0.24 6.1 conclusion  (Page 7/8)

The majority of Baptist men were quite willing to retain their privilege—to be convinced that the sexes' separate spheres were somehow equal or that the New Testament's testimony to the lack of distinctions in Christ's kingdom was referring to an ideal that would only be recognized in the supernatural realm. Church polity never indicated that they believed such egalitarianism was intended for this world. But male chauvinism was not the only resistance Baptist women had to face in exercising full rights and personhood; their ambivalence about power demonstrates that in a deep but fundamental way women, too, were convinced of their inferiority. This was demonstrated in their reluctance to deal straightforwardly with complex issues and to engage in the inevitable conflict the struggle for power entails. Even when they gained experience and skills that equipped them for leadership positions, they chose , as well as accepted, to remain in a restricted position and to exercise their influence subtly and vicariously. It was better not to aspire than to fail.

In the intervening years since 1920, Baptist women have maintained their intellectual, managerial, and spiritual gifts, but the denomination has been slow to include them on executive boards and committees and even more reluctant to ordain them. In the 1970s, however, economic necessity and social ferment has been exposing a new generation of young women to even greater tasks and possibilities, and they recognize that the notion that women are basically inferior, weak, and incompetent has a hollow ring. Increasing numbers of them are challenging male leadership in the two areas that remained male provinces in 1920—ordination and headship of the family. At least fifty-eight women had been ordained to the ministry by 1979, ^{Leon McBeth, Women in Baptist Life (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1979), pp. 154-155. In a denomination that, for nearly a century, has been preoccupied with statistics, it is ironic that no agency maintains a record of the number of ordained women.} and the issue of the ordination of women to the diaconate is surfacing in numerous congregations. Some young women are calling for a re-evaluation of the whole concept of privilege as exemplified by ordination in a denomination that embraces the "priesthood of all believers." Others are interpreting "calls" from God to fill the same range of ministries in which men participate. One female seminary student told a group of Southern Baptist leaders in 1978:

We must not waste time debating whether or not women should or can enter the ministry. We must recognize the fact that women have, indeed, entered the ministry, and now we must move to help them.

We, as women, have not demanded to become ministers. Rather, ministry has been demanded of us. ^{Rachel Richardson Smith, "My Present Education Experience," speech delivered at the Consultation on Women in Church-Related Vocations, Southern Baptist Convention, Nashville, Tenn., September 21, 1978.}

Ferment and dissension regarding women's role in conservative churches is just beginning to have an effect but will become a prominent issue in the future. It is already recognized to be a source of tension among evangelicals, within whose circles opinion on the issue runs the gamut from the most restrictive, submissive model to one in which all discrimination based on race, status, or sex is eliminated in the new order instituted by Christ.

Richard Quebedeaux, The Worldly Evangelicals (San Francisco: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1978), p. 30.