A friend of mine recently became pastor of a local church.  In one of his early sermons he mentioned that on the church steeple was a weather vane rather than a cross.  A member of the congregation leaving the building that morning said he would take care of it, and he did, personally arranging to have the weather vane replaced by a cross.  For some churches a weather vane would be more appropriate, for they go the direction the wind is blowing. 

            I suggest this is truer of the preachers than of the churches.  After Frank Page was recently elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention, it was reported that as a doctoral candidate in seminary he researched the scripture and wrote a dissertation in which he declared that the role of pastor should be open to women.  He confesses that years ago the Holy Spirit led him to reverse his position, and presumably, his understanding of scripture.  In the meantime, Dr. Al Mohler, the president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has acknowledged he too, as a seminary doctoral candidate, studied the scripture and likewise wrote a dissertation in which he advocated women in the role of pastor.  Likewise, he was led to change his mind when challenged by certain others.  He restudied the Bible and came up with the opposite position.

            I question neither the confession nor the integrity of either man.  Knowing the intensity of Bible study involved in researching a thesis and writing a dissertation, I am amazed that two very able men of God, researching the Bible under the leadership of the Holy Spirit and coming up with an understanding of the will of God, could be so wrong.  The Bible is the same and God is the same.  Did the Holy Sprit lead them down a false avenue?

            The timing of their reversal of opinion amuses me.  From the time each received their doctoral degree until the time they became leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention, winds other than the Holy Spirit (ruach, Hebrew for the wind of God) were blowing.  Political winds were changing directions in Baptist life.  Conservatives, as they gained power began to move the convention toward creedalism, where only certain interpretations of scripture are acceptable. These interpretations were ultimately codified in the new creed, the Baptist Faith and Message, 2000.  One tenet of the new creed is that women are not acceptable as pastors.  It’s a good thing the Spirit helped these men see the light; otherwise they wouldn’t be acceptable to Southern Baptists.

            I am convinced that a doctoral student at a Southern Baptist Seminary today could not repeat their folly.  If he were to sense that the Bible suggests God approves of women in pastoral roles, he would know the Bible could not say any such thing.  The creed says it can’t.  And his professors would not look positively on such independent thinking.