Roman Catholic Womenpriests: NPR -Baptists Leaders face challenges on women's roles

Link to Radio Broadcast:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106932178

National Public Radio
Morning Edition, July 24, 2009
A few highlights:
Sheri Klouda, who taught Hebrew at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth shared her story:

"I was told I would not be considered for tenure because I was a woman and because he believed that women should not be teaching theology to men," says Klouda.

Southwestern Baptists Theological Seminary has "developed a new "track" for women seminarians, which includes home-making and home-schooling."

Wade Burleson, pastor of a Southern Baptist megachurch in Enid, Okla. disagrees with the policies of his denomination.

"I'm not a betting Baptist, but if I were, I would put money on the table that 50 years from now, Southern Baptists will look at women and the role of women the way we now look at slavery," Burleson says.

In a recent article, published by the Guardian in England, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter said he left the Southern Baptist Church because women and girls have been discriminated against in a misinterpretation of the Word of God. "The justification of discrimination against women and girls on grounds of religion or tradition, as if it were prescribed by a Higher Authority, is unaceeptable."
"This view that women are somehow inferior to men is not restricted to one religion or belief... At its most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/12/jimmy-carter-womens-rights-equality
This debate is one that cuts across denominational lines. More and more women and men are crossing the line of discrimination, rooted in religious beliefs. Roman Catholic Womenpriests are leading the way toward a renewed priestly ministry in grassroots communities in the Roman Catholic Church. Like Rosa Parks, Roman Catholic Womenpriests refuse to sit in the back of the bus in a church that continues to discriminate against women. Roman Catholic Womenpriests offer women an option, not available before, when women left the church to be ordained in other denominations. Now Catholic women for the first time in centuries can serve God's people as deacons, priests and bishops in Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered, inclusive communities. Let's hear a big Amen from the people of God around the world!
Bridget Mary Meehan
www.romancatholicwomenpriests.org
sofiabmm@aol.com