I am the most liberal conservative you’ll ever meet. Or at least that’s how I often feel labeled. During my time at Moody I was taught and bought into a fairly conservative hermeneutic. In other words, how I read and interpret Scripture is through the lens of the original reader literally, than contextualizing it to today. “What did this mean to the original reader? How does this apply in our culture today?” People want to know where my radical views come from? They come from that! I believe the Bible is absolutely true… even when our religious culture disagrees.
Interestingly, during my time in college I found myself differentiating with my alma mater on two major issues… based upon their own hermeneutic. So the tools that they equipped me with pretty much destroyed two of their positions for me!
#1 A strict pretribulational interpretation of the book of Revelation. While I don’t reject this view entirely, the hermeneutical gymnastics scholars go through to get to this view is astounding. When my fellow students questioned this in our undergrad Daniel/Revelation class we were reminded that we were stupid and anyone intelligent would see that this was the only viable explanation. “It’s my role to indoctrinate you to teach this position to others” (To paraphrase the professor) Wow, not exactly the scholarship I knew elsewhere! Thankfully, I’ve learned that most conservative evangelicals agree with Yogi Berra. “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.”
#2 A sexist view on women in ministry. I know many in conservative evangelicalism firmly believe women shouldn’t be pastors and a woman’s role is to be subservient to men. I would agree if Scripture agreed! But there is simply no way one can hold this view using a Historical-grammatical interpretation of the Bible. With certain passages you may be able to intitially come to that conclusion… until you get to the last step. “Does this passage agree with the fullness of Scripture?” Clearly, Jesus’ life demonstrated that he did not come to lift women to a lower level than men. In fact, he consistently broke cultural boundaries in elevating women.
This leads me to another reason I am proud not to be labeled a Baptist. I believe within some baptistic denominations is deep-seeded sexism. When it comes down to it, a woman can serve in every pastoral duty practically but not professionally. Biblical counseling, lead ministry programs, lead Bible studies, on and on. But women are not permitted to be called Pastors nor be compensated like their male counterparts. Nor are women allowed into some seminaries where they can earn an equal voice… which leads to men speaking for women on sensitive issues. Even among my own beloved alma mater, in 2008 a woman cannot be a student in the pastoral major without segregation into “womens ministry.” In most conservative congregations a woman can practically be a deacon or elder doing day-to-day things but cannot hold the postion purely because of her gender. In many congregations the most qualified candidates to lead ministries and hold positions are passed over purely because of gender. For me, this is a church sanctioned injustice that holds back many congregations from experiencing true health.
I earned my card to hold a conservative evangelical credential. Academically and practically no one can claim I have not. But if being a card carrying conservative evangelical means I have to buy into group think where the men make all the decisions for women… it may be time for me to put my card on Ebay.
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