Stop Making Enemies of Those with Whom We Disagree

In 1959 – 1963, I was a student at Oklahoma Baptist University. One of our favorite professors was Dr. Rowena Strickland. She was a professor in the Bible Department and taught us “preacher boys.” There was no conflict with her teaching us the Bible. In 1980, I became the Pastor of Lexington’s Trinity Baptist Church. In 1981, we ordained Bonnie as a deacon. In 1983 we partnered with another Baptist church and ordained Cindy and, later that same year, Carolyn, to the gospel ministry. We notified the local association of Baptists as well as the Baptist State-wide paper. Those ordinations were not done in secret. No one objected publicly to those ordinations. I’m sure there were private objections—I’m not naïve. The Southern Baptist denomination of today does not permit women to be ordained or in Church leadership positions. The Southern Baptist denomination of my younger years is not the same Baptist denomination that I grew up with and loved. It was a denomination who did not need to make enemies of those whose ideas were different.