Southern Baptist Church Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Southern Baptist Church - Essay ExampleShe being in the image of God as her husband and thus equal to him has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to operate as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation. An separate part of the document decl argons emphatically the top executive of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture. To some church members, SBC is living in the past. Thus, at least 10 faculty members of the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and an unknown number of educators from five other SBC seminaries have reportedly left or were forced out of their jobs for refusing to sign the church document. Indeed, the womens fight for comparability has come a long way since the Suffragists won the right to vote such that the meaning of womens entrance to men may have changed significantly over time (Melick, 1998). Now, it is considered right and just for women to serve in the military, work in underground mines or f ly an airplane (Hosken, 1981). Does the SBC edict against women pastors belong to the dark ages when the common culture expected women to be subordinate to men and very few women were as well educate as menThe SBC in its Baptist Faith and Message acknowledges its commitment to gender equality, pointing out that men and women are of equal worth before God since both are created in Gods image. Thus, both men and women are qualified for service in the church. However, the church maintains that the position of pastor is limited to men and women can unaccompanied serve as helpers, the same way 10 of the 16 helpers in capital of Minnesotas ministry were women as noted in the Apostles letter to the Romans. According to SBC, its position on women pastors complies with the explicit teachings of the Scripture, which does not support the practice of allowing women to serve as pastors (Melick, 1998). On this subject, the SBC cited three reasons 1) there were no women pastors in the New Testa ment times 2) none of the operating instructions regarding church order include instructions for women pastors and 3) some texts on church order explicitly prohibit women to occupy the position of pastor. In effect, the church acknowledges that women have the same rights and privileges as men only if in the same breath say that a woman cannot occupy a mans position, which at a gleam seems to be contradictory. The church maintains that there is no contradiction here, as there is no contradiction when Paul in 1 Timothy 212 affirms the equality of men and women in salvation but equally and just as clearly affirms the priority of men in church leadership. In addition, the give-and-take says marriage is to be a companionship of equals (Genesis 224) and husband and wife have equal lever as persons (Galatians 328). Nonetheless, the Scripture teaches a hierarchy of responsibilities, which is necessary for creation, time and our humaneness (SBC, 2000). In this organizational hierarchy, everyone need to submit to someone else to maintain human order. The wife submits to her husband, while the husband submits to Jesus, who in turn submits to God. from each one of them should then treat those who submit to them with respect. In this connection, Ephesian