Birth of the Activist Jesus – Part 1

Posted on November 27, 2021 by bwebaptistwomenforequality

Love is plastered all over many church’s websites. But for most, it is like looking for love in all the wrong places. Jesus came into the world that was having a problem with love, and we still have not fully understood what love means.

In particular, Christian women are still held to a rigid law of submission to all males. December 6, 2015, a Southern Baptist pastor preached a particularly offensive sermon in which he blamed all of society’s ills on women whose only desire is to live out the equality we were given by God our Creator. He called it ‘feminist rebellion.’ In this sermon he quoted the party line, the same old diatribe that women are far too familiar with. This same kind of sermon is heard every Sunday in many Baptist churches, and also on blogs, Twitter, and Facebook.

Where was love in this belittling and hateful sermon? This pastor did not quote Jesus because Jesus did not speak of – nor did Jesus indicate – male supremacy such as this pastor preached. There was no love in this sermon. He has closed his mind to the pro-feminist actions of Christ. Feminists do not want to harm or deny men any position, but male headship leaders choose to hammer women.

The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 has led many pastors astray with this theology of male headship, and in doing so, they have forgotten the Jesus who was born into a world of rules and laws. They have forgotten that Jesus came to call humans to a better way of life – to love God and to love others. Not only in word, but in how we treat each other.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-34)

Bob Edwards, author of Let My People Go, reminds us that Jesus is concerned with human rights, which includes the human rights of women, and we must be, too.

“I don’t discuss prejudice against women in the church as “one of those theological issues we just have to agree to disagree on.” I would not have “agreed to disagree on slavery.” I do not agree to disagree on racism. I will not politely agree to disagree on the devaluation and subjugation of all women by men in the name of God. It’s an injustice that grieves the Holy Spirit and must be addressed as such. The Bible is full of excellent examples of men and women who love people AND tell them to repent of unjust practices. Jesus, for example, confronted the religious leaders of his day for confusing the will of God with the traditions of men. I think we should do likewise.” – Bob Edwards

Jesus came to free us from the rigmarole that man had bound God with. Jesus told us to love God with all our heart, and to love our fellow-man. When love is the motivator, our worship of God, and helping our fellow-man, will take on a different meaning. We will feed the hungry, help the poor, heal the sick, treat others as we want to be treated, and give the Good News to everyone.

However, instead of being like Jesus, we still desire to enforce laws for Christians, especially laws about what women can and cannot do, and I wonder if Jesus would have turned his eyes upon us.

The true meaning of Christmas is the freedom that Jesus gave us. Yet Christian leaders today want to withhold that freedom for women. They have forgotten that Christianity is about human rights. “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”(John 15:12)

This Christmas, will you remember the birth of the greatest human rights activist? Will you open your heart to loving women as equals, and not as someone who was created to submit to all males?

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To Show Love – A Message to GC2

Posted on November 8, 2021 by bwebaptistwomenforequality

My copy of Texas Baptists Life landed in my mailbox today. It stirred and saddened my soul.

On pages 16 and 17 there is a big spread about something called GC2 – a movement of God’s people to share Christ and show love. Underline those words “To show love.”

The Message from the BGCT Associate Executive Director, Dr Craig Christina, shares his thoughts.

“… it is not a new denomination. We’re not competing with the Southern Baptist Convention or any other national or state convention of churches. …Instead we feel compelled to follow the Lord’s leading and unit God’s people to build relationships with like-minded Christians as we explore and expand mission opportunities.”

And there you have it. The same-old, same-old. The DNA does not change.

It is a NEW DNA that you must be working from. That is what Jesus came to do. He came to change the Jewish leaders’ hearts and what they were teaching. They were wrong then, and we are wrong now.

Where is the love you tout? Look at your Statement of Faith of the GC2. It is not about love. It is laws and legalistic jargon just like those Jesus reprimanded the Jewish leaders about in Matthew 23.  Jesus called them snakes and vipers because they were deadly and killed the souls of those they were supposed to be ministering to.

You are doing the same thing. You are hammering on abortion, homosexuality, and gender reassignment. This is no new work. This is the same thing that has gotten Christianity in the place we are in today. Where little love is shown.

People are leaving the church by droves. They are not seeing the love. Why did you think Jesus came to earth? Well, let me tell you. It wasn’t to keep up their old laws. It was to bring a new law. A law of love God and love your fellow man – in action and deed – not in honeyed words.

Jesus turned his eyes upon them.

What will Jesus see when he turns his eyes upon this Statement of Faith by the GC2? Where will he see “the love that you are to give?”  He knows His own love, but it hard to find your love in this statement.

Your Statement of Faith has little to do with Faith. It is mean-spirited and un-Christlike. Look at #8, #9, #10. Then see why I suggest you delete those and add a new #10 to show your love.

