The Baptists and the Media

The media has had a field day reporting that the Southern Baptists have declared certain fundamental beliefs as church doctrine. The media finds it very controversial that the church declared "a wife must submit to her husband" and "a marriage is considered a compact between a man and a woman" (not two men, two women, a man and a dog, or any other such union which liberals would have protected by law if they could.) Many of the editorials were so caustic towards the Baptists regarding their doctrine, that if the religion were Judaism, these writers would be dismissed as "anti-Semitic" bigots.

Ok, I am not a Southern Baptist. President Clinton claims to be. I don’t know about Hillary, but if she is, I don’t think they consulted her before they came out with their doctrine. Besides, Clinton is a Southern Baptist like Madonna is a Catholic.

I find the predictable media reaction towards Southern Baptists in light of the fact that they have declared a set of biblical based core beliefs, is unwarranted. If Baptists or Muslims or any other religious faction declares that theologically based values (regardless that they contradict popular liberal socio/political correctness doctrine) are fundamental to their religion, the attack from liberals, whose lifestyle would be negatively affected if those beliefs were forced on them, begins.

My question is, where’s the threat? Liberals have their lifestyles. The Baptists did not say that non-Southern Baptists women must "submit" to their husbands. They did not say that non-Baptist wives must be nurturing and manage the household. I say, it is their church, and as long as free will dictates membership, whose business is it to criticize? How come those liberals in the media who assail conservatives as being intolerant of others find such license to criticize the religious beliefs of others? Many cultures have religious or culturally based "caste" systems, which dictate a subsurviant role to women. I don’t happen to agree with that philosophy. On the other hand, I know a few Southern Baptist women, and none of them fit the definition of "disadvantaged" with regard to their relationship to men. Even if they did, if they chose to ascribe to a religion that dictated that status, it would be their choice.

Bob Wilson is a buisnessman and pilot living in Arizona.