Southern Baptist Convention messengers voted overwhelmingly June 15 to end the denomination's 99-year relationship with the Baptist World Alliance.

The SBC is a member of the Baptist World Alliance, which is an affiliation of Baptist denominations that the SBC actually founded in the 1900's. The BWA coordinates some international missions and especially disaster relief efforts, and speaks up for Christians in oppressed nations. The SBC has in past years sent upwards of $400K annually to the BWA to support their activities, but the BWA does not act like a governing body and has no role or authority to mandate member denominations' beliefs or practices. The separation isn't strictly a schism -- it's more like the US withdrawing from the UN, than like Texas withdrawing from the Union. It's still sad though.

There is a lot going on here. The SBC Executive Committee which made the recommendation to leave to the convention is made up of very good men. I know the vote passed because we trust guys like Paige Patterson and Jerry Rankin. The committee is accusing the BWA and some of its member denominations of some pretty serious things, and some loud disagreements are being aired...

* American Baptist leader says Patterson's reasoning 'outrageous'

* "The BWA rejects the allegations..."

* More links at Christianity Today's Weblog

A friend said he was surprised to learn that Southern Baptists refuse to ordain women as pastors. The SBC's "Baptist Faith and Message", which other BWA affiliates would agree with but do not necessarily have to endorse or adopt, says:

"Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. In such a congregation each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture."

The reason for this is that all the apostles were male, OT priests had to be male, and there is no mention or reference to female pastors or bishops in the NT. There is also Paul's statement that "I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man...[1 Timothy 2:12]." However there most certainly are references to female deacons in the NT. I know of several very conservative Christian groups that allow female pastors, but the SBC just ain't one of them. In my opinion the SBC falls a bit short of the mark in following the Biblical model of church government, but with regard to this particular issue I agree with the BF&M.

All this to say that ordaining female pastors is not what I would consider part of Essential Christian Doctrine. But there is a pattern throughout the Bible of male spiritual leadership that I believe should be honored. Can God use a woman as a leader? Without question -- Deborah was Judge over Israel for some time (see Judges 4). If I had been British in the 80's, I would have been thrilled to have Margaret Thatcher as PM. However because of the witness of the NT, the standard is definitely, for many Biblical literalists anyway, for men to be leaders of the flock. I do not believe God's rationale for this rule has at its root some special evil in women or any extraordinary goodness inherent only to men. It is simply the assignment of an office.

My friend's other question of "What is a Baptist?" is going to take me some time to explicate. There are a few core values or emphases that have distinguished Baptists since the 1600's, which I will get into in a later post tonight or tomorrow.