STATEMENT OF FAITH

THE GC2 MOVEMENT AFFIRMS

  1. There is one God who is revealed in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit;
  2. Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church;
  3. The virgin birth of Christ, the eternal Son of God, who died for our sins, was resurrected on the third day, and is coming back;
  4. The Bible is God’s Word and truth without mixture of error;
  5. Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone;
  6. The priesthood of every believer and of all believers;
  7. The urgent need to reach the lost with the Good News of Jesus;
  8. The sanctity of human life from conception to natural death;  You are going to have a little bit of trouble with this one. The new Texas Abortion Law says that women cannot abort a baby 6 weeks from conception. If she is caught or turned in she can be brought to justice for taking a human life. Look what was agreed upon at the SBC 2000 Convention “Therefore, be it RESOLVED, That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention, meeting in Orlando, Florida, June 13﷓14, 2000, support the fair and equitable use of capital punishment by civil magistrates as a legitimate form of punishment for those guilty of murder or treasonous acts that result in death;” You must ask yourself: “Do you condone killing her if she has an abortion?” Of course you do. Says so right there. Also read How Southern Baptists became Pro-Life.
  9. Gender is a gift from God who creates humankind male and female in the Divine image and likeness (Gen. 1:27); Gender is not as straight forward as you want everyone to believe. We know babies are born with indeterminate gender. I learned that when I was seven years old and it was whispered that a relative had given birth to a son and “there was something wrong with the genitals of the boy.”
  10. Biblical marriage as one man and one woman in a covenant relationship with the Lord and with one another; There is a little problem there, too. Oh sure, I know you are talking about same-sex marriages, but you are the one comparing them and making them fit your standard with heterosexual marriage standards. Look at what the bible lists as biblical marriages – multiple wives, husbands with concubines, adultery with your slave. You might need to eliminate the word biblical. This, too, does not show love. It shows blatant disregard for humans’ sexuality. Not everyone was fortunate enough to be born heterosexual. You have made them outcasts. Where is the love you proclaim on your flashy website?
  11. The ordinances of the church are the Lord’s Supper and believer’s baptism;
  12. The autonomy of the local church in governance and ordination.

#8, #9, #10 should be completely deleted as written.

Number 10 should have a new paragraph reflecting your intention “To show love.”

#10.       We will show our love to our neighbor as Jesus taught, placing no restrictions on that love because Jesus did not place any restrictions, and we will strive to follow the example of Jesus.

 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:36-40, NIV

Jesus gave us a new playbook that we call The New Testament. As Christians, we have misused it and abused it.

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It was time to get out of Afghanistan

Posted on August 13, 2021 by bwebaptistwomenforequality

It was time to get out of Afghanistan. They are a country ruled by religion. You cannot change their religion which is male dominated and female subjugated. I know you can’t change it. We can’t even change it in the United States. Baptist churches this Sunday morning will tell men they are in charge of their families and women are to submit graciously.

The vast majority of Southern Baptist churches and Catholic churches and non-denominational churches, and other denominational churches teach the same thing. A few have changed their minds, but the majority has not. Religion rules in Afghanistan. Thank God religion does not rule in the United States. At least, not yet. But if Christians have their way, it will. And it will be the women who suffer.

The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 states “The state has no right to impose penalties for religious opinions of any kind…..A free church (has) the right to form and propagate opinions in the sphere of religion without interference by the civil power.” (Baptist Faith and Message 2000. XV11 Religious Liberty).

Baptists, and perhaps most Christians, do not want the state to interfere with religious values. But they do not appear to have any problem with religious values interfering with civil values.

For instance,

it was the government, not Christian values, that dictated Civil Justice for blacks,

it was the government, not Christian values, that dictated Civil Justice for women,

it was the government, not Christian values, that dictated Civil Justice for homosexuals,

and,

it is religious values that demand that women be submissive to all males – husbands, leaders, and so on, under the guise of ‘the Bible says so.’ Or the Quran or other religious teachings says so.

It is always women who must wear the standard of their religion. Whether it is clothing such as scarves and hijabs, or severe clothing styles for Amish, Pentecostal, etc., it is women who look strange and out of date in our Western culture.

It is women who are denied leadership positions in their church and even in the community. Women are denied leadership in their own homes and before their children. Women cannot preach or teach men, while Christian men are denied nothing due to their gender.

Religious liberty is no liberty when it comes to women. Give me civil liberty any day.

What are you doing for true Religious Liberty for women?

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Standing by even when you know it is wrong

Posted on July 16, 2021 by bwebaptistwomenforequality

A tweeter and a SBC Executive Officer chided me this week about my ministry as a Street Evangelist for women’s equality.

