What's happening in the Southern Baptist Convention, part 2: it wasn't always like this
This might be significant, but it wasn’t always like this. Below is an excerpt from my college capstone project, written in 1999.
Before the conservative whirlwind swept through the SBC and left its oppressive mark, women were beginning to make very slow but evident advances in the leadership arena. Women’s voice at the national level of the SBC began in 1868 when they first gathered during the annual Convention and raised money to support overseas mission work. Though a request to seat two female messengers (read: voters) at the 1885 Convention was denied (one unnamed delegate was overheard as saying, “I love the ladies, but I dread them worse”) and the SBC constitution was amended to exclude women from acting as messengers, women became an organized and recognized (though independent) voice when they established the Women’s Missionary Union (WMU) in 1888. The WMU raises funds to finance world missions, and its presence in SBC has greatly increased since its inception. Women continued their gains in the twentieth century as four women began attending classes at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1904 and women were granted the right to act as messengers and vote at the annual Convention in 1914. And the 190s brought great victories as a woman was elected to the vice-presidency of the SBC for the first time (1963) and as the SBC broke through the ordination barrier. The occasion did not pass without controversy, but on August 9, 1964, Addie Davis was ordained by Watts Street Baptist Church in Durham, North Carolina.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s conservative repression has discouraged but not stifled women’s efforts to serve in Southern Baptist ministry. In 1983 Nancy Hastings Sehested and thirty-two other women held a conference in Louisville, and in the course of these discussions the groundwork was laid for an organization independent of the SBC that would provide women with a network of Baptists (including both men and women) who support women in ministry. The founders of Southern Baptist Women in Ministry (SBWIM) realized the importance of helping women meet and correspond with people who understand the difficulty of finding staff positions and who encourage women in ministry even as conservatives doubt their abilities. The establishment of SBWIM touched off a conservative reaction which led to the now infamous resolution on ordination and the role of women in ministry at the 1984 Convention. The resolution proposed that since the Bible clearly relegates women to submissive roles and that “man was first in creation and woman was first in the Edenic fall,” women should not become pastors or accept any kind of church leadership role that requires them to be ordained. The motion passed with 58% of the vote. Despite the SBC’s disregard for women spiritual leaders, churches have local autonomy and can call women to ministerial positions and ordain them.
When I presented this paper at a national conference, I had many people come up to me afterward and tell me that they didn’t know that there were or ever had been women ministers in the SBC. It shows how thoroughly the SBC’s efforts at women’s erasure have been. Most Baptist women in ministry have moved on from the SBC to other Baptist denominations or networks. SBWIM, mentioned above, changed its name to Baptist Women in Ministry. It resources women in a range of Baptist denominations, and it will hold a big 40th anniversary celebration in Louisville this fall.
Significantly, because I grew up in the midst of the Baptist battles, I did not see a woman on the chancel for any reason other than singing or making an announcement until my first semester of seminary. (That must have been some kick in the pants from God for me to trust my call, never having seen women in ministry before then.) I found my way to Oakhurst Baptist Church, the congregation that ordained me, because it was in the news for being expelled from the state SBC convention for calling a gay pastor.