Former President Jimmy Carter has announced that he is leaving the Southern Baptist Church after sixty years because of its treatment of girls and women.
[It was an] unavoidable decision when the convention’s leaders, quoting a few carefully selected Bible verses and claiming that Eve was created second to Adam and was responsible for original sin, ordained that women must be “subservient” to their husbands and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service.
This view that women are somehow inferior to men is not restricted to one religion or belief. Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths. Nor, tragically, does its influence stop at the walls of the church, mosque, synagogue or temple. This discrimination, unjustifiably attributed to a Higher Authority, has provided a reason or excuse for the deprivation of women’s equal rights across the world for centuries.
At its most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives, and continues to deny them fair access to education, health, employment and influence within their own communities.
Read Carter’s full statement here.
On July 20th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
A letter of appreciation to Jimmy Carter…
That’s good news, Jimmy.
Sixty years really isn’t all that long a time when it comes to making up your mind about a group like the Southern Baptists, is it?
Maybe your church’s long-enforced insistence on male domination and female subordination seemed OK until now. Or maybe you just didn’t notice it until lately.
Either way, good for you for speaking up.
In another 60 years, maybe you’ll discover some other things about Southern Baptists that a lot of people don’t like.
Such as their literal and absolute belief in everything the Bible says, including creationism and a 6000-year-old Earth. Many non-Baptists have already concluded that the Bible is a mixed bag of recycled ancient myths, Bronze Age fiction, and enterprising cult-building. Do you still think they’re wrong?
Then there’s the absolute certainty by Southern Baptists that there’s a “heaven” and a “hell,” and that by “accepting” Jesus they will be “saved” while everyone else will suffer eternal “damnation.” We wouldn’t be surprised if you still believe that yourself, true?
In fact, Southern Baptists are so comforted by their privileged status as evangelical “believers” that they can’t wait for the apocalyptic Second Coming and the End of the World. That’s when Jesus will announce the winners and the losers, and every Southern Baptist already “knows” who the winners will be. Wishful thinking by your long-time fellow church-goers, wouldn’t you agree?
But enough carping about Southern Baptists. We just want to say “Thanks” for condemning at least one aspect of what you’ve now declared as an intellectually and morally unsavory organization. Many of us will be expecting to hear more about your further disappointments concerning Southern Baptists, Jimmy. But try not to take another 60 years, OK?