“If a church chooses to believe in complementarianism, that is their belief. Respect their beliefs and move on. There are churches who believe differently, go there. . It is not up to us to change the Church.” (the tweet).

“Thank you for your letter. Please know that we continue to stand by The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 relating to the office of the pastor and what we believe Scripture teaches about that.” (the SBC Executive Officer)

If only it were that simple! Just move on. Go somewhere else. I did, but the problem is still there and the calling is still here.

Complementarianism is the view of the BF&M 2000. It is manifested in denying women their calling to be pastors and to be equals to their husbands in their own home.

These teachings have consequences that affect all women. It is as pervasive as the air we breathe.

This is a teaching that directly impacts homes, subjecting whole families to whatever kinds of leadership husbands decide they are divinely entitled to. The BF&M 2000 Section on the Family says “A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband.”

When men are taught they have authority over women, this complementarian teaching that was born in churches and nurtured in Christian families, bleeds out into society. Both men and women who never go to church are influenced by it. Often it results in abuse of wives and girlfriends in both church and society.

Wives lose their status in marriage and come under the domination of the husband to whatever degree of submission he decides he wants. Girls are raped, sex trafficked, beaten, and murdered because females have been devalued. This devaluation produces long-term detrimental effects, and women and families suffer because of it.

Because complementarians push second-class citizenship for women in churches, when they advocate for abused women in shelters they come across as hypocrites. Church ministries spend time and money bandaging the wounds of those afflicted by male dominance, but they will not address the teaching that causes it. As Jesus said, “they will not lift a finger” to change it. In fact, they continue to perpetuate it.

The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (forerunner of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000) claims that they do not advocate abuse against wives, but when it does happen, they say that the church is better able to handle such domestic abuse than the secular world.

The fact is that the church has no such ability to handle abuse, and since the majority of pastors teach male headship, many will take the husband’s side. They have no binding or legal authority over any member of the church and abusers cannot be held accountable in a church setting.

The only action a church can take is to tell the abuser he cannot come back to church. They cannot make him attend any program for counseling, nor can they provide legal counsel to the wife. The result is that the abuser goes free and the woman is still at the mercy of her attacker.

If the Christian church did have authority over wife abusers and family matters, this would be akin to Sharia Law, which is the legal framework of public and private life that is regulated for those living in a legal system based on Islam.

 Significantly, the church also has no authority over a child abuser. The church is unable to dictate terms of compliance with the law or counseling. They have no legal authority other than to provide an “eyes on” when a predator becomes a member of their church. A family member who is being abused by another family member also cannot be protected by the church. These are cases for civil authorities and the church must not interfere with their process in handling abuse by or against church members.

It is likely that your pastor has his degree from a Southern Baptist Convention seminary. Or perhaps the degree was from a seminary with teachers who studied at an SBC seminary. It is also likely that your youth minister has his or her degree from one of these seminaries that ardently teach male headship. They will teach this to the youth groups in churches they serve. This teaching will affect attitudes and beliefs of the young men your daughters will marry.

Young girls and women will be told they are mistaken if they think God is calling them into ministry. Teenage girls will learn that their membership in churches – the body of Christ – comes with restrictions.

However, the implications of complementarianism are far greater than what goes on in churches and on the mission field. Churches are made up of people and those church members who firmly believe in adherence to those doctrines carry that belief of male headship into the workplace, and out into society. They fail to promote women to higher paid positions because they believe women should be at home, or, particularly in private and smaller businesses, they are likely to harass and abuse women in the workplace.

Civilizations change and move forward. For well over two thousand years Christ was lost among civilizations, including our own, that sought to enslave others because some believed that they were born to a higher status. The end to slavery did not come about easily because many people used the scriptures to justify owning other human beings.

The concept of male divinity is not new. Greek mythology often has superior males called gods who come to earth and mates with earthly females. Similarly, for centuries it was believed that emperors were divine. That is what is happening today with male headship, but to a greater degree than ever before. Complementarians have decided that it is not just some men who are born to rule over women, but that all men are born to rule over all women.

Some people are willing to put forth anything outrageous about women because there is a deep-seated feeling that because of Eve, women are inherently capable of all kinds of evil things: Witchcraft, seduction, emasculating men, and even feminizing the church.

This attitude is learned in church and bleeds out into society, and thus we have some separate kind of alien being called “woman.”

Can they all be wrong? The answer is YES. When one group presents a rotten apple as being desirable, and others bite into it and call it sweet, does that make the rotten apple sweet?

I am not the first, nor will I be the last, to point out that the complementarian view of men and women is in direct opposition to the teaching of Christ. There are many voices crying out in protest that scriptures have been misused and mistranslated in favor of man’s superiority over woman.

