God Speaks to Us, Too: Southern Baptist Women on Church, Home & Society

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Book Reviews
“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed.” Francis Bacon (d.1626)

God Speaks to Us, Too: Southern Baptist Women on Church, Home & Society

Susan M. Shaw,
The University Press of KY, 2008.

Reviewed by Dee Miller,
Council Bluffs, IA

Susan Shaw says she was “raised right.” That’s how she describes growing up as a female in the Deep South, being nurtured by people who have the highest regard for the strongest of Baptist notions—the priesthood of the believers. Her new book, God Speaks to Us, Too, will be a walk down memory lane for those who have lived the collective story. Yet the stroll won’t be all joy.

Insiders, as well as those from other faith groups, are afforded a clear look at the cultural tides, theology, and practices of this massive denomination of autonomous congregations [Southern Baptist Convention], though not necessarily of people free to voice independent thought. The lack of freedom is what evokes continued frustration and sadness in so many. And that’s what lies on the other side of the coin from nostalgia. The unpleasant emotions are often experienced as slashed hopes and dreams. All because of the deeply felt disconnect between what this conservative denomination teaches and what women have often internalized as a heartfelt understanding into the meaning of spiritual liberation in today’s world.

Yet not all of Shaw’s informants have struggled with the same intensity. In fact some, like Dorothy (Mrs. Paige) Patterson seem not to have struggled at all. Like many fundamentalists, she understands God to be a “complementarian” who calls for women’s submission in both home and church, with roles divided according to gender. While this may work for some, Shaw and most other informants of this book would associate the strict adherence to this doctrine as a danger that infringes on the ability of women to fully seek out the will of God for their lives without the historical constraints that have begun to be eliminated in mainline circles.

Along with the good historical view of the 163-year-old denomination comes the author’s assessment of why gender issues have played a bigger part in the “inerrancy” fight, witnessed in her youth, than many would like to acknowledge. She asserts that the loss of privilege for Southern white men, after the blow rendered by the civil rights movement, prompted the desperate fight to protect male privilege in church and home, the only two institutions where men could continue to exercise such elitism.

As an ordained SBC minister, now director of the Women’s Studies Program at Oregon State University (who no longer participates in Baptist life), the author has already lived much of the collective story before researching it! Yet her 150 informants work together to provide a picture window that shows a collage of unique lives, often filled with lonely struggles. Especially for the 12% who are no longer Baptists at all.

In the preface, Shaw clearly states that her informants do not necessarily represent all SBC women. Of that, I`m quite certain. For the text does not even touch on the fact that so many who spend vast amounts of time in the pews of conservative churches suffer from limited exposure to other Christian ideas—a fact that is well illustrated by the refusal of one pastor to even provide her with access to the women in his church! Neither does it mention that many in the Convention still prefer to simply ignore or excuse the suppression of issues by framing them as “irrelevant to us here.” Or just “political.” Or “scandalous.”

For women who have sustained wounds from challenging the hypocrisy of the strong system, this work serves as a spiritual balm, showing that there are many options available to women who have discovered how unlikely age-old patriarchy is to budge. Yet the most difficult option to exercise for most Southern Baptist women would be leaving, as Shaw sees it. Partly because of the deeply ingrained cultural need to belong, along with what she refers to as “the myth of SBC superiority” that can bleed over into one`s personal identity. Leaving is never easy. As one informant pointed out, it’s very hard not to follow the example of Lot’s wife, looking back at the sense of grandeur once felt as an active participant, even when the bouts of grief are interspersed with a greater sense of relief and rightness about one’s decision to leave.

To be Southern is to be Baptist and to be Baptist is to be Southern in many communities in the South, says Shaw. To be a Southern woman is to have learned from birth to be “sweet and genteel,” often in a passive resistant way. So, in a sense, there is resistance. Yet it is questionable how much change that resistance can bring.

Many of her informants noted that while the denomination had changed, they had not. As one of the participants, I know that I’ve often said that myself. Yet, in looking back, I now challenge that understanding on both fronts. The Convention did not change nearly as much as those of us educated in it’s institutions from 1960 to 1990 were led, by some idealistic professors, to believe it would. The bigotry that was there at its birth has remained strong and well protected.

However, many whose stories appear in this book, have truly changed, as much from education and enlightenment through sources outside of the Convention as from the skills and education provided by participation in Baptist life. Some have become bolder and stronger, like the proverbial “tea bag in hot water,” by daring to challenge hypocrisy on issues of social justice and theological confusion that comes through double-speak. Those who have thrived in spite of the system may see and appreciate the first chapter of James with clearer vision.

No doubt it is because of Susan Shaw’s own spiritual transformation that this book was possible. And why it should be read.

Both women and men who become self-actualized always change, and that change includes alterations in what one comes to expect from others. It is only from those changes that resistance can flourish, whether the voices are outspoken or quiet and genteel, reflecting ways of resistance that characterize most Southern women as they continue to support institutions that may not give them an equal voice or right to fully participate. Yet, wherever they stand, each informant appears to have found meaning despite the identity crisis that has permeated the lives of all—a crisis that has found some resolution through spiritual contemplation, regardless of gender.

Yes, that’s what happens to Baptist women who are raised right!