Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary responds to the petition? Hmmm. I wonder...

Have complementarians decided to respond to the petition demanding an apology from the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womahood (CBMW)? 


Another new article at the Associated Baptist Press News has suggested that such may be the case. 


Bob Allen wrote on March 31st in his article Seminary website lists aspects of 'biblical womanhood':

“Sadly, many times our efforts to define our values lead to misunderstanding and even negativity,” the article says. “Here at Biblical Woman, we’ve encountered these misunderstandings about what we believe about women and what we teach at Southwestern Seminary. And we decided to do something about it.

Sponsors say the statement isn’t intended to replace the Baptist Faith and Message, which teaches that wives should submit to their husbands in the home and that women cannot be senior pastor of a church, or the Danvers Statement, the doctrinal basis for the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood based in Louisville, Ky.

“These remain two primary statements that help define what we believe, and we’re not trying to replace either of these,” the article says. “But we do want to share a biblical foundation for the issues concerning a woman’s life that is for women, by women.”

Recently a group calling itself the Freedom for Christian Women Coalition posted an online petition at Change.org accusing the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood of putting the issue of female subordination ahead of the gospel and demanding the retraction of teachings the petitioners say are harmful to women.

The Biblical Woman Statement doesn’t mention that controversy, but it defends “complementarianism,” the view that males and females complement each other in their different roles and duties. A 2013 blog entry titled “Biblical Womanhood 101: What We Really Teach at Southwestern” defines the view as “equal yet distinct.”

Read the entire ABPNews article HERE.

Link HERE to read more about the group advancing the new list defending complementarianism -- the Biblical Woman program at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

I suppose that time will tell if this new statement truly serves as a response to counter the FreeCWC petition.  At least it's more substantive than an insulting tweet.  

We also can't help but wonder if the new tag line and buzz phrase at CBMW will become "equal yet distinct"?

Dr. Mimi Haddad of Christians for Biblical Equality signs the Petition!

Thank you, Dr. Haddad and all who have signed for raising your voices to call for justice for Christian women everywhere!  Read Mimi's rationale and many more at the Change.org website.  We're currently at 207 and counting!

FreeCWC's Petition in the Associated Baptist Press News

Many thanks and much gratitude to ABP News for their astute reporting of this important effort!

Petition asks gender-role group to repent

A 2010 petition being recycled at Change.org

claims that an organization based at

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

emphasizes wifely submission over the gospel.

By Bob Allen (March 24, 2014)

An online petition posted recently at Change.org challenges the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood to apologize for what the sponsors say is the misuse of Scripture to keep women in their place.

“At a time in our church history that the main focus should be on winning lost souls and spreading the gospel to a hurting world, we fear for the future because the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood has placed a greater priority on women’s submissive role rather than on the gospel of Jesus Christ,” says the petition, which surpassed 100 signatures March 20.

The petition is sponsored by the Freedom for Christian Women Coalition, a group that made similar demands in 2010 after a conference promoting women’s equality in the church and home in Orlando, Fla.

Shirley Taylor, the founder of Baptist Women for Equality who drafted the petition, said the group is renewing its demand because previous petitions went ignored. Taylor, a lifelong Southern Baptist who worked nearly 15 years as a ministry assistant for the Baptist General Convention of Texas, launched Baptist Women for Equality in 2009.

Taylor says many people in the pews are unaware of “complementarianism,” a theology popular among leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention that she says was behind changes to the Baptist Faith and Message in 1998 and 2000 declaring that women cannot be pastors and that a wife is to “submit herself graciously” to her husband in the home.

Taylor co-founded the Freedom for Christian Women Coalition with Jocelyn Andersen, an evangelical author and speaker who described her story as a survivor of domestic abuse in a 2007 book titled Woman Submit! Christians & Domestic Violence.

Cynthia Kunsman, an author and blogger who specializes in the topic of “spiritual abuse,” says complementarianism is an attempt “to make patriarchy and gender hierarchy more palatable to modern Christians.” While the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood states that man and woman are “equal but different,” she says, the group defines “different” as “very much unequal in privilege, power and function.”

