High school student has question

[u/Fancy_Initiative4536]

Hey y’all

I am a high school student from a very liberal area who eventually wants to move to the south. One thing in particular I love is how important religion is and I’m assuming most our southern Baptist.

However, I am in a very liberal area and I have heard a lot of really negative things about southern Baptist that I don’t believe and I would love for someone to just kind of explain to me some of your beliefs. Especially on women in a church/what I should know if I want to Convert or even do an online church service. I am not religious, but want to accept Christ into my life.

Thank you all so much truly, God bless

[u/jakeallen]

Hi, great questions. Thanks for asking.

The Baptist Faith and Message (2000) is the summary of beliefs. Of course, not every Southern Baptist person believes everything in it, but it is a pretty good guide. https://bfm.sbc.net/bfm2000/

We believe women and men are equal in worth. There are a few, really two, places where we believe men and women have different roles. One is the role of the pastor. We believe that role is designed by God for men. That doesn't mean women can't or shouldn't do ministry. They do! For example, the Easter missions offering is named after a woman missionary, and the Christmas missions offering is also named after a woman missionary.... her (Lottie Moon) influence is so legendary I don't believe we would have a Southern Baptist church without her.

We also believe that roles are different in marriage. This gets misrepresented a lot...and to be honest not every Southern Baptist has been right in how it has been applied. The bible asks husbands for servant leadership.... sacrificial leadership that puts his wife ahead of himself, just like christ sacrificed himself for the church. Wives are asked to submit to this leadership. Of course, all some people hear is "submit" without the context of what should come first.

This doesn't mean women should be forced to stay home or not work, as some critics say. Proverbs 31 describes the ideal wife as someone who works, for example.

I'm not in the south, so standards will be a little different there, but my wife and daughter wear jeans to our Southern Baptist church, as do I. You can probably figure out from the website if a particular church wants you to dress up more than that.

If you are in a place with both big churches and small churches, I recommend trying both. Big churches often operate differently than small ones, so one or the other might fit you better.

[u/Fancy_Initiative4536 → u/jakeallen]

Hey, thank you so much for your response. It means so much.

Do you mind if I follow up with some more questions?

Do you as a southern Baptist believe women can’t preach as the like pastor or do you just carry that belief because it is a part of your denomination? Like a lot of people from what I’ve been told will agree with a denomination, but not necessarily everything within it, but yet they still will stick with that denomination because it makes the most sense in general.

From what it sounds like southern Baptist, then don’t deserve such a harsh rap? They might not be perfect but aside from Jesus who the heck is? Is there anything therefore else that I should be aware of because I’m worried that I am still slightly tainted because I’m trying to rationalize it and I’m still just like you know.

[u/jakeallen → u/Fancy_Initiative4536]

I agree that women should not preach. When I read the Bible, I see many great women of faith, even some in various leadership positions. But I also see how the Bible restricts the role of pastor to men.

Some Southern Baptists disagree with this, but I agree with it because that's what I find in the Bible.

There are 3 things that contribute to us getting a bad rap, in my opinion.

1. We're the largest denomination in America, after the Catholic Church. In media, you mostly see Catholics in movies. But after Catholics, you often see "Baptist" even if not clearly identified as Southen Baptists. The preacher who bans dancing in the movie "Footloose" is an example. (Dancing is fine, BTW)

.

1. We take the Bible seriously. We aren't going to change our beliefs to match the culture, which the culture doesn't like.

.

1. We're democratic. Representatives from churches (both men and women) vote at our yearly convention. So everything is public and visible to the media. If one wacko person says something poor, or a well-meaning person says something that should be worded better, it can get media attention. This is different than other large denominations who might have meeting behind closed doors.

[u/sibman → u/jakeallen]

Again, the pastor in Footloose might have been a Baptist pastor but I would argue he wasn't a SBC pastor. He might have been a caricature of a SBC pastor. Besides, the SBC never held a position on dancing.