Pulpit & Pen received an email correspondence from a Southern Baptist Theological Seminary student who said:
I went to check my emails this morning and found this letter sent out by Al Mohler. It’s concerning because it looks like a liberal college wrote this and not the last pillar of the conservative seminaries.
Essentially, Mohler announced that Southern Seminary has hired a “Liason for Women” who will make sure the institutions (SBTS and Boyce College) “welcome, affirm, and honor women.” The office will officially be called the “Women’s Support Coordinator.”
Southern Baptist institutions are increasingly opening their ministerial degree programs to women, including programs for pastoral ministry. As the SBC recruits more and more women to seminary and pastoral ministry, it creates a need for such an office.
One wonders how much need is required for a safe-space to report “sexual harassment and assault” at SBTS. This is the mandatory crime report as completed under Kentucky law for SBTS (the Michael Minger Act was passed in 2004). This is the latest report, and you can find previous reports here.
Notice that there were no sexual assaults, rapes, or incidents of sexual harassment reported at SBTS. Perhaps that’s because the office of Liason for Female Safe Spaces didn’t exist yet.
As long as SBC institutions are intent on training women for ministry, this type of thing will be necessary.
Garnetta Smith, Mohler writes, will become a member of the seminary’s “Executive Council” and will be at “the most senior level.”
Yay for women. So woke. So sensitive. So caring. So…meaningless.
