Professor: Seminary ousted her over gender

updated 4:52 p.m. ET Jan. 26, 2007

FORT WORTH, Texas - A theology professor at a prominent Southern Baptist seminary said officials told her to leave because women are biblically forbidden from teaching men.

Professor Sheri Klouda's departure from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is the newest source of division between opposing factions within the Southern Baptist Convention.

It is the largest Protestant denomination in the country, with more than 16 million members.

Paige Patterson, seminary president, did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press. Van McClain, president of the board of trustees, said he could not discuss the matter but e-mailed several previously written statements.

McClain said Klouda was not dismissed, but that she was not granted tenure. He also said it has been rare for women to teach theology at Southern Baptist seminaries.

‘A return to the way it has always been’
"With regard to the tightening of the policy of women teaching in the School of Theology, there has been no change in policy, but rather a return to the way it has always been," he said. "There was a momentary lax of the parameters, and (the seminary) has now returned to its traditional, confessional, and biblical position."

Southern Baptist leaders agree that the role of pastor is reserved for men, based on a verse in 1st Timothy in which the Apostle Paul says, "I permit no woman to teach or have authority over a man." The 2000 Baptist Faith and Message prohibits women from serving as pastors.

Critics within the denomination say the interpretation should not be applied to the seminary because it is not a church.

Baptist pastor and blogger Wade Burleson, of Enid, Okla., has decried the seminary's treatment of Klouda. Burleson maintains that SBC leaders are attempting to expand the church's statement of faith beyond its boundaries.

"The extraordinary belief that women should be forbidden from teaching men the Bible, or 'doctrine,' is held by only a handful of Southern Baptist leaders, including at least one agency head and a few strategically placed trustees in various agencies," Burleson wrote on his Web blog. "Unfortunately, the majority of Southern Baptists let them dictate policy for the entire convention."

Denominational leaders talk publicly about growing membership but have become increasingly focused on purity, Bruce T. Gourley, associate director of The Center for Baptist Studies at Mercer University in Macon, Ga.

"The leadership of the convention is not that interested in opening wide the doors of the church as they are in preserving purity," Gourley said, "and they keep setting the boundaries of purity narrower and narrower and narrower."

Klouda said she was hired in 2002 at Southwestern to a tenure-track position as an assistant professor. She taught Hebrew.

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