentalist victory, and they celebrate at Café Du Monde in the French Quarter, where Judge Pressler and Paige Patterson had first conceived the whole plan for the takeover, many years prior.”
Paige Patterson and Paul Pressler earnestly believed that reigning in knowledge and cultural changes, and binding the scriptures to inerrancy would bring about a stronger Southern Baptist Convention and growth. They were successful, but they were wrong.
What happened in New Orleans affects you and me, because complementarian patriarchal churches do not remain static. Churches are constantly changing, and these changes are brought on by influences of larger churches. Just as hell-fire and brimstone is not the hot topic today as it was 50 years ago, the new hot topic is the bedroom and the husband’s authority throughout the home and in the church, and the insinuation that husbands represent Christ, in bed and in church. This theology came from somewhere and it is my belief that it was conceived on the paper napkin at Cafe Du Monde in New Orleans in 1967.
Both Paige Patterson and his co-hort Paul Pressler came under fire in 2018. Patterson, 76, was forced out as Southwestern Seminary’s president last year, in part for mishandling sexual misconduct allegations years earlier at another seminary, and Pressler, 88, has been accused of sexual misconduct going back 40 years.
The problem, rather, is that the beneficiaries of the conservative resurgence — today’s widely published, popular and well compensated SBC leaders and megachurch pastors — remain incapable of reckoning with the harm done to moderate Southern Baptists who truly know the Lord and love him well. Until that happens, the elite Southern Baptist Convention discourse about its epic battle will remain a bizarre exercise in vanity and self-congratulation.
“Paul Pressler, former Texas judge and religious right leader, accused of sexually assaulting teen for years.” A lawsuit filed this fall alleges that Paul Pressler, a former state judge, lawmaker and leader on the religious right, repeatedly sexually assaulted a young man over a period of decades, beginning when the boy was just 14. Note: Paul Pressler died June 7, 2024, at age 94.
SBC Membership continues to decline. In 2023, it is reported to be 12,982,090, which is likely a very generous number as members are exceptionally rarely taken off the roll.
Southern Baptist baptisms declined by more than 4% in 2019, dropping from 246,442 in 2018 to 235,748 in 2019. In 2023, it was 226,919. The record year for baptisms was in 1972 at 445,725. Baptisms in a Baptist church means the individual has made a profession of faith. It is not membership, it is a visual of salvation.
Perhaps your pastor graduated from an SBC affiliated seminary that gives power to, and holds in esteem, such non-Baptists as Wayne Grudem, Mark Driscoll, John MacArthur, and a multitude of others. They teach that the pastor (who must be male) is in control of his church, and that women are to be eternally submissive to all males, forever. Wayne Grudem co-edited Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood with John Piper. This is a bible of sorts and is still a bestselling book, and in 2024 is #549 in Christian Pastoral Resources (Kindle Store) from Amazon.
Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology is #5 in Protestant Christian Theology and is the teaching book in some Baptist seminaries. He, along with others, has centered his theology around women’s lower status to man’s higher status before God, and before all other males.
The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a fellowship of over 47,000 Baptist churches scattered across the United States and its territories. These congregations, comprised of numerous racial, ethnic, language, and socioeconomic people groups, are called “cooperating churches.” They have organized themselves to accomplish a specific set of missions and ministry initiatives, all for the purpose of proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all people everywhere. https://www.sbc.net/about/what-we-do/fast-facts/
So what? What does this mean? Why should you be concerned if you are not a Baptist? Perhaps you do not even like Baptists, and you think this has no meaning for you. It affects you because Southern Baptists are the second largest Christian religion group (behind Roman Catholics) in the United States. They do not claim to be a denomination.
A decision made almost 60 years ago has affected other Christian denominations. What decision will you make that will rectify their bad judgment?
Shirley Taylor
Street Evangelist for Women’s Equality
Books:
The Biblical Marriage Myth: The Devil Comes Calling
The Power of a Book
Raising the Hood: A Christian Look at Manhood and Womanhood
Women Equal – No Buts: Powered by the same Source
Dethroning Male HeadshipL 2nd Ed.
bWe Baptist Women for Equality's Blog 
a great recap, Shirley, of a sinister plan for power and control, the gospel of misogyny. What needs to be examined as well is a doctrine that has such a pathological view of sex that it shields abuse from exposure and accountability. Gruden and others cannot conceive of a relationship without a “power- over “ dictate. That is their true religion.
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