Discrimination of women in the SBC: can they teach men at all?
I have been following a blog documenting the injustice done to Dr. Sheri Klouda a professor of Hebrew who was forced out of her teaching position at the Southern Baptist Convention’s Southwestern Theological Seminary because the new President, Paige Patterson, does not believe that women should be teaching men. This comes after Dr. Klouda had been at the Seminary and approved for teaching by the board of trustees since 2002. I think that this is a very important issue to follow as it reveals the cold heart of some men towards other members of the body of Christ. Wade Burleson, a Pastor in Enid, Oklahoma writes:
It is essential for Southern Baptists to speak out when there is an injustice within our convention. This post is written for the purpose of drawing attention to a brilliant theologian who served Southern Baptists as a professor of Hebrew at Southwestern Theological for a total of seven and a half years, three and a half as an adjunct professor and four as full time elected faculty, establishing impeccable credentials and an extraordinary track record, only to be forced out from the job of her dreams for solely one reason — her gender.
To read the rest of the blog post documenting the gender discrimination that has occurred within the Southern Baptist Convention click here. I appreciate Pastor Wade for having the courage to document this injustice and his courage to speak out.
One other note – Paige Patterson is on the board of reference for the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW) and his wife is a CBMW Council member.
8 thoughts on “Discrimination of women in the SBC: can they teach men at all?”
Cheryl,
Wade Burleson has an interesting update on this case on his blog… http://kerussocharis.blogspot.com/
things are looking very good for Dr Sheri legally…
regards
Kerryn
Thanks Kerryn. I would have missed that link. I am going to post here the direct link to the article:
http://kerussocharis.blogspot.com/2007/09/to-whom-will-some-leaders-ultimately.html
Dr. Sheri Klouda is great and has a great record. Exposing discrimnation and using the law of the land to get justice is the way to go. The Lord has these justice systems in place so people can get a measure of justice one way or another in this sinnerful world. Of course True Justice will come when Jesus comes back!
Yes, Michael. To try to limit Dr. Klouda to seek restitution and justice from a warped system within the University or the denomination that mistreated her is simply trying to prevent her from finding justice. That reveals a lot in itself.
I can see how some might invoke Paul’s teaching on lawsuits between believers in this. But the problems in this case are that the seminary’s actions:
were very unchristlike and violate the most basic principles of Christians caring for one another, especially since she is the primary wage earner and her husband is disabled
violate Paul’s teachings on how employers are to treat employees, especially if they are believers,
are illegal in this country (since the seminary did not have such a rule before she was hired)
That last one especially is the big point. Paul’s teachings on lawsuits among believers were never meant to say we must not consider the laws of the land, but that we can and should settle our own petty disputes. Paul himself used the law when possible, for example when he was about to be beaten without a trial which was against the law for a Roman citizen. Granted the Romans were not Christians, but granted also that Paul would never have expected believers to commit illegal acts, especially by groups of leaders!
Sorry, I thought I could use “ordered lists” in the comments. The second paragraph should look more like this:
I can see how some might invoke Paul’s teaching on lawsuits between believers in this. But the problems in this case are that the seminary’s actions:
—were very unchristlike and violate the most basic principles of Christians caring for one another, especially since she is the primary wage earner and her husband is disabled
—violate Paul’s teachings on how employers are to treat employees, especially if they are believers,
—are illegal in this country
hello teknomom,
That’s right ….Paul used the law when he could…an the Roman one at that!
For an update on this story, please read the FBC Jax Watchdog blog for July 17, 2008. There is a response by Dr. Klouda about what happened to her.