2.1 from submission to freedom: ideology informing baptist women  (Page 4/5)

Baptists continued to emphasize their commitment to local autonomy, but after they entered the missionary movement in the late nineteenth century, denominational machinery became stronger and more influential. Theoretically, these cooperating groups and leaders possessed no authority over congregations and church members, but in reality, they exerted tremendous power. Southern Baptists continued to give lip service to the pre-eminence of the working of the Holy Spirit among individuals joined in an independent community setting, while they were influenced increasingly by highly rationalized, bureaucratic organizations based on a national scale. This conclusion was reached regarding the American Baptist Church (Northern) by Paul M. Harrison in Authority and Power in the Free Church Tradition, and was applied to the Southern Baptists by Donald F. Trotter, "A Study of Authority and Power in the Structure and Dynamics of the SBC," Thesis, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1962. An excellent, more recent application of American business policy to the development of Protestant bureaucracies is made by Ben Primer, Protestants and American Business Methods (Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Research Press, 1979). Both the growth of a centralized denominational authority and the strong patriarchal strain of Southern Baptist familial ethic are borrowed from the general culture and sit incongruously alongside the democratic elements of the Baptist belief system.

Diverse cultural influences notwithstanding, the fundamental ideology of Texas Baptists--including their models and vocabulary of gender roles--was drawn from biblical texts. Recreating their ideology with regard specifically to women, therefore, entails both an examination of pertinent texts and of the uses to which those passages were put. The latter element of research was most readily accomplished by examining Texas Baptist newspapers during the period, extracting all biblical references to women. These were contributed by a number of authors, ministers, and letter-writers, both women and men, from various parts of the state over the forty-year period from 1880 to 1920, and they form legitimate bases for determining public opinion and usage. Because of the democratic nature of Baptist church government, the newspapers were generally sensitive to their constituencies--average church members, as well as ministers and leaders. They allowed, even encouraged, diverse opinion to be expressed in their open-forum format. Of course, editorial control determined the prominent stance taken, but dissenting views, particularly on a subject as controversial as this one, were given space.

Baptist sermons and publications from 1880 to 1920 were rife with phrases that emphasized the discernible and unchanging nature of revelation; "within scriptural limits," "God's revealed truth," and "the eternal verities of God's abiding word" were common. BS, May 19, 1892, p. 7; September 1, 1892, p. 4; March 5, 1896, p. 5. "Theology has nothing new in it, except that which is false. The preaching of Paul must be the preaching of the minister today," BS, September 1, 1892, p. 4. stated the Baptist Standard in 1892. In 1900 it asserted: "There are no authorities among Baptists. There is one authority--the New Testament. Eminent scholars have great weight with us, but what they say or write is taken only as the opinion of fallible men and does not rank up to the authoritative point…” BS, January 4, 1900, p. 2. At this writing, the question of authority was being directly challenged by the Baptist seminary at the University of Chicago and by its president, Dr. W. R. Harper. And in 1919 the Standard confidently reaffirmed that "the truth remains the Baptists have never changed any of the ordinances and practices of the New Testament." BS, January 2, 1919, p. 8.