By Bob Allen After nearly 200 years and 34 pastors, First Baptist Church in Columbia, Mo., has called its first woman pastor. The prominent congregation jointly aligned with American Baptist Churches USA, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Alliance of…
Prof: Kitty Wells wasn’t a feminist
By Bob Allen A Southern Baptist seminary professor and country-music devotee is challenging eulogies portraying recently deceased singer/songwriter Kitty Wells as a feminist icon. Russell Moore, dean of the school of theology and vice president for academic administration at Southern…
Faith leaders protest contraceptive rule
By Bob Allen Nearly 150 faith leaders wrote Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius June 11 protesting the administration’s requirement that faith-based employers include contraceptive coverage for women in their health-care plans. The Affordable Health Care Act, also known…
Reading Scripture is like rock climbing
By Mimi Haddad In a recent interview with the New Voice Media Group (which includes Associated Baptist Press), I used rock climbing as an analogy for interpreting Bible passages about the role of women. Whether climbing a steep rock or…
Thanking my teacher
By Molly T. Marshall He invited me to be his graduate assistant. He married Douglas and me. He was the midwife of my dissertation. He preached my ordination sermon. He encouraged me as a younger colleague in the theology department…
Reading the Bible in pink and blue
By Vicki Brown Does God have prescribed roles for men and women, and does he require those roles to be filled in specific ways? Many evangelicals, including Baptists, are divided into two camps on this issue – “complementarian” and “egalitarian.”…
Women seek God’s will at home, church
By Vicki Brown Married nearly five years, Courtney Fenton of Hannibal, Mo., wanted to be married but wasn’t sure she wanted to have children. But the day she married, “something switched” in her brain and the desire for little ones…
Women protest army rapes in Burma
By Bob Allen Leaders of a ministry for women and girls in American Baptist churches called on the United States to insist on human-rights reforms – including ending the use of rape as a weapon of war – before moving…
Pastors juggle ministry, motherhood
By Jeff Brumley Mothers’ Day 2012 will dawn with more women than ever in Baptist pulpits. But even those who welcome the trend say the corresponding ascension of the minister mom is creating tensions, too, within families, and the hearts…