Kunsman said in a March 24 blog that teachings such as Eve, the first woman, was responsible for original sin and that women are the derivative or indirect image of God because Eve’s source material was taken from Adam’s body make women “readily available dehumanized scapegoats who deserve an ill fate.”

Kunsman said the complementarian paradigm also sets up a false dichotomy between the sexes, presenting the wife as an adversary out to usurp her husband’s authority. Therefore it’s understandable if he beats her, and if he does, the Bible says she cannot divorce him but is to remain in submission as a witness in hope of converting an unbelieving spouse.

But Kunsman said she is most concerned about the movement’s doctrine of God. Complementarian theologians claim that roles of husband and wife are modeled in the Godhead, and if the Son is “eternally subordinate” to the Father in the Trinity, godly wives have no right to complain about their “helpmeet” role in the church and home.

The petition says men are being taught that they are “god-like” in their relationship to women, and “this doctrine is setting them up for failure as Christian fathers, husbands and sons.”

It says church leaders commit sin “when they deny the love of Christ fully to women simply because they were born female” and that giving headship to husbands and fathers causes harm to families.

The statement also expresses concern about “wife abuse, girlfriend abuse and abuse to female children that takes place in many homes where evangelical men are taught that they have earthly and spiritual authority over women.”

The petition asks the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood to apologize for harm done by The Danvers Statement, the group’s statement of core beliefs, which has been adopted at SBC seminaries with the result that female professors are no longer permitted to teach men.

Owen Strachan, executive director of the council based in Louisville, Ky., with offices on the campus of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, did not respond to a request for comment by email.

Click here to link to Change.org to sign.

Previous Related ABP News stories:

Christians demand apology for anti-women teaching

Evangelical group still waiting for apology

Video of women's rights meeting posted online

Scholars say evangelicals tinkering with the Trinity

Trinity debate trickles down to gender roles

Pastor says male/female roles will continue in heaven

Director of gender-roles council denies scrubbing article

Why Men and Women are signing our petition at Change.org

Thank you to all who have chosen to stand up and be counted in support of equality. Below are reasons why women and men from all over the world have signed the petition demanding an apology from CBMW for their dangerous complementarian teaching against women:






Complementarianism almost destroyed our marriage. It is anti-Christ in the most fundamental sense- it denies the clear words of Christ for us to love one another as Christ loved us.  -- CHARLOTTE, NC

Because The Bible is clear on Equality between men and women and must be upheld. -- NEBO, NC

Jesus is nowhere in that document (Danver's Statement). I want people to meet Him -- DEDHAM, MA

I owe women teachers and preachers an incalculable debt. I owe them, and I owe my wife, daughters, and sisters in the faith, public resistance to CBMW's unbiblical and destructive anti-woman doctrine and practice. THAT is why I am signing this. -- CHICAGO, IL

When understood in context, and not twisted to meet a misogynist end, the Holy Scriptures teach an equality in Christ of all persons, and to deny or denigrate equality in Christ and as fellow servants within Christ's Church (of which Christ alone is Head), or worse endorsing and encouraging abuse is antithetical to the way of Christ Jesus our Lord and Head, the Prince of Peace. -- HAMPDEN, ME

I'm signing this not just for myself, but for my children. Its this type of harmful group think that truly distorts the Lord's Message! When women and children use their gifts within the church - and outside of the church - they do it for JESUS...not as some silly personal slam called 'usurping' men. Its not about them. We do it for God just as they should be doing. --  IL

Gifts that God has given to the female half of the body of Christ with the intent to use them are lying dormant and unused. --  LOUISVILLE, KY

To support a group of advocates who are working to point out gross heresies as they relate to the role and identity of women in the church. -- HALLANDALE BEACH, FL


As a women who has grown up to this kind of propaganda it has stunted my growth and relationship with god and my husband. Always feeling like a 2nd class citizen. --  CHICAGO, IL

This is just a twisted view of Christianity and as usual leaves woman abused and misused! -- GILLETTE, WY

I was in an abusive marriage and was counseled by the pastor of First Baptist Church, Hobart, IN, that it was MY fault that my husband was abusive to me and my children. His abuse has left phsycial damage to myself and my oldest son is now blind in his left eye. My now ex-husband serve time in jail for his crimes. --QUARTZSITE, AZ

