I have never read (nor even heard of) the magazine Gospel Today. Apparently, I should. It is a big hit among evangelicals.
Except not this month. This current issue is being pulled from shelves of Christian bookstores so that the children won't see it. According to the publisher:
“They basically treated it like pornography and put it behind the counter,” she said. “Unless a person goes into the store and asks for it, they won’t see it displayed.”Juicy? A racy cover? A little soft-core gospel porn? A scantilly-dressed Christian music star showing skin for sexually confused teenage boys who think it is the Holy Spirit who sends them into rapture? Maybe a bare-chested gospel stud who's gone gay? Nope. Nothing of the kind.
The current issue of Gospel Today features clergy women on the cover, dressed in black with high collars. For the Southern Baptists, that is downright devilish. Might as well be porn.
According to an AP article in today's Johnson City Press:
The five women on the cover are dressed in black and smiling — not an uncommon strategy for selling magazines.
But these cover girls are women of the cloth, featured in Gospel Today magazine’s latest issue, which the Southern Baptist Convention has pulled from the shelves at its bookstores, though the magazine is available for sale upon request.
The group says women pastors go against its beliefs, according to its interpretation of the New Testament.
I do love the Southern Baptists. You can't make this up.
Baptists boggle my mind.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how much overlap there is between the openly anti-gay crowd and crowd that secretly wants to repeal the ordination of women in the mainline denominations? I mean, the much-vaunted EPC makes it a local option. To me, that's like it being a local option whether you want African Americans to be able to vote. I like to think that this is fringe thinking, but who knows?
ReplyDeleteEeevil uppity feminists have often pointed out that homophobia and mysogyny are linked. Who woulda thunk it?
Dr! Boggle Your Mind Week coming soon!
ReplyDeleteDoug--I think you are on to something. I notice the LayMAN is publishing articles about women in ministry these days from a PCA perspective.
I think the theory is that misogyny and homophobia both have origins in repressed sexual attraction. There is one more ingredient I think. It has something to do with repressing sexual attraction for people in authority. The norm has been that to be sexually attracted to people of authority is expected of women and not expected from men. So men have had to actively prevent their subjects of sexual desire from having positions of authority, whether they be gay men or women.
ReplyDeleteBut this norm is changing. The Southern Baptist Convention will pass away. As will the Layman.
Well, no wonder. Duh! Those women aren't wearing their burqa's!
ReplyDeleteWow. As an aside, I stopped in an evangelical Christian bookstore and looked for a pocket NRSV (I love my New Oxford Annotated, but portable it ain't). I had a rather tough time finding one, though I noticed a preponderance of KJV, and NKJV (and that silly /-THE MESSAGE:\%#$*#$REMIX@#&). I even spotted a "IF IT'S NOT KJV IT ISN'T BIBLE" sticker.
ReplyDeleteSo I made an ass of myself asking at the front counter, loudly, if they had any NRSV, since it really is one of the best available English translations today and is really important to historical/critical analysis of biblical text.
I think I ended up on somebody's prayer wall.
I wonder if they are handing them out in brown paper bags too, like Hustler is in convenience stores....
ReplyDeleteOther wise, your hands might be ... soiled. Ew.
(edited to remove really nasty comment...)