The Baptist General Convention of Texas is the first state Southern Baptist affiliate to reject the biased "submit graciously" direction to women only in the revised (1998) Baptist Faith and Message. They are to be highly commended that all but a dozen of their 2,200 delegates in 1999 voted to reject the SBC amendment.

The ASSOCIATED PRESS report stated "Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention denounced the decision and said the "submit graciously" amendment was virtually a paraphrase of the apostle Paul's teaching."

It is this poor quality Bible study that gets so many Christians into theological trouble. The SBC is proof-texting Paul's teachings to retain the male dominance position that the SBC has always held. We must remember that it was not until 1919 that women in the United States were allowed to vote. Tennessee was the last state to ratify the necessary Constitutional amendment, with no help from the SBC. It came down to one young male delegate who thought it was a good thing to listen to the advise of his mother. Even after that, women were considered, and were usually considered by themselves, as less than men.

If we want to paraphrase Paul we must start with Eph 4:21, not Eph 4:22, and look through to the rest of the letter. A proper paraphrase is "All Christians are to submit graciously to one another because Jesus wants it that way. This means that you wives are included. And you husbands must do it in love just as Jesus commanded." The basic command from Jesus is (John 13:34 RSV) "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another."

Until we get 49 more state conventions to do as Texas has properly and proudly done, we will continue to misuse the Bible and place women as second-class Christians in the SBC and to the lost world. If women are "equal before God", how can they be unequal before men?

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