With all that's going on in today's world, the Southern Baptists are still up in arms about the appropriate/allowable leadership role(s) for women in their congregation.
The Southern Baptist Convention rejected Wednesday a constitutional ban on women pastors, a major victory for those within the nation's largest Protestant denomination seeking to maintain local church autonomy and soften what many considered a growing antagonism toward women in ministry.
What does it matter?
If a woman has been called to lead a congregation, let her lead!
Why different standards for a woman than a man?
This type of petty stuff does nothing but divide congregations and hurt the (capital c) Church.
At the same convention, the SBCers voted on other stuff too, possibly none so important as this:
The Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest and most politically powerful Protestant denomination, voted Wednesday to oppose in vitro fertilization.
The move may signal the beginning of a broad turn on the right against IVF, an issue that many evangelicals, anti-abortion advocates and other social conservatives see as the “pro-life” movement’s next frontier — one they hope will eventually lead to restrictions, or outright bans, on IVF at the state and federal levels.
Why in the freakin' world would they vote against helping couples? Why would they want to restrict the use of science to bring joy & life to the world?
IVF is a modern miracle, brought to us by insights and advancements which God has revealed to gifted scientists and medical professionals.
An embryo - while having the POTENTIAL to be a human being - is not a human being. Not even close to being sustainable. 22-24 weeks in the roasty-toasty womb is what God uses to develop a sustainable human life.
I suspect the SBCs are concerned about the embryos that are never used and - in many situations - get discarded. We gotta get past viewing those as humans, as they are not.
Let's focus our attention on:
- eliminating abortion after 22 weeks
- strengthening families
- supporting single mothers
- giving every orphan a loving home
- enhancing the safety and effectiveness of foster programs
- encouraging adoptions
All 6 of those are WAAAAAAAAAY more important than fertilized eggs sitting in lab refrigeration.
Grace & Peace & Love to you all -
Matt
p.s. More on the Southern Baptist situation:
Satan is loving this! He wants nothing more than to see discord and divisiveness among God's children.
