The Southwestern
Baptist Theological Seminary offers coursework in Greek
and Hebrew, in archaeology, in the philosophy of religion,
and, starting this fall, in how to cook and sew.
Southwestern
Baptist, one of the nation's largest Southern Baptist
seminaries, is introducing a new academic program in
homemaking as part of an effort to establish what its
president calls biblical family and gender roles.
It will offer a
bachelor of arts in humanities degree with a 23-hour
concentration in homemaking. The program is open only to
women.
Coursework will
include seven hours of nutrition and meal preparation,
seven hours of textile design and ''clothing construction,''
three hours of general homemaking, three hours on
''the value of a child,'' and three hours on the
''biblical model for the home and family.''
Seminary
officials say the main focus of the courses is on
hospitality in the home--teaching women interior
design as well as how to sew and cook. Women also
study children's spiritual, physical, and emotional
development.
Yet the program
is raising eyebrows among some Southern Baptists, who say
a degree concentration in how to be a Christian housewife is
not useful, and a waste of seminary resources.
Seminary
president Paige Patterson, a former president of the
Southern Baptist Convention, which has its executive
committee headquarters in Nashville, said wives of
seminary students asked for the homemaking courses.
The program was approved by seminary trustees in the fall.
''We are moving
against the tide in order to establish family and gender
roles as described in God's word for the home and the
family,'' Patterson said at the denomination's annual
meeting in June. ''If we do not do something to
salvage the future of the home, both our denomination and
our nation will be destroyed.''
Terri Stovall,
dean of women's programs at Southwestern, which has its
main campus in Fort Worth, Texas, said the purpose of the
program is to strengthen families.
''Whether a woman
works outside or strictly in the home, her first
priority is her family and home,'' she said. ''We just
really want to step up and provide some of these
skills.''
Stovall said the
homemaking degree is one of 10 women's programs at the
seminary and is ''only targeted to women whose heart and
calling is the home.''
A description of
the homemaking program on the seminary's Web site says
it ''endeavors to prepare women to model the characteristics
of the godly woman as outlined in Scripture. This is
accomplished through instruction in homemaking skills,
developing insights into home and family while
continuing to equip women to understand and engage the
culture of today.''
The Reverend
Benjamin Cole, pastor of Parkview Baptist Church in
Arlington, Texas, and a frequent Southern Baptist critic,
wrote about the homemaking program on his blog.
''At first it was
almost incredible to me,'' Cole said. ''I thought this
is not happening. It's quite superfluous to the mission of
theological education in Southern Baptist life. It's
insulting I would say to many young women training in
vital ministry roles.
''It's yet
another example of the ridiculous and silly degree to which
some Southern Baptists, Southwestern in particular, are
trying to return to what they perceive to be biblical
gender roles.''
Patterson took a
leading role in the 1980s in a successful campaign to
oust moderates from leadership posts in the Southern Baptist
Convention. While he was president of the convention
from 1998 to 2000, Southern Baptists issued a
statement that women should not be pastors and that
wives should ''graciously submit'' to their husbands.
In 2003, when
Patterson left his post as president of North Carolina's
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary to serve as
Southwestern's president, he was asked whether women
would teach in the seminary's theology school under
his leadership.
''The New
Testament is crystal clear that pastors are to be men,'' he
said.
In March, a
former Southwestern professor filed a federal lawsuit
against the school and Patterson, alleging she was
fired from her tenure-track position because she is a
woman.
Professor Sheri
Klouda was hired in 2002 and was the only woman to teach
at the School of Theology. But last spring, school officials
informed Klouda that her contract was terminated
because she was ''a mistake that the trustees needed
to fix,'' the lawsuit states.
Patterson's wife,
Dorothy Patterson, is the only woman faculty member now
teaching in Southwestern's theology school.
David Key,
director of Baptist studies at Emory University's Candler
School of Theology, said part of the reason the seminary may
be introducing the new homemaking program is in
reaction to the Klouda lawsuit.
''Women continue
to make more inroads into traditional male bastions,
which could be provoking Patterson to do this,'' Key said.
Patterson is ''trying to draw the line in the sand of
where women need to be.''
Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., also offers
programs for women, including a 13-hour certificate of
ministry studies. Required courses cover
child-rearing, ''God's plan for marriage,'' and
managing a budget.
Key said neither
seminary will allow women to be pastors, but notes that
Southern hasn't ''articulated homemaking like Patterson.''
"Southern at
least appears to realize the realities of modern day
life--that oftentimes husbands and wives must both
work outside the home to support the family,'' said
Key. (AP)