One of the biggest problems Southern Baptists have is thinking like Mohler’s. This “President” of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is now focusing on “Women in the military” as a major factor in the ongoing scandalous revelations coming out of Ameirca’s Iraqi POW centers.

Mohler lays it out on the line here:

Christian moral teaching holds that military service is for men–not women. The Bible presents a comprehensive pattern of differentiation between men and women. Men are to protect women, even as women bear a special responsibility as nurturers–as wives and mothers.

The same idea of female inferiority in every area of life (I’m a male by the way, if you didn’t already know, and an EX-Southern Baptist). THat’s a BIG “Ex” and a most non-existent “Baptist” (since the SBC is most assuredly no longer “Baptist” as it has laways been defined (stresssing the priesthood of all believers, and independence from creeds…..Baptists have always been understandably but unjustly accused of “individualism”, and the Baptist Churches have thusly attracted more than their fair share of “individualists” fleeing from some community that they considered overly “heirarchical” and “creedal” (also usually entirely understandable and accurate in many cases……… anyway, I digress). Back to the problem of SBC and women:

This little screed from Mohler is symptomatic of just one of the problems ahead for the SBC. My Dad, who is not nearly so critical of the SBC’s backing of the President’s military strategy, is convinced that the issue of Women in the Church is going to be the SBC’s undoing. I agree. That will be the first to hit home and shove Southern Baptists in to the realm of cult status in society.

Aside from the women problems Southern Baptists have, it galls me that Mohler picks this issue out of the mix , and still has no harsh words for the President or the administration in the context of all this. He is truly irrelevant and focused on something that has no standing in this debate, and is of NO relevance here except to the distorted thinking that ensues when one is convinced that “feminism” is on eof the biggest problems of our society (along with issues of “Family” and its being “threatened” by Gay Marriage). The very idea that the inexcusable loss of life and lowering of safety in Iraq is in any way excusable or “permittable” in any Christian sense of the word is deplorable to me. It smacks of capitulation to the culture, and alliance with “the Powers that be” over and against a faithful Christian and Biblical theology as I see it. An alarming number of people look at this idea with dismay. They see no way to separate their Christian theology and sense of identity from the “Christian Right” as a political force. It is an “assumed position” of evangelical churches. Books like “Who Speaks For God” which was written by Jim Wallis back when Ralph Reed was the “leader” of the Chriatin Right, are more important now than they have been since their origins.

Until now, as a matter of fact, Mohler has been silent on the whole Iraqi prisoner debacle. And when he breaks his silence, it’s only to essentially say that “this would not have happened if women has not been allowed to serve in the military. What absoute rubbish! He’s aying that the men involved in this would not have carried this out? Is he suggesting that this is a case of “the woman ate of the fruit and then gave it to the man” (as if that idea has any theological credibility with any sound minded person)?

The very idea that these people like Mohler consider themselves “Pro Life” is blasphemy to me. They are unabashedly NOT Pro-life in ANY other arena: not in war, not in capital punishment, not in social welfare and compassion for the poor, not in environmental issues, not in ANYTHING save abortion and, as they claim, in human genetic cases (as if they bring any integrity about the value of human life to the table in that debate). This is why I don’t listen to them on abortion issues. Although I also oppose it, I cannot approach it like they do becuase they don’t really believe in LIFE. A good many of them “believe” this because it’s part of the “Christian Right Platform” that has been presdented to them as a prerequisite to sound Christian principles. In fact, they lead their own to believe that to think differently about these things means that one is not being Biblically obedient. This all disturbs me greatly, much more so in times of war than during the late 70’s and early 80’s when Southern Baptists began to split over matters of Biblical interpreation.

And another thing: I return to Mohler’s rants about Duke University not really being “diverse” becuase they have such a lack of “conservatives” represented on their faculty and administration. Right now, Mohler’s own “Southern Baptist TYheological Seminary” stands as a testimony to the rejection of intellectual and theological diversity. People who are critical of the President and Republican issues would not be allowed there. (Why would they want to be?) Well, back in 1981 when I graduated, when they still wanted to be there, they wanted to be there for many reasons, and a large one was that it was a TRULY BAPTIST Seminary, with a TRUE DIVERSITY of opinions and curriculum. Now, this smug president has the gall to complain about the hypoocrisy of liberals, when he played his part in running off every one of ’em he could find. And with people like him sputing piously the things he’s apparently proud of, he is keeping it so. My default reaction now whenever I hear his name or hear or read anythign he says is to shake my head in disgust.