Baptist News Global
Sections
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Curated
  • Storytelling
    • Faith & Justice >
      • Charleston: Metanoia with Bill Stanfield
      • Charlotte: QC Family Tree with Greg and Helms Jarrell
      • Little Rock: Judge Wendell Griffen
      • North Carolina: Conetoe
    • Welcoming the Stranger >
      • Lost Boys of Sudan: St. John’s Baptist Charlotte
      • Awakening to Immigrant Justice: Myers Park Baptist Church
      • Hospitality on the corner: Gaston Christian Center
    • Signature Ministries >
      • Jake Hall: Gospel Gothic, Music and Radio
    • Singing Our Faith >
      • Hymns for a Lifetime: Ken Wilson and Knollwood Baptist Church
      • Norfolk Street Choir
    • Resilient Rural America >
      • Alabama: Perry County
      • Texas: Hidalgo County
      • Arkansas Delta
      • Southeast Kentucky
  • More
    • Contact
    • About
    • Donate
      • #GivingNewsDay
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Advertising
    • Ministry Jobs and More
    • Transitions
    • Subscribe to BNG
Support independent, faith-based journalism. Donate
Search Search this site

Mohler says he’s embarrassed by past support of women in ministry

NewsABPnews  |  September 14, 2010

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP) — A seminary president who served on a committee that 10 years ago revised the Southern Baptist Convention's confessional document to declare that only men should be pastors told students Sept. 14 that he was embarrassed by his former advocacy of women in ministry.

Albert Mohler

Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., recalled in a seminary chapel sermon the reaction when the Southern Baptist Convention in 1984 for the first time adopted a resolution declaring the office of pastor is restricted to men qualified by Scripture.

"That incited one of the most incredible denominational controversies — in the midst of that great controversy of the '70s and the '80s and the '90s — that one could imagine," Mohler said. "Many people took umbrage at that statement. Many people were hurt and outraged and stunned that the Southern Baptist Convention would say that a woman ought not to be pastor."

"I was one of them," Mohler confessed. "I was a student in this institution. This institution at that time taught monolithically that women, just as men, could and should be called to serve as pastors of churches. There was no [Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood]. There was no book on recovering biblical manhood and womanhood."

Mohler said he can give "first-hand testimony" about how error by a teacher or preacher can set a course leading to error of others.

"When the denomination adopted that resolution in 1984, I not only took part, I led an effort to protest it," he said. "We bought an ad in the [Louisville] Courier-Journal and made a statement about God is an equal opportunity employer."

Mohler, said he did that while "absolutely sure the Bible was the inerrant and infallible Word of God," but he finally saw the error of his ways about a year and a half later, when he was assigned as campus host for visiting theologian Carl F.H. Henry.

Already a fan of Henry through his books, Mohler said the two discussed theology while walking across campus and Henry brought up the subject of women in the pastorate.

"With the insouciance of youth and with the stupidity of speaking more quickly than one ought, I gave him my position," Mohler recalled. "He looked at me with a look that surprised me, and he simply said to me, 'One day this will be a matter of great embarrassment to you.'"

Mohler said that for him, the embarrassment was immediate.

"I went to the library. I looked for every book that I could possibly find on the subject," he said. "Frankly, the urgency on me was such that I didn't think I could eat or do anything until I found out why I was going to be so embarrassed. The campus was full of people who appeared to be wonderfully unembarrassed about the whole issue."

Mohler said he didn't find much, but there was a book by Stephen Clark titled Man and Woman in Christ that "led me, thankfully, into some Scripture study."

"I ended up staying up until I could figure this out," he said. "Somewhere between Carl Henry saying what he said to me and the dawn of the next day, my position had completely changed."

Mohler, 50, who after his election as president in 1993 refused to hire any new faculty members who believed it was possible that God would call a woman to preach, served on the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message study committee that recommended several revisions to the SBC faith statement, which had only been amended once since its previous adoption in 1963.

Among changes, the committee added to an article on the church, "While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture."

Mohler is a member of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, an organization started in 1987 to oppose "the accommodation of secular feminism" in evangelical churches.

Mohler said Henry did not change his position on women in ministry, but rather, "It was the Scripture that changed my position."

"I had to come face to face with the fact that I had just picked this up," he said. "I had just breathed this in, and I just capitulated it out without checking it according to the Scriptures. By the way, going to the Scriptures, it doesn't take long. It wasn't like I embarked on a lifelong study to discover what Scripture says on this. It didn't take long at all.

"And I realized that Carl Henry was right, that one day I would be very embarrassed about this. When I saw him the next morning, well, I was already in a different world."

-30-

Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

 

Tags:Archives
ABPnews
More by
ABPnews
  • Get BNG headlines in your inbox

  • Embracing the power of story



    We created Storytelling Projects because we believe stories, rooted in the Jesus Story, have the power not only to inform but to transform people and communities.

