You might have come across this recently-released statement by former US President Jimmy Carter, explaining why he is severing his ties with the Southern Baptist Convention. In brief, the reason for his action is that the SBC have made it a condition of membership that adherents have to agree that women must be “subservient” to their husbands and that women should be prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors, or chaplains in the military service (more details here; a couple of dissenting opinions within Southern Baptistry itself here and here.).
Isabigot.com thinks that it’s time these demented cross-waving troglodytes crawl out of their caves and accept the basic human fact of gender equality. Not only that, but we think such bigoted discrimination should be both illegal and vigorously prosecuted. What say you all?
July 29th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Anyone who looks for guidance from voices in their head or from disseminated and strongly edited 2000 year old texts should rightly be classified as mad. It’s about time that one religion, doesn’t matter which one, was prosecuted for obtaining monies by deception…
..but given my run ins with the baptists here i Jamaica, good place to start
August 12th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
I’m not sure about making such blatant discrimination “illegal”. Beliefs are 1st Amendment territory, as you well know, and even though the SBC is nothing more than a business, it is still separate from State.
Inasmuch as such beliefs are exercised in the rapes, beatings, and/or other horrendous treatment practically encouraged by such discrimination, I agree that the punishment should be as severe as possible. Would motive in such cases be any easier to establish, if the person is a strong zealot of the SBC? I would think so.
August 21st, 2009 at 9:40 pm
What? A religion is doing something we disagree with? MAKE IT ILLEGAL! Oh wait, pesky first amendment.
August 21st, 2009 at 11:12 pm
Let me first state I am a southern baptist. Men are required by God to love their wives like their own bodies, and to honor their wives in everything they do. Just because men were given authority in the church doesn’t mean that men are better than women, just because God gave them authority over the church. A policeman(or policewoman) can have authority over me, but that doesn’t make them better or more important than me. My role is simply different from theirs. The role of women is different than men, because God made them that way.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s been all kinds of sexist morons who have passed themselves off to the world as Christians, but this is antithetical to what southern baptists(like myself) represent – that men and women are created different, to serve a different, Christ honoring, role.
Gustavo Anyone who is a strong zealot of the SBC would also mean they’re a strong follower of the Bible in which Christ teaches:
John 13:34-35 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
November 19th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Noremacam: what does the christian god/bible say about men having nipples? I don’t mean that in a smarmy tone. I’m concerned about arguments based on a creator deity that bestowed half of its created with what appear to be useless vestiges.