We were pleased this week to see that our brothers and sisters in the Baptist General Convention of Texas elected their first female president.
Joy Fenner, a retired missionary, will lead the organization, the largest Baptist group in Texas. According to wire reports, the group includes 5,600 congregations and more than 2.3 million members.
What makes Fenner's election all the more interesting is the lack of women in Baptist pulpits in the Lone Star State. The wire service notes that "fewer than 1 percent of the convention's pastors are female."
4 comments:
Her election is probably part of the movement among evangelicals I noted in my comments under the "Standing Tall for Religious Diversity" post:
"Evangelicals are becoming increasingly disillusioned not only with Iraq, but even the militantly anti-gay, anti-abortion direction."
She represents a comeback of the moderates in the Southern Baptist Convention after a stranglehold for years by the conservatives. I doubt her official position on the above issues is different, but it is likely to be a change of emphasis.
She may have a different interpretation of "submitting herself graciously" to her husband.
Sorry, I should have said "among Southern Baptists," not THE Southern Baptist Convention, where the stranglehold is still firmly in place, so I read.
Dan probably knows a lot more about the Texas Baptist/SBC schism (if that is the right word) than I do, so I await his input.
I really popped off too quick on this one. More reading shows that the TBC has been moderate (and moneyed) for some time. The SBC has been "inerrantly" conservative for longer. The lady's election is not controversial within the Texas group. The conservative SBC leadership is just as much on the outs with Texas as ever. Within their ranks, who knows. Nevermind. Let that be a lesson to me.
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