Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 15:4 (Fall 2001)
Article: “How Can I Help But Speak?” One Woman’s Response To The 2000 Baptist Faith And Message.
Author: Tracy Dunn-Noland

---

PP 15:4 (Fall 2001) p. 15

“How Can I Help But Speak?”
One Woman’s Response To The 2000 Baptist Faith And Message.

Tracy Dunn-Noland

In August, Tracy Dunn-Noland, with her husband and two children, moved from an associate pastorate in Oklahoma to Hereford, Texas, to become pastor of Fellowship of Believers, an interdenominational church. Though sorry to have left Baptist life for now, she is enjoying the new opportunity. This article is reprinted with permission from the Mainstream Messenger (January 2001),newsletter of Mainstream Oklahoma Baptists.

“How can I help but speak when I have the words of life?”

In 1998, the Southern Baptist Convention made headlines around the nation with the addition of the words “A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband” to the Baptist Faith and Message (B F&M). It seemed that everyone, from talk-show hosts to the person on the street, had some commentary to offer on the statement. Many were tempted to dismiss it as an archaic example of a denomination safe and secure in the eighteenth century. Others affirmed the words as a return to “family values.” All were, at the very least, curious as to why such a statement came from such a body of believers at such a time as this.

I was curious to examine the scriptural basis for this suggestion of gracious submission. Because I have a profound love of Scripture I could celebrate many of the passages chosen. I, too, hold highly Genesis 1:26-28, which says, “God created humanity in God’s image . . . male and female, God created them,” for it reminds me that I am (even as a woman) created in God’s image. At our wedding, my husband and I shared the beautiful words found in Ecclesiastes that encourage a mutual relationship, where, if either one falls the other is there to pick him or her up. With the birth of our daughter, I understood more fully the psalmist’s wonder when, in Psalm 139, it was proclaimed: It was you who formed my inward parts, you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made (Ps. 139:13). All these passages are used as support for a wife’s “gracious submission” in the B F&M.

I admit my suspicions were raised as I studied the forty-one different scriptural passages used to support the writing of this family statement. In most cases, only one or two, or three or four, verses were quoted, and taken out of context with no acknowledgment of the verses that immediately precede or follow the quotation. For example, when quoting Titus 2:3-5, ...

visitor : : uid: ()