The dire situation of the Southern Baptist Convention at Bene Diction Blogs On

The dire situation of the Southern Baptist Convention

As I see it - by IMonk, a SBC member and minister since he was a preacher boy.

The annual Southern Baptist Convention kicks off today in Texas.

Southern Baptist Convention - wiki ( no surprise part of the wiki entry is in dispute)

The lack of female bloggers in faith communities, what Californian Patrick McCullough calls bibliobloggers.

It isn’t a lack, it’s the conversation; genders are not communicating well in some faith blog areas, particularly in the US. Many US ‘Christian’ blogs by Christian leadership relish blood sport locker room discussions, put downs, insults, nit picking disputes, winning and harshness of those that don’t agree or are new. No different than many political blogs. Listening is secondary to ‘my’ point of view. You’ll see more women blogging and contributing in comments in other country faith blogs. McCullough attempts to find, highlight and include female voices, for they are blogging and contributing even though they have been been given the message in many ‘god-blog’ sections they are not welcome. At blogs where they are conversations are robust and productive. Female bloggers are strong and inclusive in St. Blogs.

I had a conservation with a friend who works in professional ministry about this issue a bit today, we believe everyone loses when voices are ignored, mocked, lessened or drowned out.
What do you think?

Published 1 year, 5 months ago

6 Responses to “The dire situation of the Southern Baptist Convention”

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1 Mark Byron on Jun 12th, 2007 at 5:58 pm

Having hung my hat at Southern Baptist churches in the past and possibly again in the future (a SB church in Lexington is first on my list to visit once I get down there later this month), I have some history with the group.

My best guess is that the lack of lady Baptist bloggers is both due to the blood-sport nature of many conservative Christian bloggers and a bit of sexism in Baptist quarters; since women pastors are discouraged, women with deep theological backgrounds are likely discounted by many male bloggers.

I’m not one of them. My wife has a masters degree in Christian Education and has a better handle on some of the finer points of theology and church history than I do. A number of women bloggers are welcome members of my blog readership, including Lee Anne Millinger, a smart laywoman who was on her Presbyterian church board (session) before switching over to a Missouri-Synod Lutheran church. A certain Canadian blogger of unknown gender that we both know well is a welcome addition as well.

I’m not a big fan of female pastors, but I’m a big fan of godly women and welcome their input. Spiritual wisdom doesn’t correlate with having a Y chromosome; sadly, it often has a negative correlation, for the women often have their spiritual acts together more than the guys.
2 Pat McCullough on Jun 13th, 2007 at 7:39 am

Thanks for sharing the link! Good to get the conversation in various places. I have a few points of clarification, though. First, a small thing: it looks like you misspelled my last name in two places (one too many Ls). Second, “biblioblogs” refers to blogs that focus on the academic study of the Bible, not bloggers from faith communities. They are not necessarily Christians. You can see Biblioblogs.com for some more information on this community of bloggers, many of whom are in the academy of biblical scholars.

This is important to note because the state of female bloggers on matters of faith in general seems to be in much better standing than female bloggers in biblical studies more specifically. One of the commenters on my post (Jemila Monroe) suggests: “My experience personally as well as with Emerging Women is that in general, women are more interested in concepts, experiences and relationships than in academic minutiae, and this contributes in part to the dearth of biblioblogs by women.” But there is a greater percentage of women in academic biblical studies generally, than there is within the biblioblogging world. So perhaps the “old boys’ club” is present in many of the bibliobloggers in a way that many women feel unwelcome to join the conversation.

Thanks again!
3 Bene Diction on Jun 13th, 2007 at 11:20 am

Sorry about the typo. Fixed.

If stats are true faith blogs take up about 2 percent of the blogosphere - that includes all faiths. We don’t know for sure because no research company has looked at this group in depth.

If I’m understanding you correctly Mr. McCullough, you are looking specificially at another category within that community - academics that specifically study a single sacred text - the bible.

I appreciate you making the distinction.
Given what we do know about faith blogs - from various bloggers surveying and researching around the world - there are more male bloggers, (not limited to Christianity) and as you and many have pointed out over the years, many women don’t join conversations. The known reasons seem to hold true across all sectors of blogs.

“This is important to note because the state of female bloggers on matters of faith in general seems to be in much better standing than female bloggers in biblical studies more specifically.”

Can you provide me with research and data for: ‘we know female bloggers are in better standing…’
4 Pat McCullough on Jun 13th, 2007 at 12:34 pm

Well, it’s Pat, not Phil, by the way, but no big deal.

Also, I didn’t say that “we know…” Rather, I said that it “…seems to be in much better standing” (perhaps you confused it because I said it is “important to note” which sounds like “know”). The only research and data that I have is the fact that there are only about three female bibliobloggers, whereas there seem to be tons of female bloggers on matters of faith in general. Sorry, I have no hard stats for you.
5 Bene Diction on Jun 13th, 2007 at 4:47 pm

I am sorry, one typo on your name is pathetic, two, downright disrespectful of me. Thanks for bringing them to my attention. Fixed.

I would very much like to see a update to the Godblog demographic study and more sub-studies such as you’ve done. Given the sheer number of blogs (at 2% - that thousands) broadening that initial effort would require a research company.

I think only the women in your academic field are able to address why they aren’t participants in your wider discussion and no matter how many times people notice this gap in their blogging community or tribe, it isn’t going to change unless it is discussed by the people feeling/being excluded.

I applaud your attempts to identify reasons, to listen and encourage inclusion, individual bloggers and moderators set the tone. I appreciated what Judy says, even in Australia where women participate more often, she has articulated the online culture well.
6 Judy Redman on Jun 15th, 2007 at 4:49 am

I have been thinking about this a bit more since I blogged about it the other week (thanks for the link). I think it is reasonably well-attested that there is a smaller proportion of women in the field of Biblical Studies than in the academic study of Christian faith in general. I suspect that this is at least partly because many women scholars would rather start with particular life situations and ask “where is the gospel for people in this situation”, than start with a piece of Scripture and ask “what does this tell me about how I should live as a Christian?”. The latter is the approach that faith-based Biblical Studies takes - the former more a systematic/pastoral theology approach. (”Secular” or “humanist” biblical studies asks “what does this text tell us about Christianity in the first and second centuries?”)

I am a little unusual, in that I am focussing on the Gospel of Thomas which means that I am asking “what does this text tell us about early Christianity?” I must admit that I am finding this a refreshing change after a couple of decades of asking the other question as I do exegesis for preaching. I blog because I think best out loud/in writing and it’s kind of helpful to get some feedback, but there are definitely days when I read what some people say about others both on blog and on email lists and wonder if I really want to play this game.