This “headship” teaching causes suffering, because there is no way men, or women for that matter, can have the kind of god-like power that the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 bestows without it having dangerous consequences.

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God is sending the answer, grab it!

Posted on June 18, 2021 by bwebaptistwomenforequality

My letter to Dr. Ronnie Floyd today would be the same as the one I wrote to him in 2015. Because, you see, the answer is right there in front of him and in front of the whole SBC family. They choose to ignore what is right before their eyes.

One of the favorite ministry expressions is “It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.” So, Dr. Floyd, let’s go for forgiveness. God will forgive you if you call on women to preach the precious Gospel of Jesus Christ. Don’t you believe that? Plead to God for forgiveness because the urgency is so great. Moses pleaded with God to change His mind. You can, too, if you feel the urgency is that great.

This past week at the SBC Convention, Dr. Floyd reiterated the urgency he expressed in 2015.

 “Vision 2025 is a call to reach every person for Jesus Christ in every town, every city, every state and every nation,” Floyd said. “There are 331 million Americans and 7.9 billion people in the world. Eternal lostness exists and eternal hell is waiting, so we must do all we can to reach people so their names can be written in the Lamb’s book of life. …

Citing eternal lostness and the reality of hell, SBC Executive Committee President and CEO Ronnie Floyd called Southern Baptists to back the initiative “with your lives and ministries and churches,” saying, “This is not just a good thing we should do. It is the most urgent thing we should do.

“The urgency is now.”

The helicopters are flying over your roof, Dr. Floyd. If the urgency is that great, grab it!

October 5, 2015

Dr. Ronnie Floyd

Southern Baptist Convention

The Executive Committee, SBC
901 Commerce Street
Nashville, TN 37203-3699

Dear Dr. Floyd,

I can hear your heavy heart in your Presidential Postings of September 8, 2015.  “We need a breakthrough.”

My heart also hurts for our nation, our world, and for our Christian faith.

Only God can send the breakthrough, but God works through people, through leaders such as yourself. God works through laypeople such as who I am. As Great Commission people, we must find a way to be what Jesus commanded us to be. Jesus himself led the way, and it is to him that we must look.

You said, “And yes, we also need pastor-leaders by the thousands to rise up and lead forward toward gospel advancement beginning in their towns, cities, across America, and the entire world.”

Jesus said the same thing when he saw the crowds of people needing a shepherd, “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”

I offer you the breakthrough.  

Women are here, called and seminary trained and are ready to be sent into the harvest as pastors and leaders.

“A religious man is on top of a roof during a great flood. A man comes by in a boat and says “get in, get in!” The religious man replies, “no I have faith in God, he will grant me a miracle.” Later the water is up to his waist and another boat comes by and the guy tells him to get in again. He responds that he has faith in God and God will give him a miracle. With the water at about chest high, another boat comes to rescue him, but he turns down the offer again because “God will grant him a miracle.” With the water at chin high, a helicopter throws down a ladder and they tell him to get in, mumbling with the water in his mouth, he again turns down the request for help for the faith of God. He arrives at the gates of heaven with broken faith and says to Peter, I thought God would grant me a miracle and I have been let down.” With tears in his eyes, St. Peter responds, “I don’t know what you’re complaining about, we sent you three boats and a helicopter.”

Dr. Floyd, if you are serious about wanting a breakthrough to reach the masses, you’ll take who God has sent.

Shirley Taylor, Street Evangelist for Women’s Equality

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Behind closed doors

Posted on June 9, 2021 by bwebaptistwomenforequality

This weekend, June 13-16, the Southern Baptist Convention convenes.

I loved being a Baptist. I loved the church and I loved its ministries. For years I supported Texas Baptist Men with my financial gifts. I believed that Baptists were demonstrating the hands and feet and heart of Christ.

Years ago, in 1990, on a Sunday drive, I was burdened for the people in a new subdivision in Houston where I could see no church nearby. I wrote my pastor and poured out my heart to him over the unchurched families in that area.

A year later as I was entering my church, I overheard our new interim pastor telling the church secretary that his ministry assistant had resigned. I learned that he was a Church Starting Consultant for the Baptist General Convention of Texas. His office was only five miles from my home. A week later I had her job and thus began my 14 1/2 years with BGCT Church Starting Center.

But things were changing within me and around me. Associations and churches were taking sides and many churches left BGCT for a more fundamental message – a message that specifically denied women’s calling as pastors and leaders and which also put a stamp on a wife’s relationship with her husband in her own home. This demoted Christ to the point that He shared His headship with husbands, with husbands being the first line of defense.

In 2004, my supervisor, Regional Consultant Ron Gunter, gave me a tape to transcribe of a meeting he had had with the deacons of a church that was deciding whether they would leave BGCT for the SBTC, or stay. As I listened to the voices in my ears, tears rolled down my cheeks.

