Another sad and shameful anniversary for the SBC
In May of 2003, the Southern Baptist (SBC) International Missions Board (IMB) lost 43 missionaries in one day, due to pressure to sign the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message, which excluded women from general leadership and demanded submission of wives to husbands. Some of these missionaries had faithfully served for decades.
Why not sign?
Don and Angie Finley, of Brazil, are two of the missionaries whose resignations were accepted by the IMB, 23 years ago. They declared they were “not resigning because we have a problem with grassroots Southern Baptists” or “because we have done anything wrong or have something to hide. When a Baptist missionary sending agency demands doctrinal accountability on the basis of a man-made document rather than on the basis of Scripture, something is wrong…When unnamed critics are taken seriously when they make vague, generalized, and unsubstantiated accusations against doctrinally sound and spiritually committed missionaries, something is wrong. When denominational politics takes precedence over mission priorities and missionaries themselves are made pawns in a denominational political game, something is wrong.”
Rick and Nancy Dill are missionaries who were fired for refusing to sign the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message. Rick Dill said, “A small group of really vicious people are the ones who are making policy at the board,” …The Dills outlined four concerns they have with the document:
Concern #1.) Removal of the statement, The criterion by which the Bible is to be interpreted is Jesus Christ, from the 1963 version of the Baptist Faith & Message. “The center of our faith is Jesus Christ—God who became man, born of a virgin, crucified as atonement for our sin, raised on the third day, ascended to the right hand of the Father…All Scripture comes from him and can only be understood through him.”
Concern #2.) Use of the expression priesthood of believers’ instead of priesthood of the believer. “Each of us stands individually before God,” Dill said. ‘We are called to be his priests; his Spirit works within us individually as well as corporately, and finally, we will be called to account for our lives as his servants. Loss of that concept, not liberalism, is what killed the Christian movement in Europe…The priesthood of the believer was denied and taken away, and the clergy decided what you believe, what you do, and when you believe it. They took the experience with God, that the Bible insists upon, completely away. That’s the most dangerous thing that is facing us as Southern Baptists.”
Concern #3.) Insertion of language that a wife should ‘submit herself graciously’ to her husband, while ignoring ‘the injunction of Paul to submit to each other.
Concern #4.) Insertion of a statement that the office of pastor is limited to men. “In China, women pastor a majority of the churches,” Dill said. “In Germany, we have a number of women who are Baptist pastors and do an exemplary job of service...Does this mean all of these women are serving out of God’s will?”
Note: The Baptist Standard has since removed links to the articles these quotes were taken from, but the original links will remain in this article, which is an edited reprint of one published by this writer some years ago.
http://www.baptiststandard.com/2003/5_19/pages/terminations.html
http://www.baptiststandard.com/2002/10_21/pages/imb.html
The Bottom Line
It is suspected that the “small group of really vicious people” making policy at the IMB were more concerned with female subordination than anything else.
The Crux of the Matter
If missionary wives did not agree to submit graciously to their husbands and forsake the priesthood of every believer in favor of a priesthood composed only of male believers, then missionary couples would no longer be financially supported by the Southern Baptist International Missions Board and must either support themselves or go home.
So, In May of 2003, 43 missionaries either resigned or were fired. It was the “largest mass exodus in the history of the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board. ‘We’ve never had anything close to this,’ said Alan Lefever, then director of the Texas Baptist Historical Collection.”
http://www.baptiststandard.com/2003/5_19/pages/terminations.html (link to article removed from website).
What happened at the IBM is an example of why Christians who support the priesthood of all believers –Vs- the priesthood of only some believers, need to stand up and be counted.
This year also marks the 16th anniversary of the Seneca Falls-2 Christian Women’s Rights Conference organized by this writer and held in Orlando, FL on July 24, 2010.
Videos from the conference
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-UfXCUhce1BiitK-kKXFTcrFvRNGYJTC
News from the conference
Group demands apology for religious teaching that denigrates women
Group that demanded apology overview of women’s roles still waiting (Baptist Standard)
After the 2003 missionary resignations and firings, the IMB disclosed that the 98% of foreign missionaries who did sign the document were not in agreement with it.
Some missionaries admitted they signed under pressure to keep their ministries. “We’ve talked with numerous missionaries who basically said, ‘God called me here, and I’ll sign in order to keep doing my ministry.’
It has been said of May 2003, “Of the many disappointments and frustrations since the so-called ‘conservative resurgence,’ the firing of God-called missionaries is far and away the saddest day of all.”
http://www.baptiststandard.com/2003/5_19/pages/terminations.html (link to the 2003 Article has since been removed from Baptist Standard website)
Southern Baptists Fire 13 Missionaries, 30 Others Quit or Retire - Christianity Today
Rick Dill nailed it when he said, “A small group of really vicious people are the ones who are making policy at the board,” The viciousness of the SBC is seen the case of, Mary Swedenburg, who had served as a missionary for 34 years. With less than two years until retirement, the 60-year-old diabetic faced loss of income, medical insurance, and housing.
‘I will need a place to live and have to find work for a year and a half,’ said Swedenburg…, ‘The medical question has really tested my faith. I have to have medical coverage. Who hires people in America my age?’
She wondered where she would live. ‘I don’t think Alabama Baptist churches will allow a fired missionary to live in one of their houses,’ she said. ‘Now that I am a terminated missionary, I will not be allowed to speak again in a Southern Baptist Convention church. I am grateful to Southern Baptists and to the IMB for appointing me to serve in Japan,’ said Swedenburg, who had served as an IMB missionary for 34 years. ‘I will be grateful … all of my life. But I did not affirm the Baptist Faith and Message.’” (Missionaries face faith statement | The Alabama Baptist)
Rather than agree to the SBC’s jackboot tactics, unbiblical theology, and utterly callous attitude towards women and the well-being of a 34-year veteran missionary, Swedenburg put her faith in God and walked away from her life’s work of her own initiative.
The 43 missionaries who resigned or made the SBC fire them in 2003, are shining examples to all Believers who stand for biblical equality and autonomy of the sexes, and the liberty God gives his daughters to obey his call in their lives, … wherever that call may lead them.
We are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses….
Jocelyn Andersen challenges the status quo with an often non-traditional and out-of-the-box approach to biblical understanding. She writes and speaks on a variety of subjects including Bible Prophecy, God and Women, and Christian response to domestic violence. Her work has been featured in magazines, newspapers, radio, and television.
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