Letters: Women in ministry; Confederate monuments

RE: Why aren’t women pastoring Baptist churches?

Our brother Craig Nash points to the exodus of women in ministry from Baptist churches to the UCC. He laments that “some of the greatest female preachers who have graduated from ‘moderate’ Baptist seminaries are now preaching, if they have remained in Texas, in UCC and Disciples of Christ congregations.”

It is wise for Search Committees to thoroughly examine a candidate’s doctrinal statement. One lady, one of my HS classmates [1968] graduated from HGST in 2015 and serves a UCC congregation in Ohio as pastor. She is an able preacher with a pastor’s heart for ministry. Yet from her I became aware of the doctrines of the UCC regarding sexuality, marriage, and the authority of Scripture to define faith and practice. She and the UCC reject NT teachings [Romans 1 and elsewhere] describing homosexuality as a perversion. They perform gay marriages. My friend insists, “God is saying new things to this generation. Thus, don’t judge.” This is heresy like Montanus of old.

Brother Nash’s reference to the UCC is no cause to retain such preachers. I wonder if they are Baptist. I question the suitability of any person who will serve a UCC church, whose heresy be a reason to shun them as Jesus taught in Matthew 18. The BGCT dealt with similar congregations in recent years. Surely a Texas Baptist preacher ought to agree to the Baptist Faith and Message of 1963 or compatible. Otherwise, the preacher, male or female, may be a wolf in sheep’s clothing, rejecting the authority of Scripture.

Maurice Harding
Corpus Christi, Texas

RE: Are Confederate monuments today’s ‘high places’ to be torn down?

Raabe suggests having Confederate statues is equivalent to the idol worship of the Old Testament “high places.” Really?

Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson were devout Christians. Before the War, Jackson was criticized for conducting Sunday school for slaves. During his campaigns, Lee spent much time in prayer. Revival broke out among the Confederate soldiers, giving birth to the Bible Belt. At the War’s end, instead of encouraging guerrilla warfare, Lee encouraged the healing of the nation’s wounds.

Churchill was right, “History is written by the victors.” They’ve tried to make the War Between the States solely about slavery, but that simply isn’t true. Lincoln didn’t make the War about slavery until incompetent generals and mounting losses soured Northern support for it. To reinvigorate the cause, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing Southern slaves, while leaving Northern ones in chains.

The War was really about whether or not ours was to remain a “federal” system, in which the States were sovereign in their sphere and the General government was sovereign in its very limited sphere. We can all see where Lincoln’s course has taken us.

Confederate statues have been in place for over a century, so why the sudden rush to topple them? For the historically astute, current trends bear a marked resemblance to the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. If you’re searching for real villains, take a look at Marx and Stalin. They weren’t men of prayer or Sunday school teachers, but they knew how to topple a nation.

Michael Leamons
Hico, Texas

Both sides of my ancestors owned slaves and, as people would like to believe, they were not evil people. I’m not condoning slavery. It was a fact of life, but I’m not apologizing either for my ancestors, and I take offense that some “Christians” insinuate my ancestors were not Christians because they owned slaves.

I also take offense some of our Baptist leaders insinuate if someone flies a Confederate battle flag there is no way they can be Christians. I can’t change the fact that they owned slaves. I suggest we don’t stop with removing Confederate statues. Why don’t we remove all of Paul’s epistles since he was a murderer, or at least an accessory to murder? We need to remove the book of Psalms since David was guilty of adultery and murder. But let’s don’t stop there. We also need to remove the four gospels because Jesus had an ancestor that was a prostitute.

Just for your information, and your readers’, Army General George Patton’s grandfather fought for the Confederacy. Brigadier General Nathan Bedford Forrest III great-grandfather was Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest. President Theodore Roosevelt’s uncle was Confederate chief foreign agent Captain James Dunswoody Bulloch. President Woodrow Wilson’s father, Dr. Joseph Ruggles Wilson, was a chaplain in the Confederate army. President Harry S. Truman was a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

Do you get my point? “He who is guilty of no sin let them cast the first stone.” And, it seems we have a lot of stone throwers today.

I hate to inform the “do-gooders” that tearing down a statue will not get you in heaven.

F.A. Taylor
Kempner, Texas