Those men had no idea (or perhaps they wouldn’t have cared) that a woman was hearing what they were saying about women in leadership. There was unadulterated hatred and vitriol in their words as they quoted scripture. Those same words are still being used against women who seek pastoral and deacon roles in Baptist churches today.

Read the letter Russell Moore wrote to the Dr. J. D Greear, the current president of the SBC. Listen to what he says those in leadership say about women. The same hatred and venom that I heard in my ear in 2004, is still being spewed toward women today – this time in the highest leadership levels.

Russell Moore Regarding sexual abuse by Baptist male predators:  “You and I both heard, in closed door meetings, sexual abuse survivors spoken of in terms of “Potiphar’s wife” and other spurious biblical analogies. The conversations in these closed door meetings were far worse than anything Southern Baptists knew —or the outside world could report. And, as you know, this comes on the heels of a track-record of the Executive Committee staff and others referring to victims as “crazy” and, at least in one case, as worse than the sexual predators themselves.”

Jesus said to love your neighbor. Surely He also meant to love your sister in Christ. I know now when it comes to women, that Baptist leadership does not demonstrate the heart and the hands and the feet of Christ.

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The real meaning of 1 Peter 3 is not submission

Posted on May 27, 2021 by bwebaptistwomenforequality

June 13-16 the Southern Baptist Convention is preparing for a win against women. One way or the other, they plan to throw the bible at women.

So, I will do it for them. Let’s start with 1 Peter 3, one of their favorite chapters.

If 1 Peter 3 is not about wives submitting to their husbands, then what does it mean? What message does Peter really have for women?

Here it is: They would become mothers like Sarah because they themselves would be founding a new nation of believers, not by giving birth in the physical sense, but by spreading the gospel message so people can be born again by the spirit.

“Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves. They submitted themselves to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear (1 Peter 3:1-7).”

This passage has been misused to tell women they must submit to their husbands. Some preachers even tell women that they must treat their husbands as Lord, because they say Sarah called Abraham “Lord.” But that is a misinterpretation and belittling of this passage. It is being used as a self-serving demand that women submit to their husbands, and, thus, to all men.

What is not taught is that this passage has a wonderful message to women today, just as it did to women in the First Century. The message is that they will be Mothers of a new nation. This time it would not be Israelites, but a new nation of Christians. These women are not just going to be daughters of Sarah, but they will be Mothers like Sarah. Being a daughter means that you are taking your cue from your mother, but being a Mother means that you are the one who is in charge.

When Peter said they would be Sarah’s daughters, he was telling them that the new life they had chosen as Christians was not going to be easy. Their husbands might not be Christians, and this would prove hard for them to live a Christian life when the father in the family did not live as a Christian. So, while it would be hard, if they do what is right (stay the course), and do not let fear control them, they will be birthing a new nation of Christians, and therefore they would be Mothers like Sarah. Instead of one Sarah, they would all be Sarahs!

The following paragraphs are from my book Dethroning Male Headship1 found at the end of the chapter called “They asked for Sarah first.”

Some like to quote Peter when he said Sarah called Abraham “master” in Genesis 18:12, “So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, ‘After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?’” The New International Version Bible uses the word “master,” unlike other translations that use the word “Lord.”

It is impossible to connect 1 Peter 3:1-6 to the words of Sarah found in Genesis to support the doctrine of wifely submission, but Bruce Ware, one of the members of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, attempts to do just that in his book, The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: The Trinity as Theological Foundation for Family Ministry. Ware writes, “I find it astonishing that it is in this text, of all New Testament passages that teach on husband and wife relations, that the strongest language is used to describe a wife’s submission! Peter appealed to Sarah as an example and said that she “obeyed Abraham, calling him lord” (1 Pet 3:6a), indicating that they would be Sarah’s “children” if they fearlessly followed this example.”

Ware, who is a professor Christian Theology, has missed the beautiful promise of this passage. The promise is not that women would be Sarah’s children if they are submissive, but that they would become mothers like Sarah because they themselves would be founding a new nation of believers, not by giving birth in the physical sense, but by spreading the gospel message so people can be born again by the spirit.

To emphasize, Peter does NOT tell wives they are Sarah’s daughters if they submit to their husbands like Sarah did. What he DOES say was startling, and raised the hairs on their heads by its audacity. Peter tells these women that “like mother, like daughter” and just as their mother Sarah birthed a new nation, they, too, are birthing a new nation of believers.

We can interpret Peter’s words something like this, “That was the way it was done back in Sarah’s day, but things have changed. We are now under grace by faith, not under the law. You have done what is right in becoming Christ-followers, and are Sarah’s daughters—children of the freed woman—if you do not fear as you keep following Christ, and, like Sarah, you will birth this new nation of God’s people.”

