Southern Baptist lurch toward...

The SBCers are at it again, and apologies in advance for anyone whose toes might feel a bit stomped by this... but in a ridiculous effort to show their base that they can keep things in line and downright hierarchical the SBC (Southern Baptist Convention) school Southwestern has told a female professor "she would not get tenure" and has encouraged her to find another job.
Why? Because (drumroll)...

She's female.

So why was she hired in the first place, in a tenure-track position to teach Hebrew to seminarians?

"Dr. Klouda's hiring as a professor in the school of theology, which occurred before (current school president) Dr. Patterson arrived in 2003, represented a "momentary lax of the parameters."
...
Southwestern, he said, has gone back to its "traditional, confessional and biblical position" that women should not instruct men in theology or biblical languages.

Aye carumba.

In a related note, the SBC will vote on a motion to censure (in absentia) Priscilla, mentioned throughout the New Testament, both for teaching Apollos, an early seminarian, and for consistently being mentioned in the biblical text ahead of her husband.

Okay, that last part was made up. But to be perfectly honest, it wouldn't surprise me. Increasingly, in an effort to stick to fewer and fewer verses, the Southern Baptists are ignoring more and more of God's Word.

No matter what your theological position on women as pastors, preventing a woman from teaching Hebrew is simply asinine.

Read the rest of the sad, shameful story here

(ht: Scot McKnight)