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Purity Culture and Submission of Women: Southern Baptist Beliefs on Sex and Gender Provide Context for the Motive of Spa Suspects
Southern Baptist culture of purity teaches that women are to blame for men’s sexual urges. AP Photo / Mike Stewart Even before a member of a Southern Baptist church was accused of mass murder in Georgia, he told police he was guilty of a ‘sex addiction’, the Southern Baptist Convention taken on his teaching on gender and sexuality. Just two weeks ago, prominent evangelical Bible teacher Beth Moore announced that she was leaving the Southern Baptists, primarily over what she describes as the misogyny of women, as reflected in their support for Donald Trump. And then came the March 16 attack that left eight dead, including six Asian women. The church of the suspect has since expelled Robert Aaron Long, the 21-year-old accused in the murder, and condemned the action because of a ‘sinful heart’. No one claims that the denomination was responsible for what happened. But as a scholar of gender and religion and as someone who grew up Southern Baptist, I am aware that girls and women are held accountable for the sexual urges of men, not uncommon in a designation that expects women to marry men. should not subject. This expectation of submission was a recurring theme in interviews I conducted with 159 current and former Southern Baptist women for my book “God Speaks to Us, Too: Southern Baptist Women on Church, Home, and Society . ” Common beliefs, not creeds, are not credible to the South Baptists, the largest branch of evangelism in the United States. This means that the southern Baptists do not have a required dogma, although the confession of the denomination, “The Baptist Faith and Message”, contains common beliefs. Not every Southern Baptist then believes the same things. But since the 1990s, fundamentalists have controlled the denomination. Their approach to the interpretation of the Bible and their beliefs about gender dominate in the South Baptist churches. They are taught in Southern Baptist seminaries, practice in recruiting missionaries and agencies, and are reflected in curriculum materials for churches. Central is the belief in biblical literality – a method of interpreting the Bible based on the belief that the text is literally true. For example, biblical writers believe that God created the universe in six days, that a global flood destroyed all but Noah’s family and the few animals in the ark, and that the Red Sea parted so that the Israelites could land on dry land. go. Literalism is accompanied by infallibility – the belief that the Bible is flawless, not only in doctrine, but also in history and science. This method of interpreting the Bible plays an important role in the fact that South Baptists come to many of their beliefs about gender. The Fall of Eve Many South Baptists believe that the story of Adam and Eve in the Bible literally happened as described. That is, God created one man and one woman, put them in the Garden of Eden and forbade them to eat the fruit of one tree. Because Eve was the first of the people to fall away from God’s grace by eating the forbidden fruit, she became subject to man. And the subject fell on all women, according to the Southern Baptist doctrine. Furthermore, some Baptists claim that gender hierarchy was God’s original intention. This interpretation of Eve as ‘first in the fall of Eden’, is quoted by Southern Baptists in a 1984 resolution calling for women to be excluded from the ordained ministry. This is in line with the Southern Baptist principle of complementarism, which holds that although God created men and women as equals, they fulfill separate but complementary roles: that men should be leaders in the home, the church, and society, and that women should be submissive helpers, primarily responsible for caring for the home and raising children. In this way, women are expected to submit to men in the home and in the church. South Baptist leaders point to the writings of the apostle Paul in the Bible (Ephesians 5:22) as proof of God’s expectation of submission to women: “Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord.” This view of submission also means that women should not have leadership over men or teach men in the church, and therefore it is intended to prevent women from being ordained. Sexuality and gender identity The doctrine of the denomination on sexuality is also rooted in traditional beliefs about women and men. According to Southern Baptists, humans are created heterosexual, and sexual activity is only acceptable between a man and a woman in a lifelong heterosexual marriage. While 54% of Christians support the acceptance of homosexuality, only 30% of South Baptists believe that homosexuality should be accepted. In 1992, the Southern Baptist Convention amended its constitution to exclude churches that imply the acceptance of homosexuality. The suspect in the spa murder attended the Crabtree First Baptist Church in Milton, Ga, Chris Aluka Berry at The Washington Post via Getty Images. The executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention recently expelled two churches that welcome the LGBTQ people. Most evangelists believe that God created mankind only as male and female. According to the name, only these two biological sexes exist and the sex is in line with sex. The Southern Baptist Convention adopted a resolution in 2014 affirming that ‘God’s good design’ is that gender identity is determined by biological gender and not by one’s self-perception. ‘These views on sexual activity and gender roles are reflected in the purity culture that influences many South Baptists. Purity culture focuses on abstinence outside traditional heterosexual marriages and dangers in girls’ and women’s sexuality. In particular, purity culture teaches that girls and women are responsible for the sexuality of boys and men, and that they can make boys and men sin through their own sexuality. These doctrines are supported by a whole industry of purity rings, purity balls, purity curricula, and purity music. Purity culture rarely speaks of sexual violence or consent due to the assumption that women’s responsibility to control men’s sexual urge, and thus, if women are completely asexual, men will not be overcome by their sexual urges. Together, these beliefs create a context in which men exercise authority and control. Women are expected to submit to men and limit their sexual urges and behavior through their pure lifestyle. Women are seen as important, but secondary, equal in value, but submissive in reality. None of this can excuse or explain the actions of the shooting suspect in Georgia. But the Southern Baptist belief in sex and gender gives context to the suspect’s apparent belief that his sexual urges were wrong, and that the women he believed encouraged were somehow responsible. [Deep knowledge, daily. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter.]This article was published from The Conversation, a non-profit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Susan M. Shaw, Oregon State University. Read more: Sexism has long been part of the culture of South Baptists Should South Baptist women be preachers? A centuries-old controversy finds new life. Susan M. Shaw does not work, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has not disclosed any applicable commitments outside of their academic appointment.