That this is a mockery to what Christ came to accomplish. Freedom to love and serve Him without manipulation and control -- EDMONTON, CANADA

CBMW is heretical and anti-biblical -- EAST HAVEN, CT

Shame on you CBMW -- EDMONTON, ALBERTA, CANADA


I think CBMW is wasting a lot of talent and not using the available resources (female) to spread the gospel. It is selfish of them to think that only men can be effective evangelists. -- WILLIS, TX

From a christian worldview anyone who has genuinely experienced rebirth or regeneration in Christ cannot accept this teaching. It is so contrary to the spirit and teaching of Jesus.It makes me wonder if those who teach this know Him at all. -- COH, NY

Because CBMW has left the gospel of women and men as equal in function and being and instead elevated their own cultural ideas above the Lord's. This is wrong, and it has hurt thousands of people in many ways. -- KATY, TX

Religious abuse should be countered, and strongly, at every turn. -- DALLAS, TX


The Bible should not be used as a tool to subject any one people group to the authority of another, particularly on the basis of inherent characteristics such as race or sex. Strong evidence suggests that the Bible has been systematically mistranslated and misinterpreted by men holding a patriarchal cultural bias. This bias should not be confused with the will of God. -- KITCHENER, CANADA

This issue is important to me because these false teachings destroy families and churches, destroy the bonds of trust between husbands and wives, sisters and brothers in Christ. We are reaping and salvaging what they have sown. -- PHENIX CITY, AL


Women and children are not the property of men. That is a misperception created by men to further their own kingdoms. It is time for mankind to grow-up and embrace the balance and equality that comes with respecting all humankind. --  REDONDO BEACH, CA

I believe that God created all people equal -- men and women. This is not what CBMW teaches and I believe it puts women at a disadvantage in most arenas and at risk in their relationships. -- HAGERSTOWN, MD

If you call yourself "Christian", you cannot oppress women. Jesus said to love your neighbor as yourself. ALL people are your neighbors - even women! I agree with everything this video says! -- CONROE, TX

Because I believe it is wrong to oppress ANYONE regardless of their race, gender or ethnicity and women are being treated as less valuable and that is not what Christ did -- NORTH HOLLYWOOD, CA

To end opression against women and preach the REAL Gospel of Jesús Christ -- SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA

I am against all androcratic or "males on top" systems and theologies and practices in the church that second-class women or restrict them because of their sex/gender from operating as equal and fully-equipped children of God when it comes to giftings and abilities to serve in the body of Christ as the Holy Spirit and their talents allow and enable them. Such teachings and practices go against the Gospel and the New Creation that Jesus proclaimed and inaugurated as the Kingdom of God. -- HIGHLAND VILLAGE, TX

This is important because God made both genders to have dominion over the earth (Gen. 1:28) - not over the other half of humanity - and in the end all believers (both genders) with rule with God. It is important because God is just and shows no favouritism. --WELKOM, SOUTH AFRICA

I was raised under this false doctrine and still suffer its repercussions. -- CONROE, TX

Women are important to God. -- VALLEYVIEW, CANADA

I  believe the 'male headship' paradigm that CBMW promotes is just a poorly disguised form of idolatry, and that it, at worst, facilitates the abuse of many women, at best it allows it. It is also a very poor witness to the world, most societies of which are patriarchal and where the abuse of women is rife. -- COROWA, AUSTRALIA

Sign our petition

http://chn.ge/NrF3eV

Petition at Change.org demanding apology from Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood

In 2010, the Freedom for Christian Women Coalition sent, by FedEx, a  demand for an apology from the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW) for the dangerous and destructive teachings against women they have been propagating since 1987, when they issued the Danver's Statement.

Three and a half years later, we now voice the demand in the form of a petition at Change.org because all previous petitions have been ignored.  We cry out for justice for all those who have suffered, directly and indirectly.

Support this good cause by signing the petition. You must list your name, address, and email address on the Change.org site in order for your signature to be counted, but that information is never made public, and you do have the option to remain anonymous even after you sign.

If you support equality, please stand up and be counted. Please visit the following link and sign our petition.    http://chn.ge/1cK6lsZ

After you sign, please forward the petition link to your contacts and ask them to sign as well, then like us on Facebook!

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