I’m sure it’s some Holy Spirit work that the “State of Women in Baptist Life” 2025 report was released in the same month as the film Wicked: For Good.
The second half of the saga of two electric women is expected to draw millions for the box office. Whether you find yourself on Team Elphaba or Team Glinda (with a “Guh”), the report on women in Baptist life calls us to recognize even camaraderie in sharing the good news of Jesus Christ and bringing a different Kin-dom to earth is still oftentimes tinted by conscious or subconscious jealousy and suspicion of women, by women.
Molly Shoulta Tucker
So we as Baptists — and we as Christ-followers — must recognize and repent from structures that acclaim women’s gifts, but only insofar as they will not threaten the structures that are.
The “State of Women in Baptist Life” may have slightly less reach than that of Wicked, but it speaks to the importance of women supporting other women in ministry, rather than unadulterated loathing.
The report states: “Female hostility is a real obstacle of internalized gender bias that women must combat in themselves. Unconsciously, women may have gut reactions toward other women’s successes by questioning her credentials, how she got the job, if she is sufficiently equipped, etc. — which oftentimes amounts to subconscious jealousy that another woman was successful in a way that a woman felt unique in achieving or was not successful herself.”
One of the most powerful scenes in the first Wicked movie is undoubtedly in the Ozdust Ballroom. When Elphaba arrives and as the dance floor clears, she begins what we may recognize as a mid-’90s youth group interpretative movement, which is cause for pointing, jeering and open laughter at her expense.
Fiero leans to Glinda, and says, “She doesn’t give a twit what anyone thinks.”
Glinda replies, “Of course she does. She just pretends not to.”
This, of course, before Glinda joins Elphaba in the middle of the dance floor and together, they create a dance the rest of the ballroom soon excitedly joins in.
That’s my favorite part of the movie, truth be told. For the first time these two women, with different looks, personalities, gifts, talents, friend groups — they see each other. The one who holds the social power recognizes the hurt she is capable of, and the one who holds the magical power has invited another woman into the world where she thrives.
“Let us be glad, let us be grateful — for this example set before us.”
Let us be glad, let us be grateful — for this example set before us.
At the recent Baptist Women in Ministry annual gathering, we heard preaching, stories and research that presented just how hard it is to break away from the internalized trauma women take on, believing there’s not enough power to go around. We recognize that generations of women have carried the church, righted the church, opened the church’s mind, made decisions they never have (and may never) received the credit for. And for all their fighting to keep a church afloat, they find it difficult if not impossible to share the power with another woman.
The report suggests this is not an individual fault but an inherited response of a deeply entrenched patriarchal system. That doesn’t make it right, and it doesn’t make it easy. But it means we — all people — have internal work to do.
I believe the report’s findings suggest that in this tense place of competition, this is the place where heartfelt celebration of one another could help dissolve the belief there is not enough to go around. Even apart from women in ministry, the church and our country have had our imagination stunted by the belief that there is not enough — not enough money, not enough food, not enough rights, not enough … . But there is always, always enough — if we have the imagination that might defy such heavy gravity.
In a particularly tough season of ministry, one where I found myself questioning my calling, a church member sent me a picture of a quote: “I was celebrated but not accepted.” I felt seen; and I also saw myself.
Our churches can give money to BWIM, we can bestow stoles upon ordinands, we can update policies, but it’s not just the celebrations that bring us forward — it’s the acceptance.
It’s seeing one another. It’s sharing power. It’s recognizing our gut reaction and working against it. It’s enacting the assurance that we are not in competition with one another but can lift each other up.
Like Elphaba and Glinda, by women lending one another, our humility and our celebration of the other, by recognizing power can be shared and not won, perhaps the church could be changed … for good.
Molly Shoulta Tucker serves as pastor of Ridgewood Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., and as chair of BWIM’s board of directors.
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