Again, Paul says the same thing:

“Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise. These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother (Sarah)….Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman,” Galatians 4:21-26, 31.

1 Peter 3 contains a powerful promise of building a nation of believers that is for all time.

Twenty-first century Christian women are also children of the free woman, but some still choose to cling to Hagar by holding to a master/slave relationship with their husbands, and pastors still enforce this type of submission, even when they know it is wrong.

Sarah is mentioned four times in the New Testament, three of which are specifically about her becoming the mother of a nation. 1 Peter 3:6 is too, but the greater truth of it has been neglected. By passionately claiming the first part of the scripture that says wives must submit to their husbands, the promise it held for New Testament wives has been ignored. This particular reference to Sarah in 1 Peter 3:6 emphasizes the new covenant and has those new Christian women actively participating in the ministry of the gospel by birthing a nation of believers (1 Peter 3:6; Hebrews 11:11; Romans 4:19; Galatians 4:2-26, 31).

Wives, continue in your marriages even if your husbands are unbelievers, for by doing so, you will be like Sarah, mothers of a nation of believers.

Male headship is dethroned when Peter told Christian women that they will be like Sarah, mothers of a nation of believers.

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The Advocate – Holy Spirit or Husbands?

Posted on May 21, 2021 by bwebaptistwomenforequality

This Pentecost Sunday we must talk about The Danvers Statement on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, the sole reason for the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW). Jesus said he would send an Advocate, and the CBMW has made that “advocate” a husband.

The following words are from the Pope, not a Baptist! However, the role that husbands have been given by complementarians are synonymous to the role of the other Advocate.*

“The advocate (defender) is he who, taking the part of those who are guilty because of sin committed, defends them from the penalty due to their sins, and saves them from the danger of losing eternal life and salvation. This is precisely what Jesus Christ did. The Holy Spirit is called the Paraclete because he continues Christ’s redemptive work which freed us from sin and eternal death. The Paraclete will be “another advocate-defender” also for a second reason. Remaining with Christ’s disciples, he will watch over them with his omnipotent power. “I will pray the Father,” Jesus said, “and he will give you another Paraclete to be with you forever” (Jn 14:16)” (The Holy Spirit as Advocate. Catechesis by Pope John Paul II on the Holy Spirit).

The Danvers Statement on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood was the brainchild of Wayne Grudem, professor of theology and biblical studies. It originated from a discussion and eventually a paper he wrote in which he defined the Greek work kephale to mean having “authority over” instead of “source” as egalitarians were claiming.

That sums up the Danvers Statement very well. In Wayne Grudem’s mind and intent – based upon his own words**, men having authority over women is the overriding theme. Never mind the fact that Jesus did not give males this authority or acknowledge in any way that men were superior to women. They claim that God decided at Creation that He would share His headship over women with all men.

By giving males authority based on gender and nothing else, the writers and proponents of the Danvers Statement reduce women to an inferior status by assigning specific “roles” based on gender.

These assigned roles deny the power of the Holy Spirit.

Man-made roles do not allow for spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts are those of natural abilities and also those of supernatural abilities (when God calls us to do something, He will equip us for that job). The Word of God did not categorize these gifts under two column headings: male and female. The Danvers Statement has categorized men and women into roles, but the scriptures do not. The scriptures they give to back up their arguments do not prove that God has given males headship or authority over females.

The Danvers Statement can be found on the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood’s website, on John Piper’s Desiring God website, on the website of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and elsewhere. A past president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Paige Patterson who, along with his wife Dorothy Kelley Patterson, was instrumental in both the Danvers Statement and the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 is the official statement of the Southern Baptist Convention and the majority of its 47,530 churches, and it has the same language and intent as the Danvers Statement.

This means that Baptist churches have adopted the essential dogma of the Danvers Statement without realizing it. That should surprise no one given that the CBMW has its headquarters in a Southern Baptist theological seminary.

It is all about keeping women under control

It is important to understand that the Danvers Statement is all about keeping women under control and keeping women from leadership in the home or church. We know this because it is included in the book Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism. This book was edited by two of the founders of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, John Piper and Wayne Grudem. The CBMW was founded in order to support male headship and male authority, and women’s submission to that authority.

From the beginning of the Danvers Statement, one can see it diverging from biblical truths, based upon CBMW’s biases and interpretations. Certainly there are differences in men and women other than anatomical differences. The Bible is not concerned with masculine and feminine traits. Jesus never mentions these inborn differences. God Himself is described with both father and mother characteristics. In the New Testament, Jesus is concerned with the heart – not masculinity, not femininity, and certainly not genitalia.

