“It’s no wonder that many young evangelicals are becoming egalitarians.”

“Upon the announcement that Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary has hired Dr. Karen Swallow Prior as a research professor of English and Christianity & Culture, my Twitter feed exploded….It didn’t take long, though, for tweets of disproval to trickle into my thread from those upset that a conservative seminary would hire a woman as a professor.” - John Ellis

Discussion

Here are the terms as I use them:

  • All Baptists, if they understand their ecclesiology, are autonomous. So, the label “independent Baptist,” with just this context, is meaningless - sort of like “I’m a married husband.”
  • So, to me, the phrase “independent Baptist” means a church that has no ties to an association or denomination at all - sort of like IFB. They have “pastor’s fellowships,” but their churches are wholly independent and not tied to an association.

I don’t know what Mark meant by the term “independent Baptist,” but I assume he meant something like “IFB.”

Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.

[TylerR]

I don’t believe most people here are “independent Baptists.” I’m GARBC. Many people have similar affiliations.

Thousand pardons. I meant posters on SI that are not SBC but who are Baptists.

What I meant is people like you running down the SBC gleefully saying how misogynist, etc. they are, acting like your GARBC is immune to the criticism. Also, since you are not SBC, you likely are not in the meetings, watching the SBC convention and other programs such as the recent Care conference, where you can see Rachel D and Beth Moore live and in action. It is clear as day when you do that they are looking for more than to have a teaching ministry in Moore’s case. They are looking for wholesale change, and I would say they want egalatarianism.

where you can see Rachel D and Beth Moore live and in action. It is clear as day when you do that they are looking for more than to have a teaching ministry in Moore’s case. They are looking for wholesale change, and I would say they want egalatarianism.

Then you’re either willfully ignorant or sadly uninformed. Or, more likely, paying attention to liars and slandering fearmongers.

Both women are on the public record as being complementarian AND being committed to the leadership of male-only pastors.

"Our task today is to tell people — who no longer know what sin is...no longer see themselves as sinners, and no longer have room for these categories — that Christ died for sins of which they do not think they’re guilty." - David Wells

[Jay]

where you can see Rachel D and Beth Moore live and in action. It is clear as day when you do that they are looking for more than to have a teaching ministry in Moore’s case. They are looking for wholesale change, and I would say they want egalatarianism.

Then you’re either willfully ignorant or sadly uninformed. Or, more likely, paying attention to liars and slandering fearmongers.

Both women are on the public record as being complementarian AND being committed to the leadership of male-only pastors.

Yes, I know. I have watched them a lot though…. radar is up and rotating.

[Mark_Smith]

What I meant is people like you running down the SBC gleefully saying how misogynist, etc. they are, acting like your GARBC is immune to the criticism. Also, since you are not SBC, you likely are not in the meetings, watching the SBC convention and other programs such as the recent Care conference, where you can see Rachel D and Beth Moore live and in action. It is clear as day when you do that they are looking for more than to have a teaching ministry in Moore’s case. They are looking for wholesale change, and I would say they want egalatarianism.

Since when have I said that the GARBC is, or ought to be, immune to criticism? Honestly, don’t you know me better than that, Mark? Let’s draw a picture; on my church’s wall are the pictures of dozens of ABWE missionaries. That does not insulate ABWE from criticism of how they’ve handled things like the Donn Ketcham case. I am a Michigan State alum. Obviously I do not hold my fire regarding the Nassar case because of that affiliation! In my GARBC, I am working on a child protection policy for my church which basically assumes a culture that will tend to do the wrong thing in certain predictable ways. I’m calling it out specifically in the policy so that church members will be likely to see it.

Instinctively defensive of institutions of which I’m a member? I think not.

Reality is that both Moore and Denhollander endorse, enthusiastically, complementarian theology. Like myself. What they were campaigning for at ERLC (and elsewhere) is not that this would be abandoned, but rather that perspectives would be admitted which would allow those in leadership to see the problems in the SBC (and the GARBC, though “our turn” isn’t as big in the papers yet).

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.