    We believe in-depth, compelling stories can be sources of spiritual insight, imagination, creativity and hope for all who seek justice and mercy. Read to discover more about our series on:

    Faith and Justice

    Welcoming The Stranger

    Signature Ministries

    Singing Our Faith

    Resilient Rural America

    These series of compelling stories can become vital threads that connect and energize Baptists and other Christians at a time when American culture – and American religion – are increasingly politicized and polarized.
  • Featured

    • Lupe, my friend and neighbor, shouldn’t have died: politicians, preachers and poverty in America

      Opinion

    • The Good News of Christmas calls the Church to embrace the ‘F’ word

      Opinion

    • Mary sings her joyful – and radical – faith. Do we have the courage to join her?

      Opinion

    • Did the Pope compare Donald Trump to King Herod? Should he?

      News

    Read Next:

    Embracing the Simeons and Annas who keep the faith when we cannot

    OpinionKate Hanch

    More Articles

    • All
    • News
    • Opinion
    • Curated
    • Former volunteer convicted of abusing preschoolers at South Carolina megachurch

      NewsBob Allen

    • She walked ‘tightrope over portals of hell’ to find God’s grace

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Lupe, my friend and neighbor, shouldn’t have died: politicians, preachers and poverty in America

      OpinionJeremy Everett

    • Mary sings her joyful – and radical – faith. Do we have the courage to join her?

      OpinionMolly T. Marshall

    • The sort-of socialist church is taking a radical approach To Christianity

      CuratedBuzzFeed News

    • Pastor who says Jews are going to Hell speaks at Trump’s Hanukkah party

      CuratedHuffPost

    • The Good News of Christmas calls the Church to embrace the ‘F’ word

      OpinionErica Whitaker

    • Nikki Haley, Confederate memory and the insidious myth of racial ‘reconciliationism’

      OpinionChristopher Moore

    • Did the Pope compare Donald Trump to King Herod? Should he?

      NewsBob Allen

    • Embracing the Simeons and Annas who keep the faith when we cannot

      OpinionKate Hanch

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Disaster volunteers face ‘primitive’ conditions in Dorian-ravaged Bahamas

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Churches need more of Mr. Rogers’s theology of neighborliness

      OpinionAlan Rudnick

    • Tom Ascol, Calvinist leader and social justice critic, hospitalized after collapsing at church

      NewsBob Allen

    • The gospel and the limits of consumerism

      OpinionDoyle Sager

    • Church’s food truck connects with neighbors ‘over a barbecue sandwich’

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Don’t succumb to criticism of ‘Happy Holidays’; it can be an expression of God’s inclusive embrace

      OpinionSusan M. Shaw

    • What our Wilshire congregation learned: Have ‘the conversation’ anyway

      OpinionMark Wingfield

    • Arkansas Supreme Court declines to prevent pastor/judge from hearing attorney general’s cases

      NewsBob Allen

    • New Liberty University think tank aims to revive ‘Christian American culture’

      NewsBob Allen

    • Transitions for the week of 12-6-19

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • What if white Christians had a more realistic image of Jesus, a dark-skinned, religious-minority refugee?

      OpinionLaura Mayo

    • I decided to make a list: 20 actions to cultivate hope

      OpinionMary Hix

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Walker Knight, founding editor of Baptists Today newspaper and former editor of Home Missions magazine, dead at 95

      NewsBob Allen

    • Former volunteer convicted of abusing preschoolers at South Carolina megachurch

      NewsBob Allen

    • She walked ‘tightrope over portals of hell’ to find God’s grace

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Did the Pope compare Donald Trump to King Herod? Should he?

      NewsBob Allen

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Disaster volunteers face ‘primitive’ conditions in Dorian-ravaged Bahamas

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Tom Ascol, Calvinist leader and social justice critic, hospitalized after collapsing at church

      NewsBob Allen

    • Church’s food truck connects with neighbors ‘over a barbecue sandwich’

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Arkansas Supreme Court declines to prevent pastor/judge from hearing attorney general’s cases

      NewsBob Allen

    • New Liberty University think tank aims to revive ‘Christian American culture’

      NewsBob Allen

    • Transitions for the week of 12-6-19

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Walker Knight, founding editor of Baptists Today newspaper and former editor of Home Missions magazine, dead at 95

      NewsBob Allen

    • Less TV, more faith needed to help refugees along U.S.-Mexican border

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Judge rules that historically black college and sponsoring denomination share power to name trustees

      NewsBob Allen

    • Franklin Graham terms opposition to Trump ‘almost’ demonic

      NewsBob Allen

    • Trump’s West Bank shocker: are End Times ‘kooks’ running US foreign policy?

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Parting with national body, Tennessee Baptists repudiate Critical Race Theory

      NewsBob Allen

    • Some ministers thrive in the ‘unicorn of church jobs’

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Fallen Southern Baptist leader props up pro-Trump pastor

      NewsBob Allen

    • Transitions for the week of 11-22-19

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Half of Protestant pastors say opioid abuse affects a church member

      NewsBob Allen

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • BJC, others, urge Supreme Court to allow states to bolster religious-liberty protections

      NewsBob Allen

    • Trump rhetoric, ICE raids shake Miss. immigrants – but this pastor presses on

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Lupe, my friend and neighbor, shouldn’t have died: politicians, preachers and poverty in America

      OpinionJeremy Everett

    • Mary sings her joyful – and radical – faith. Do we have the courage to join her?

