The Harm

Thanks to Jen at Skepchick I bring you this.

DALLAS (AP) — Leaders of a prominent Southern Baptist seminary who believe women are biblically forbidden from teaching men were within their rights when they told a female professor to leave, a federal judge has ruled.

Sheri Klouda was the only female professor teaching at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s School of Theology when officials decided not to renew her contract in 2006. Klouda claimed seminary officials breached an oral contract guaranteeing she would remain employed if her performance was favorable.

Seminary officials maintain Klouda was not dismissed but was told she would not be granted tenure. They said their actions were based on ecclesiastical decisions protected under the First Amendment’s religion clauses. U.S. District Judge John McBryde agreed, dismissing Klouda’s claims Wednesday.

“I’m disappointed by the outcome but … it wasn’t totally unexpected,” Klouda said from her home in Indiana. “Generally speaking, federal courts try to avoid becoming entangled in matters dealing with religious institutions.”

Ten women are among the seminary’s full-time faculty of 116. Only one works in the theology division and she teaches only women’s classes, spokesman Thomas White said.

Klouda’s departure was one example of the division between conservative and moderate factions within the Southern Baptist Convention. The case has prompted discussions about the role of women in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, which has more than 16 million members.

According to the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message, the denomination’s most recent statement of beliefs, both men and women can serve the church but the office of pastor is limited to men. The statement is based on a verse in 1st Timothy in which the Apostle Paul says, “I permit no woman to teach or have authority over a man.”

1 Timothy 2:11-15 (KJV)

11Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.

12But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.

13For Adam was first formed, then Eve.

14And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

15Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.