Women Doctoral Grads of the Old Southern
by T. C. Pinckney Vol. XII, No. 2, February 1999
The Review and Expositor was the journal of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY, until under liberal leadership it separated from the seminary in 1996. Now edited by Dr. Glen Hinson who teaches at the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, its most recent issue contains an interesting article, “‘Once There Was a Camelot’: Women Doctoral Graduates of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1982-1992, Talk about the Seminary, the Fundamentalist Takeover, and Their Lives Since SBTS”.
The authors, Susan B. Shaw and Tisa Lewis, recount that of the 34 women who met the criteria in the article’s title, 26 participated in the study, four were out of the country, one is deceased, one could not be located, and two chose not to participate. They also note that: “Of the 26 participants, ... four identify as lesbian. Thirteen are married. Eleven are ordained. ... Twenty-one of the 26 were Southern Baptist when they began doctoral work. Of those 21, only three are still Southern Baptist. Six are members of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship churches, 10 have joined churches in other denominations ... and two no longer participate in religious communities.”
The entire article is interesting but is much too long to quote in toto; much of it is selected quotations from the 26 participants’ interviews. The following are excerpted from several of these statements. Emphasis added.
“[My experience at Southern] was positive because it got me where I am now. It moved me away from Southern Baptists. It moved me away from organized religion. It moved toward a much broader view of God than I ever could have imagined, toward my own sense of worth and self-acceptance.”
Shaw and Lewis write, “While most [of the participants] had good working relationships with professors and peers, many reported experiences of discrimination or harassment. Four women reported having been physically sexually harassed or assaulted by male professors or male graduate students (grabbed or kissed). Several others reported having been asked out on a date by married graduate students. Judy suggested that a ‘bar culture’ existed among male doctoral students in the graduate lounge in the seminary’s library.”
An interesting understanding of the stimulus for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is included: “The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship was formed as a moderate response to the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention. Moderate leaders formed alternative boards, agencies, and institutions to replace those lost to the fundamentalists. While many women had hopes that the Fellowship would provide greater acceptance and opportunities for women, most participants feel that moderate men have failed miserably in creating new and inclusive structures.” One lady said, “The CBF ... patriarchy all over again. They wear better ties.”
“Common to participants was an openness to a wide variety of spiritual experiences and expressions and a strong commitment to women in ministry. Most indicated their conceptions of God, their theology, and their spirituality had changed greatly from the time they began doctoral work; several connected some of these changes with their experiences within the Southern Baptist controversy..” One stated, “I believe in God. I’m just not sure I believe in God in a real personal sense...” Another responded, “That’s a good question [Who or what is God?] I don’t know. I mean, I really don’t know anymore. I think I have more questions than answers about who or what God is.”
Another doctoral graduate of the old Southern said, “The definition I’ve come up with recently in conjunction with a couple of other people is ‘loving goodness,’ ... And I have no use for images of God that are discriminatory, that are overpowering, that are punitive.” Another, “I talk to God. I fuss at God. I cuss at God. But it’s a very ambiguous relationship right now because I really don’t know how to relate to God or how God relates to me.” Still another, “... when I left Southern ... the only thing I was willing to say was that God had something to do with connectedness. ... And, not that it is any more specific, but now I call God love. And that’s about as specific as I’m willing to get now.”
The authors, Shaw and Lewis, comment, “Participants’ expressions of their spirituality varied greatly as well. For some, spirituality is practiced through traditional disciplines of prayer and scripture reading. Others have begun to include practices from other faith traditions, such as Buddhism and Shamanism, in their practices of Christian faith. For most, faith has found expression in commitment to social justice.” They then quote one respondent who said, “I think before I entered the doctoral program, church was still this obligation. It was something I was supposed to do to show my devotion to God. And probably there was still this little piece of me that believed that if I didn't do it, I'd pay dearly. And I think the reason I go to church now is it allows me this real sense of being part of something larger than myself. And given the kind of church I've gone to, that means not only being a part of the larger, more inclusive Christian community, the larger community of humanity, but also the civil rights movement, the gay and lesbian rights movement, because my church embraces all of those things. And so I do it, it's almost this sense of being part of this something that's larger. And I guess for me, that's kind of how I participate in God.”
Regarding participants’ comments on the Southern curriculum as they experienced it, Shaw and Lewis note, “Several participants also listed increased diversity in the curriculum as a need. As Flannery put it, ‘More focus on women, and more focus on race, and more focus on gay and lesbian issues. That would have helped a whole lot.’ Brenda added, ‘There wasn't a lot of diversity.... I mean, there was nobody who had really a whole different view of the world.’ Leslie concurred: ‘I would also say that it would have been better if I had had someone besides Southern Baptists teaching me, that it had been a genuinely more open education.’”
To the orthodox Christian the above quotations are shocking, and quite properly so. One is left shaking his head, wondering how can such views be held by graduates of the mother Southern Baptist seminary. Yet there is something much more basic here, of even far more significance than the heretical views of several misguided seminary graduates, as tragic as they are. The primary matter is the nature of Southern Baptist seminary education before the conservative renaissance of the late ‘80s and ‘90s.
Why do we have seminaries? Is it to convert Bible-believing entering students to confused agnostics? Is it to produce divines with Th.D.s who “cuss at God”? who embrace the gay and lesbian movement? who “include practices from other faith traditions, such as Buddhism and Shamanism, in their practices of Christian faith”, who upon graduation feel that “the only thing I was willing to say was that God had something to do with connectedness”, who have been “moved ... away from Southern Baptists ...away from organized religion? Or is the purpose of our seminaries to produce graduates who are on fire for the God of the Bible, who preach Jesus and Him crucified, dead, buried, and risen again, who have a heart for souls and are enthusiastically evangelistic to reach as many as possible for Jesus so that the Holy Spirit may save them from eternal damnation?
This Review and Expositor article (NOT written by “fundamentalists”, remember) demonstrates yet again the depths to which one of the oldest and most respected Southern Baptist institutions had fallen. And this article clearly underscores the crying need for the conservative resurgence. Seminaries teach preachers, and preachers teach the laity. Sooner or later, as the seminaries go, so goes the denomination.
For decades our seminaries had poured forth an increasingly extreme liberal tide of pastoral pollution into our churches and institutions.* And the deadly impact was nowhere more evident than here in Virginia. Praise God that He has brought about the biblical renaissance in the SBC, that He has worked miracles at all our seminaries, and that he has brought into being the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia. May we always remain alert to the danger of certain men creeping in unawares, disguised as angels of light, but bent on at first diluting, and then refuting the Word of God.
*Note: I do not imply that these men were insincere. Sincerity or insincerity is matter of the heart, and only God knows the heart. My judgment is that on the whole they were, indeed, sincere ... but misinformed and tragically mistaken. Such must be opposed but also prayed for. Reclamation, not condemnation is the goal. TCP