The fallacies of the Danvers Statement

Much has been written exposing the fallacies of the Danvers Statement. However, it does not take a Bible scholar to see the misogyny presented in the Danvers Statement. In reading the Concerns and Affirmations, it is clear that this is a cultural document that denies the modern age in preference to biblical times with emphasis on restrictions against women.

Scriptures have been added to the document in an attempt to justify the return of families to the First Century. A clear reading of the scriptures does not justify male domination over females as a commandment law. It cannot. Jesus made one new law and it was not about male/female leadership, but about equality in loving each other: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34).

Each point in the Danvers Statement begins with their belief that women are responsible for the breakdown of family and reinforces their teaching that males were created from the beginning to dominate and lead women.

When Christian men believe they are to lead their wives, or to get her ready for Jesus, they usurp the role of the Holy Spirit, the true Advocate.

*In mid-December, an article was published on the Desiring God website titled “Husbands, Get Her Ready for Jesus.” Written by a Philadelphia pastor named Bryan Stoudt, this piece argues that husbands have a responsibility to challenge and correct their wives in order to keep them on course through the path of sanctification. For Stoudt, husbands have a unique responsibility for their wives’ sanctification, a responsibility that wives do not share for their husbands. He describes this responsibility as “the staggering privilege of getting our wives ready for Jesus, their true husband.”   https://www.cbeinternational.org/resource/article/mutuality-blog-magazine/why-husbands-cant-get-her-ready-jesus

** https://cbmw.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/14-1.pdf

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Women-bashing on Mother’s Day

Posted on May 14, 2021 by bwebaptistwomenforequality

They came out in force on Mother’s Day against women

These Mother’s Day tweets should have surprised me, but it didn’t. It does, however, disappoint me that Presidents of renowned Baptist Theological Seminaries and professors would engage in women-bashing such as this.

Al Mohler, President of The Southern Baptist Theological Baptist Seminary: “This is John A Broadus warning against the practice of women preaching in church worship. This is NOT a new belief or doctrine. Broadus wrote this in 1880.”

Owen Strachan, past president of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: “There is no exception to 1 Timothy 2:9-15. Not Mother’s Day, not when a woman has real gifting, not when the elders endorse women preaching. Based on his creation order, God only calls men to lead, preach, teach, & shepherd the flock. Find a church that stands for this truth.”

Daniel Akin, President of Southeaster Baptist Theological Seminary: May 9. “He is correct my friend. 100%. The Bible is crystal clear” on the B.H. Carroll statement  “The custom is some congregations of having a woman as pastor is in flat contradiction to this apostolic teaching and is open rebellion against Christ our King, and high treason against His sovereignty…Under no circumstances conceivable is it justifiable.” – B.H. Carroll

Jesus held those in leadership to a higher standard than he does us ordinary people. There is a constant barrage of self-righteous indignation against women who hear the call to preach.

Seminary presidents and professors, you are guilty of this lack of justice toward the largest segment of humanity—women.

Jesus had strong words of rebuke for the teachers of the law who loved their law more than they loved the people who were hindered by their strict interpretation of that law. They gave their required tithe and thought that gave them the right to do as they pleased. So when it came to treating people with compassion, they failed. Jesus said this failing outweighed their keeping of the law (Matthew 23:23). Amos 5:21-24 says the same thing, paraphrased: “Your religious activities, your songs, and your money do not mean a thing to me. What I am concerned about is that you are not showing justice to others.”

One-fifth of Americans have no religious affiliation, but the concern is not to provide a preacher for those lost souls, instead the concern is that some woman might feel called to preach to them, or feel called to be a deacon or elder, or to fill a position where she might exercise some spiritual authority over a man.

“You who love the law more than you do people, take heed,” rebuke from Jesus Christ, Himself.

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Mother’s Day – Glorified then Villified

Posted on May 5, 2021 by bwebaptistwomenforequality

Jesus told us to honor our mother and our father. That is not the reason churches celebrate Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, but it does give biblical meaning to our celebration of this day.

As in many things, Christians have taken honoring mothers and fathers to the extreme.

Pastors pull out their favorite scriptures such as 1 Corinthians 13 “the Love Chapter” and Proverbs 31 with the kids rising up and calling Mama blessed.

On Mother’s Day she is glorified. On Father’s Day – in order to make him the central character in the family – she is villified.

Listen to how this pastor forgot the part about honoring your mother and father and hammered on the part that wives (mothers) must submit to daddy.

A pastor preached a Father’s Day sermon in which he told men that husbands must allow their wives to submit, because “women have to submit to their husbands in order to honor God.” The pastor said that fewer marriages would break up if the wife would submit to her husband. I have news for him. That passage is not about saving marriages.

