The following is a press release from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary:
‘Homemaking is Noble,’ Patterson says on Fox News
By Staff
August 13, 2007
Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, endorsed the College at Southwestern’s new Homemaking Concentration on Fox News’ morning program, Fox & Friends, Aug. 13.
“If a woman chooses to stay home, and she chooses to devote her full energies to her husband and to her children and to the development of her home then that is noble and not ignoble,” Patterson said.
The interview took place after recent media interest in Southwestern’s new 23-hour Homemaking Concentration in the College at Southwestern’s Bachelor of Arts in Humanities degree.
When asked if Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary believed all women should stay at home and take care of their children, Patterson responded, “We believe that every person is free, as Baptists, to do anything they want to do,” but also added, “We do believe she ought to have that opportunity.”
This interview came just before the start of a new semester as Southwestern plans to continue one of its founding purposes of training women for all aspects of ministry. In 1909, the seminary’s catalog reveals classes in domestic sciences including cooking, housekeeping, and sewing. In the fall of 2007, the almost-one-hundred-year-old-seminary will again offer these classes as part of its Homemaking Concentration—one of the seminary’s several programs in Women’s Studies. In addition to these classes, women will study classic Greek and read the classic literature of the western world.
According to the seminary’s Web site, the program “endeavors to prepare women to model the characteristics of the godly woman as outlined in Scripture.”
“The apostle Paul admonished women to “learn” (1 Tim. 2:11) because he expected women to be grounded in the Word of God,” Terri Stovall, dean for women’s programs, wrote on the Web site. “Our Lord Himself praised Mary for sitting at His feet to listen and learn (Lk. 10:42). Women in this generation need women teachers who are not only committed to the importance of studying God’s Word but who are also formally trained to do biblical exposition. Woman-to-woman teaching is the biblical method of choice (Tit. 2:3-5).”
Modeled after a similar program at The Master’s College in Santa Clarita, California, Southwestern’s Homemaking Concentration provides “practical experiences for skill development for the most important job a woman may have: the nurture and care of the family.”
The Web site describes further the intentional design of the Homemaking Concentration stating that, “It is unique in that we recognize the need to challenge women both intellectually and practically. It is our mission to equip a woman to impact women and families for Christ.”
As Patterson told the Fox & Friends interviewer, “Society will do better when the home is placed in a prominent position, and I do believe that any society is endangered whenever the home is not given the importance that it has in its biblical context.”
Of course, none of this should surprise me. After all, this is the Seminary that offers an M.Div. in Women's Studies (for women only) and substitutes a "Communication of the Text" course for the required preaching course and requires courses in women's ministries in the local church, biblical models of womanhood, etc. How about Patterson's comment: “We believe that every person is free, as Baptists, to do anything they want to do..." What does that mean? Every person is free as a Baptist to do what they want? Does being a Baptist somehow alter the free will of women so that all they will really want to do is cook, sew and clean? Apparently so. And of course what is even more depressing is that once a Baptist, always a Baptist! Women will never have another choice once they cross that line! I have to stop.
4 comments:
Maybe what she was trying to say was something like, “As Baptists, we believe that every person is free to do anything they want to do...as far as is within the law of the land and the law of God." If so, then I believe like the Baptists on that point. Now, that doesn't mean that whatever a person chooses to do is acceptable by me or anyone else. There may even be consequences to their choices, but we live in the 'land of the free', and 'whom the Son sets free, is free indeed'.
Does this mean you will heading up a similar program at the seminary sometime soon?
;)
UUUUgh! I read about this somewhere, I think maybe it was even the Wall Street Journal. HMMM....wonder why there isn't a similar Godly Manly Man degree..you know, how to do carpentry on parsonages, how to push down pillars like Samson...I don't know. I'm sure there's a major there somewhere.
*sigh* Sounds like the Southwestern Baptists are a different breed to us Aussies. Somehow I don't think this course would get too many attendees at our local Baptist church; our women are too busy leading small groups, giving sermons, playing instruments, praying and of course doing a fine job of nurturing their families at the same time.
Ironically, if there was a short course for males on the finer points of cooking, cleaning and sewing skills, I'd probably sign up for it! 'Tis a shame that men are still neglected when it comes to imparting useful practical skills such as these.
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