Women Professors

I'm sure you're aware that Southwestern Seminary refused tenure to a Hebrew professor, Sheri Klouda, simply because she is a she. Using the Baptist Faith & Message and its prohibition of women pastors as the reason, Klouda was forced out at SWBTS and is now teaching at an institution in Indiana.

I'm sorry this happened. I know Sheri slightly; we were in the Ph.D. program at SWBTS at the same time. She is a highly competent, gifted teacher. I cannot see how we can broaden the BF&M tenet on pastoral leadership and apply it to the seminary classroom. I've sat in classrooms, and I teach in classrooms. Classrooms ain't churches. Students know it. Profs know it.

While I too have the conviction that women are not to serve as senior pastors; I believe women should be allowed to teach on the theology faculty of our seminaries. I appreciate the trustees of our institutions as well as our administrations, but I think they're wrong on this one.