Whenever a preacher tells a woman that to honor God, she has to submit to her husband, she ought to run to her Bible and find out why Peter or the apostle Paul would say such a thing. The fact is that the intent of the scripture is always misquoted.

1 Peter 3:1 is the passage that the pastor quoted in the sermon. “Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands,” and this is where they stop. But the complete sentence brings unsaved men into the story, and that pastor did not want to preach on that. More importantly, it gives spiritual leadership to wives (uh-oh!). Let’s continue with 1 Peter 3:1, “…so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives…”

1 Peter 3 actually begins in chapter two with the instruction that now that they are Christians, they should act like Christians, and this is the way Christians should act:

• keep your behavior excellent among other races

• submit yourselves to human institutions – kings or those in authority

• act as free men and do not use your freedom for evil

• servants are to treat their masters with respect

• wives are to respect their husbands

• husbands are to respect their wives

It ends with Chapter 3 verses 8-9, “To conclude: you must all have the same attitude and the same feelings; love one another as brothers, and be kind and humble with one another. Do not pay back evil with evil or cursing with cursing; instead, pay back with a blessing, because a blessing is what God promised to give you when he called you….” (Good News Bible).

Many have stolen Peter’s words about living with other Christians as Christians should, and have instead made it into an eternal marriage manual in which the wife submits.

The passage actually means, “Wives, now that you are Christians, this is what you should do. Continue on in your marriages the way you always have. Perhaps your good characters and demeanors will win your husbands over to the Lord.” Paul says the same thing in 1 Corinthians 7:15.

Remember, wifely submission was a fact of life for those women. Peter wasn’t telling them to submit. They were already submitting, like they had done every day of their lives. He was just telling them to continue on as they were. Perhaps some of these women thought that since their husbands weren’t Christ followers, they should leave their husbands so they would not be unequally yoked together. We find this possibility in 2 Corinthians 6:14, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness.”

I saw a perfect example of this one day as I sat in a meeting with other women speaking about equality. A young couple had been very involved in the male headship teaching of a church, and the wife was breaking away from that.  She said that she began to realize that their teaching was wrong, but her husband had not yet accepted that he was being led astray by that teaching.  She said that she felt so strongly about this that she wanted to be with others who teach female equality.  As I listened to this young woman, I could see her asking Peter, ‘What am I to do?’ And I hear Peter’s reply back to her, “Stay with your husband because you may lead him to the realization of the equality that you now have. Don’t give up what you have come to understand.”

But what the pastor had in mind when he preached on 1 Peter was that wives must submit to their husbands—period; nothing less, nothing more. But of course, he had much more to say about wives submitting to their husbands because as we will see, he loves that passage.

In his sermon, he said, “I love that 1 Peter passage.” Now why do you think he loves this passage? Why would a pastor love a wife’s submission passage?

Out of his 30 minute message on Father’s Day, he spent the first 16 minutes telling wives how wonderful they are and that a marriage is a partnership, but that she was created by God for her role, and that she must willingly submit to her husband. Not because the husband demands it, but because God demands it. He then read from Ephesians that husbands are to love their wives. The last 14 minutes was spent reinforcing the first 16 minutes.

These are direct quotes from his sermon:

• In order for wives to honor God, husbands must allow their wives to submit to them.

• The ground at the cross is level. (I would like to ask this pastor how can the ground at the cross be level if the wife has a husband stuck between her and Christ).

• He knows a guy that gives his wife a list of things to do and when he gets home, he checks the list.

• God made men to be rough and tough and He made women to be nurturing.

• Women want their men to be men.

• His pastor gave him this advice when he got married, “Make her queen of your house, and she will break her neck to make you King.”

• Who’s going to wear the pants in your family?

• The feminists want to wear the pants.

• When families follow these roles, they are less likely to get divorced.

Interspersed throughout all these sentences, he was sugar-coating the submission thing. Women are not to submit because they have to, he said, but because as a loving wife who is doing God’s will, she will want to. She is not to be a doormat. In fact, he brought in an actual doormat to show how dirty and trampled a used doormat is.

When your pastor tells you that “In order for you to honor God, you have to submit to your husband,” all the sugar in the world cannot cover up an ugly concept that has been foisted upon women. The Bible does not tell us that. 1 Peter 3 certainly does not say that. Read it for yourself. See if you can find where Scripture says that in order for women to honor God, they have to submit to their husbands. Can you find the Scripture where it says what men must do to honor God?

Have you ever heard a sermon on what men must do in a marriage to honor God? I can tell you one thing – what a man must do to honor God never puts another human being between himself and God. Yet, when only wives are required to submit in a marriage, this means that a human being has been inserted between the wife and God.

If you do not believe that God inserted a man in between you and Him when you said “I do,” then speak up and say, “I don’t.”

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