Women in Ministry?

This is a clip out of our Baptist associational newsletter. The wives of our ministers apparently meet once a month. A part of me wants to laugh at the foolishness of Baptist and a part of me wants to throw things. I usually try to stay away from this subject because I find it so disturbing. The clip in the newsletter caused me to do a quick search on Baptist women and their role in the church body. I found an article today about Sheri Klouda, a former professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, who lost her job teaching Hebrew in the seminary’s school of theology because she is a woman.

Wade Burleson comments on this tragedy and gives us some insight on the president of this seminary, Paige Patterson:

There it is. Patterson's narrow interpretation of I Timothy 2:12 says it
all and should cause our convention some serious concern. Paige is saying
that this verse is not just addressing 'women pastors', but rather no woman
shall have 'authority' over a man - period. No woman shall teach a man -
period. No woman shall have 'authority' over a man - period. Dr. Klouda needed to be replaced as a professor because she was a woman.

Then he added, “there are ample numbers of men who are well-qualified for
those positions.” Patterson said he planned to build the faculty with
“God-called men.”

This quote sounds like a contradiction:

“Every woman, like every man, is made in the imago Dei, in the image ofGod.
Every woman has the right and responsibility to come to God for herself.Every
woman, like every man, has the right to study God’s Word and apply it toher
life. Every woman is fully equal and quite a lot of them more than equal toany
man I ever saw,” Patterson said.

Apparently, God has called women to make babies. Maybe our association should discuss this in their next Ministers' Wives' Fellowshipinstead of discussing how to maintain good financial records:

“Ladies, the highest and noblest calling of God is motherand grandmother. Equal
to men, yes, but do what God has called you to do,” Patterson said. “Write
it in bold letters with a big magic marker.”

Here are some bold letters for you Paige: How can you get away with this injustice? Why don't more men speak out about this issue? Why aren't thousands of women leaving our denomination over this issue? Why am I such a coward on this issue? Why does my church not have any women deacons (deaconesses)? Why are so many of our Sunday school classes taught by women? Can I not learn anything from these women? Do you ever wrestle with scripture or do you have everything figured out?