Who’s got a problem with women or LGBTQ+ pastors? Not God
To the editor: In his op-ed article “What’s the Southern Baptists’ drawback with ladies?” Randall Balmer quoted a Southern Baptist minister as saying that permitting feminine clergy would “enable the wedding of homosexuals, after which even permitting homosexuals to function pastors.”
On Sunday, my Episcopalian pastor, who’s fortunately married to his husband, stated in his sermon that about half of the lively Episcopal clergy are ladies, and a couple of quarter are a part of the LGBTQ+ neighborhood.
Now we have climbed that “slippery slope” and located God’s grace on the prime ready for us.
When the Southern Baptists objecting to ladies pastors ask themselves, “What would Jesus do?” they should reply with this: “Jesus would welcome and love everyone, with out exclusion or exception.”
Jeanette Barcroft, Camarillo
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To the editor: What’s with these zany Baptists at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, permitting ladies to function their pastors? Don’t they know that the Bible’s “inerrant” phrase mandates that girls be saved pregnant and within the kitchen?
No, it’s not misogyny. It’s the biblical stance that made America so nice within the Fifties, again when males had been women and men faithfully did their bidding.
Really, barring ladies from pastoral roles will serve to make America nice once more.
Betty Turner, Sherman Oaks
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To the editor: The Southern Baptist Conference’s resolution to bar ladies from serving as pastors underscores faith’s extraordinary energy not simply throughout the church however throughout society.
If you may get individuals to imagine in issues with out proof, based mostly solely on what an authority determine claims, it’s straightforward to grasp why somebody would deny the risks of local weather change or the hyperlink between the proliferation of firearms and gun deaths, or why somebody would help former President Trump’s efforts to overthrow democracy.
The “fact” will certainly not set Southern Baptist ladies free, however the remainder of us must also be anxious.
Mark Cassell, Washington
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To the editor: Balmer may additionally point out that within the Gospel of Mark, on the crucifixion, solely ladies, not males, are mourners, the primary to endure the sting of Jesus’ loss.
Additionally in line with Mark, when Jesus was in Galilee, a girl named Salome (to not be confused with Herodias’ daughter) adopted Jesus and “ministered to Him.”
So what’s the drawback once more with a girl serving as a pastor or minister?
Gary Hoffman, Huntington Seaside