      OpinionMolly T. Marshall

    • The Good News of Christmas calls the Church to embrace the ‘F’ word

      OpinionErica Whitaker

    • Nikki Haley, Confederate memory and the insidious myth of racial ‘reconciliationism’

      OpinionChristopher Moore

    • Embracing the Simeons and Annas who keep the faith when we cannot

      OpinionKate Hanch

    • Churches need more of Mr. Rogers’s theology of neighborliness

      OpinionAlan Rudnick

    • The gospel and the limits of consumerism

      OpinionDoyle Sager

    • Don’t succumb to criticism of ‘Happy Holidays’; it can be an expression of God’s inclusive embrace

      OpinionSusan M. Shaw

    • What our Wilshire congregation learned: Have ‘the conversation’ anyway

      OpinionMark Wingfield

    • What if white Christians had a more realistic image of Jesus, a dark-skinned, religious-minority refugee?

      OpinionLaura Mayo

    • I decided to make a list: 20 actions to cultivate hope

      OpinionMary Hix

    • Telling the truth or creating our own realities? (And the wisdom to know the difference)

      OpinionBill Leonard

    • Impeaching ‘the deeply held faith values’ that brought us a President Trump

      OpinionGreg Jarrell

    • People first: The Supreme Court – and all of us – should protect our 1.5 million known transgender Americans

      OpinionRuss Dean

    • Are congregations and seminaries in this work together?

      OpinionMolly T. Marshall

    • Déjà vu: Jewish settlements in Palestine, U.S. policy and support from conservative Christians

      OpinionWendell Griffen

    • Rather than ‘surviving’ family conversations this Thanksgiving, here are 4 ways you can thrive

      OpinionAlan Rudnick

    • What testimony in the impeachment hearings said to me about the power of Christian witness

      OpinionRobert P. Sellers

    • Three years after Standing Rock: another oil spill and reminders of indigenous peoples’ fight for justice

      OpinionKate Hanch

    • How the expectation gap creates trauma for white evangelicals

      OpinionMark Wingfield

    • This is how despotism works – enabled by conservative white evangelicals and Christian nationalism

      OpinionWendell Griffen

    • Baptists under Nazism and Baptists amid America’s current political crisis: a call to ‘disruption’

      OpinionKristopher Norris

    • Sitting in someone else’s chair

      OpinionBrett Younger

    • ‘Have you found Jesus yet?’ The peddling preacher and the pauper

      OpinionCorey Fields

    • Are we finally ready to learn from Glenn Hinson, one of our Baptist prophets?

      OpinionAlan Bean

    • The sort-of socialist church is taking a radical approach To Christianity

      CuratedBuzzFeed News

    • Pastor who says Jews are going to Hell speaks at Trump’s Hanukkah party

      CuratedHuffPost

    • American Jews are terrified

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageCurated Content

    • J.J. Culver, brother of NBA player Jarrett Culver, scored 100 points in a game for Wayland Baptist

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageCurated Content

    • Behind the rise of evangelical women ‘influencers’

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageCurated Content

    • Muhammad appears in top 10 baby name list for the first time

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageCurated Content

    • How the ‘extreme abstinence’ of the purity movement created a sense of shame in evangelical women

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageCurated Content

    • Palestinians in Bethlehem look beyond religious tourism

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageCurated Content

    • SMU sued for severing ties with church

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageCurated Content

    • David Bentley Hart’s polemic against the alleged doctrine of eternal hell

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageCurated Content

    • Georgia’s legislature endorsed Bible classes. Twice. Why aren’t schools teaching them?

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageCurated Content

    • House Speaker Pelosi rebukes reporter: ‘Don’t mess with me’

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageCurated Content

    • Holt Street Baptist commemorates bus boycott anniversary, converts former church to museum

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageCurated Content

    • What does a fair trade logo actually mean?

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageCurated Content

    • Resurgence of nationalism is a ‘setback for humanity’, says German theologian Jürgen Moltmann

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageCurated Content

    • How bad theology makes the opioid crisis worse

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageCurated Content

    • Refugee ministries fight new resettlement requirement

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageCurated Content

    • At Bishop Barber’s NC church, Pete Buttigieg works to woo black voters

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageCurated Content

    • Former U.S. President Carter hospitalized in Georgia with urinary tract infection

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageCurated Content

    • Dallas pastor’s book sheds light on painful discussions that led Wilshire Baptist to embrace LGBT members

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageCurated Content

    • Seven years after his story went viral, a former Baptist minister continues to advocate for the LGBTQ community

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageCurated Content

    • How many Americans believe Trump is anointed by God?

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageCurated Content

    • The generous gospel of Mayor Pete

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageCurated Content

    • Advent calendars have exploded with gift-worthy options

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageCurated Content

    • Thanksgiving reveals more about us than about 17th century events

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageCurated Content

    Conversations that Matter.

    © 2019 Baptist News Global. All rights reserved.

    Want to share a story? We hope you will! Read our republishing, terms of use and privacy policies here.

    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • RSS