SBC Official Takes Issue with Jimmy Carter's Comments
by Allie Martin
August 9, 2005
(AgapePress) - A leader in the Southern Baptist Convention says he is not surprised by recent remarks made by former President Jimmy Carter alleging the denomination discriminates against women.
Last week Carter addressed the annual meeting of the Baptist World Congress in England. The former chief executive said Southern Baptists and other conservative churches misuse scripture to deny women equal opportunities to serve as ministers, and suggested the Bible verses used to defend the different roles of men and women no longer apply.
"I would never claim that the scriptures are in error," Carter stated, "but it is necessary in some cases to assess the local circumstances that may have existed within a troubled early church." That is an argument some conservative Christians point out is used by liberals to defend such things as saying homosexuality is no longer a sin. Carter also criticized Christians in general for the "escalation of differences based on human differences."
Dr. Richard Land, president of the SBC's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, says Carter's comments are to be expected.
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Dr. Richard Land |
"It's some surprise when former President Carter gets something right, not when he gets something wrong," Land says. "We have a choice. We can either follow the spirit of the age and follow syncretizers and compromisers like Jimmy Carter -- or we can follow the Apostle Paul. And we'd rather have the approval of God and the Apostle Paul than Jimmy Carter." Land referred to the New Testament books of 1 Timothy and Titus which spell out requirements for pastors and church leaders. He says the SBC follows those qualifications.
"We're going to go ahead and practice what the Bible teaches us and that is that," he says. "While God calls both men and women to service in the church, the office of pastor of a local church is reserved for qualified men."
While speaking at the Baptist World Conference, Carter also condemned the U.S. for going to war in Iraq, and charged that the U.S. detention of terrorist suspects in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is an embarrassment and has given extremists an excuse to attack America.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
