Parham and Mohler Debate Online at Washington Post

The "On Belief" section of the Washington Post has posted opposing essays about the effect that Sarah Palin's VP nomination is having on Southern Baptist theology. Al Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Robert Parham, Executive Director of the Baptist Center for Ethics, square off over whether SBC fundamentalists are being honest and consistent in their presentations of the role of women in public life.

Mohler, in an essay entitled "Palin and Baptist Theology" says,

Our confession of faith does not speak to the appropriateness of women serving in political office. It does speak to the priority of motherhood and responsibilities in the home, but it does not specify any public role that is closed to women.

Parham, in an essay entitled "Palin and Baptist Revisionism" says,

Well, no, the confession of faith doesn't speak literally to women running for office. But when his wife served on the committee that wrote the family statement, neither she nor he spoke up for women working outside the home.

In fact, when I said in June 1998 that Southern Baptist fundamentalists "hope to make June Cleaver the biblical model for motherhood, despite numerous biblical references to women who worked outside the home," fundamentalists responded with the claim they were only being faithful to the Bible.

Southern Baptists have a long heritage of "only being faithful to the Bible" when the interpretations they are being faithful to reinforce their personal prejudices. Southern Baptists first distinguished themselves this way by defending the legitimacy of slavery.

Southern Baptists also have a long heritage of reversing their previous positions when it becomes politically expedient. It took them more than 140 years to repudiate their defense of slavery. Now they are repudiating their family statement within a decade. Progress is being made.

Isn't it a bit ironic that the woman they are elevating to national prominence comes from a Christian tradition that recognizes God's call of women to pastoral ministry?

How long will it be until it is politically expedient for Southern Baptists to acknowledge that God calls a lot more women to be pastors than he calls to be politicians?

On Women Heading Countries but not Churches

Christianity Today is reporting that Richard Land is ecstatic about the nomination of Sarah Palin for Vice President. He's also eager to label as "asinine" any question about the logical consistency of his theology and politics. Here's a quote from his interview with Sarah Pulliam:

The enthusiasm gap has been closed considerably. Let me answer a question you haven't asked me. I had two secular reporters ask me, "Dr. Land, you as a Southern Baptist believe that women are not to be pastors of churches and women are not to be head of the home. Wouldn't it mean that if Sarah Palin were elected vice president, her husband would tell her what to do? And I said, "If you don't mind my saying so, that's an asinine question, but I'll answer it." Mrs. Thatcher said that her husband was head of her home and she ran the country. Queen Elizabeth said that Prince Phillip was head of the home and she was head of the country. If Mrs. Thatcher had been an American, I would've enthusiastically supported her for president of the United States.

The only restrictions we find in Scripture are, that for whatever reason women are not to be in charge of a marriage and women are not to be in charge of a church. That has nothing to do with governor, or senator or the House of Representatives, or president, or vice president.

It is fairly simple to discern when you've identified a weakness in Richard Land's thought. Just probe a little and wait for him to insult your intelligence or integrity. Land always bolsters his weakest arguments with ad hominem arguments.

Land's most egregious use of ad hominem argument to bolster a weak case was at the 2000 meeting Southern Baptist Convention when he flirted with the unpardonable sin by insinuating that those questioning the revision of the denomination's confession of faith were influenced by "demonic spirits." That revision inserted a prohibition against women serving as pastors of Southern Baptist churches.

To grasp how conflicted many evangelicals are about Palin's nomination, one needs only to read some of the weblogs by conservative mothers.

It's going to take incrementally more bluster and nearly perpetual filibuster from fundamentalists like Land both to contend that women can be the "head" of nations and to continue to deny that they can be "head" of families and churches. They will not be able to maintain a static "dead head" understanding of headship for the family and church while at the same time affirming a "living metaphoricity" of headship for the nation. Ultimately, one perspective or the other will prevail.

Evangelicals Conflicted About Palin

Desmoinesdem at Daily Kos has scoured the "mommy blogs" written by Christian conservatives and has found considerable uneasiness about casting a vote for Sarah Palin as Vice President.

The main concern is that it will send a mixed message that undermines their understanding of family values. They like her political positions, especially on abortion, but are concerned that the prominence of her position would undermine their witness concerning subordinate roles for women and their conviction that mothers should remain in the home and nurture their husbands and children.

Ironically, James Dobson, Richard Land and other vocal advocates for "family values" are also the most enthusiastic supporters of Sarah Palin.

Land's support for Palin is fairly strong evidence that the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention -- a takeover that was fueled by conservative opposition to both the equal rights amendment and the acceptance of women in the ministry -- was more about politics than theology. Among contemporary Southern Baptist fundamentalists, theology always takes a back seat to secular politics.

On Sarah Palin's Qualifications

Richard Land has endorsed Sarah Palin for Vice President:

Dr. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission: "Governor Palin is a vice-presidential selection which shows that John McCain at the age of 72 today is still able to think outside the box. Governor Palin will delight the Republican base. She is pro-life. It appears that Senator Obama played it safe in picking Senator Biden and Senator McCain made the bold and unconventional choice in picking Governor Palin."

I find it ironic that Land was so quick to endorse the nomination of Sarah Palin for Vice President of the United States.

In Richard Land's eyes, Sarah Palin is fully qualified to be a heart-beat away from having the authority to lead the most powerful nation in the history of the world. Powerful enough to incinerate our entire planet with nuclear weaponry at a moment's notice.

In Richard Land's eyes, however, neither Sarah Palin nor any other woman will ever be qualified to have the authority to lead even the smallest Southern Baptist church.

How long will it be before Southern Baptist churches stop discriminating against women? Their secular politics leaves much to be desired, but it is still more Christian than their ecclesiology.