From Pulpit To Public Square

My first pastor was Mary G. Evans of Cosmopolitan Community Church of Chicago. She is featured, alongside many other outstanding black women preachers, in Daughters of Thunder, the anthology edited by Bettye Collier-Thomas. Based upon that experience, I have never been able to understand those who claim that women should not be allowed to preach.

The twisted and biased uses of I Corinthians 14:34ff and I Timothy 2:11ff as justification for what is simply sexism and gender bias, always fail to persuade me of the seriousness of those who believe that preaching is a male-only enterprise. After all, Paul did not say “I do not permit a woman to PREACH.” He said, “I do not permit a woman to SPEAK.” Are we to believe that women do not speak in the churches of our black Baptist conventions? Not in Sunday school, VBS, BYF, prayer meetings, or during church meetings? This attempt to impose the status of women in first century Palestine falls flat when applied to women in 21st century American society.

Black men who work for an end to racism but remain complicit with sexism “do not want liberation. They only want privilege.”  — Jamie Eaddy Chism

I thought about Pastor Evans yesterday when I listened to Gina Stewart preach at the joint session of black Baptist conventions. It was magnificent. Anyone who wonders about women as preachers should have heard that sermon and seen the response to it from the listeners.

Sadly, I was told that many male preachers chose not to attend that morning session. That includes the report that the President one of the four black Baptist conventions was among the missing. The excuse given for his absence was his involvement with internal issues in his own convention. That is a poor excuse. There should have been nothing scheduled at a joint worship service for a gathering of Baptist delegates. One can only wonder if that meeting would have been as urgent if a male had been the preacher that morning? I was told that these black preachers were reportedly present at a worship service later in the day when a male was the preacher.

I wonder what these black preachers would do with Paul in Galatians 3:26-29? I guess they just discount Paul’s reference to the equality of men and women within the body of Christ. I guess they dismiss Paul’s reference to Phoebe in Romans 16. I guess they think Mary should have joined Martha in the kitchen in Luke 10:38ff.

As my former doctoral student, Jamie Eaddy Chism wrote in her dissertation, black men who work for an end to racism but remain complicit with sexism “do not want liberation. They only want privilege.” That was on display yesterday when some black preachers chose to stay away from the morning session where Dr. Stewart was the preacher. How can we talk about partnership among black Baptists when women are still being viewed as second-class citizens? 

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