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Note: This essay first appeared in the
August 2007 Baptist Studies Bulletin.
This month two possible futures for women in Baptist life are taking
center stage, with Texas playing a role in both.
One possible future of women
in Baptist life is represented by Julie Pennington-Russell, until this month
the Senior Pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Waco, Texas. Under her
tenure, the congregation, a dying inner city church in prior years, developed
into one of the most dynamic Baptist congregations in America, tripling in
attendance, attracting large numbers of young adults, and developing a
successful ministry to inner
 city residents.
Having revived Calvary Baptist, Pennington-Russell assumes the pastorate of
historic First Baptist of Decatur, Georgia, this coming Sunday.
Affiliated with both the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Southern
Baptist Convention, First Decatur, located in an Atlanta suburb, straddles areas of both wealth
and poverty. And although an increasing number of women fill Baptist
pulpits, few have yet risen to the prominence of Pennington-Russell.
The other possible
future for Baptist women is that offered by Dorothy Patterson, wife of Paige Patterson, architect
of the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention and
 current president of
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. The
Pattersons are opposed to women in ordained ministry
roles. This month Southwestern begins offering special classes for
Baptist women, including: Orientation to Homemaking, Nutrition, Value of a
Child, Meal Preparation, Homemaking Practicum, and Clothing Construction.
Dorothy Patterson will teach in the seminary's new homemaking program that
bloggers (Southern Baptists and otherwise) are condemning as a farce.
The
Associated Press has picked up on this latest story of a major Southern
Baptist seminary taking steps to prevent women from assuming leadership roles
in Baptist life. Patterson is adamant that
women
cannot be spiritual leaders, despite the fact that the Bible and Baptist
history both bear witness of numerous women as spiritual leaders called of God
to the tasks of preaching, teaching and other leadership roles. Men are
at the top of the "spiritual hierarchy," according to Patterson, occupying
positions women cannot attain. "From Genesis in creation it is clear
that we [men and women] have different roles. Now, you can go around moping
and pouting about that; you can take the road of the feminists and rename
yourself; you can rename the world and take over that; you can rename God—and that’s just what the feminists do—but it won’t change God’s plan.”
Pennington-Russell,
like hundreds of other Baptist
women pastors, is both a spiritual leader and a mother. Raising
children in a Christian home is important (for both men and women, although
men are not allowed to take courses in Southwestern Seminary's Homemaking
program), but does not preclude a call to vocational ministry. The
future of Baptist women in ministry is at stake: Pennington-Russell or
Patterson? The freedom to obey God's call to ministry, or confinement to
1950s gender roles that trump God and the Bible? A growing congregation or a
seminary in decline? A progressive vision or fundamentalist
retrenchment?
Which future lies
ahead for Baptist women? The prosperity or decline of Baptists in
America may well hinge on the answer to this very question.
Photos: Julie
Pennington-Russell (top-left), Dorothy Patterson (bottom-right)
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