There’s a certain hermeneutic one must employ to come away from the Scripture believing in female pastors. That hermeneutic (the method used to study the Bible) is called ignoring the Scripture altogether. The Apostolic writings are very clear on the qualifications for the pastorate, and places like 1 Timothy 3:2 and Titus 1:6 clarify that only men are called as elders (which includes synonymous titles like bishop, presbyter, shepherd, overseer, steward or pastor). Other places that speak of complementarian gender roles, like Ephesians 5:22-33 (which tells wives to submit to husbands and husbands to lead their wives) means that if your wife is also your pastor, it’s impossible to follow passages like Hebrews 13:17 (which tell church members to submit to their leaders). Finally, we have the testimony of Christ who – while being very counter-cultural in his own day – chose men to lead the church, even though some of his closest and most faithful followers were women. When the Apostolic writers defended complementarian gender roles they point not to the culture around them, but to creation and the eternal relationship between God the Son and the Church.
Because believing in female pastors necessitates a low view of the Scripture itself – so low that it can be ignored or twisted beyond recognition – there are no “conservative” female pastors. There’s not a single inerrancy-affirming, expository-preaching, Bible-believing, uncompromising female pastor in the world. If there were, she would read the New Testament, repent of being a pastor, and go home and submit to her husband and find a Biblical church. Perhaps there’s no better evidence for the truism that there’s no such thing as a conservative, Bible-believing female preacher than the recent string of outspoken lady imPastors contending for abortion in the Blue Grass State.
“Reverend” Millie Horning Peters was reported by the New York Times as a Southern Baptist pastor (source link). The Blaze reported that she is a Methodist (source link). In reality, she’s a little bit of both. Peters was raised Southern Baptist and graduated from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, but now serves in the United Methodist ‘Church,’ (at least in some capacity), but Yes! Magazine reports she attends services at a Universalist Church because of their “social justice emphasis” (source link). She is also the chairman of the local chapter of Concerned Clergy for Choice, an organization comprised of nearly one thousand clergy members who advocate for a woman’s right to murder her child in the womb (or halfway out of the womb, depending upon the age of the unborn child).
According to Yes! Magazine…
Shortly after launching CCC Kentucky, Peters became the co-chair of the Kentucky chapter of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC), an interfaith group that seeks to bring faith-based views into the reproductive justice movement. There, she serves as a clergy representative on the board, speaks at pro-abortion rights rallies, holds a booth at the state fair, and testifies in favor of pro-abortion rights legislation. She has also helped initiate petitions that seek to end misleading advertising about crisis pregnancy centers that discourage women from having abortions.
So this female imPastor not only desires to promote “choice,” but she is actively seeking to hinder crisis pregnancy centers that do ultrasounds and explain options to expecting mothers that don’t include forceps and a vacuum. What is the reason for Peters’ overtures to the god of Molech? For her – she claims – it’s her understanding of the Bible.
“When we face a situation, we have to do what is best for us in the moment. Life is complicated, but it is just my firm belief that God has given us a mind and given me a heart of compassion that reaches out to people. To be pro-choice is just a given.”
Sounds totally Biblical, yes? If “doing what is best for us in the moment” isn’t a solid, Biblical Christian ethic, what is? Her heart of compassion, unfortunately, does not extend to the unborn whose literal beating hearts (also given them by God) are crushed inside their mother’s womb.
In Kentucky, in particular, the “religious left” is rising up to challenge increasingly strict laws upon the abortion industry. Peters’ Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice is response to Governor Bevin and the Republican legislator’s anti-abortion laws which have caused the closure of all but one abortion clinic in the the state. Other religious clergy – most of them women, although some are effeminate men – have joined forces to defend abortion in the name of God.
While Millie Horning Peters was a Southern Baptist, is a graduate of SBTS and very likely holds a pre-Conservative Resurgence ordination from a Southern Baptist Church, it’s not the denomination’s role or responsibility – or that of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary – to revoke ordinations (neither should they ordain anyone). It is, however, under the auspices of the local church to discipline that individual and – if no longer a member – to make a public statement revoking their ordination and removing whatever license of ministry under which they’re serving.
Unfortunately, a church that would ordain a woman to begin with is probably unwilling to revoke her ordination for promoting infanticide.
[Editor’s Note: HT Baptist News Global and Yes! Magazine]
