Southern Baptists pull magazine from shelves

What was supposed to be an honor — a cover story about a group of successful women pastors — has instead turned into a scandal for a Durham non-denominational church leader.

Sheryl Brady, the 48-year-old pastor of The River Church, was featured among four other women pastors on the cover of Gospel Today, a Christian lifestyle publication based in Atlanta.

The article, titled “Women Pastors: Breaking the Glass Ceiling,” was pulled from the shelves of LifeWay Christian stores because it upset its owner, the Southern Baptist Convention.

The convention believes the position of pastor is reserved for men.

“I respect the theological debate about women in leadership and the Southern Baptist Convention's decision to disagree, but to deny Gospel Today the right to freedom of the press to cover it and discuss it is alarming,” said Brady.

The Detroit native and her husband, Bishop Joby Brady, bought the old Homestead Heights Baptist Church in Durham three years ago. The couple, who preach in the Pentecostal tradition, travel widely on the Christian conference and seminar circuit and grabbed the attention of Gospel Today founder and publisher Teresa Hairston.

Hairston said she was impressed with Brady’s dynamism and decided to feature her as part of the women pastors lineup.

“I was absolutely shocked,” said Hairston, when she learned last month that Lifeway and its 150 stores nationwide was pulling the September/October edition.

The magazine is available at Blockbuster, Barnes and Noble, Target, Walmart, Kroger and B. Dalton stores.

A spokesman for LifeWay Christian Resources based in Nashville said the magazine story was contrary to the denomination’s statement of faith and therefore stores were asked not to promote it. Customers may ask for a copy of it at the counter, said spokesman Rob Phillips.

Managers at the three LifeWay stores in the Triangle declined to comment. The store manager in Cary said Monday he had one copy left and would gladly sell it to whomever asks for it.

Southern Baptists have for years opposed women in church leadership roles. In 2000, they made it formal when they amended their statement of faith, — the Baptist Faith and Message — to say that the position of church pastor is limited to men. That put the 16-million-member denomination at odds with most mainline Protestant denominations, including a growing segment of Pentecostal denominations, which have ordained women for years.

It also puts the denomination in a peculiar place now that U.S. Sen. John McCain picked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his presidential running mate. Southern Baptists are among the Republican Party’s most loyal constituents.

“My problem with all this is, how how can we have a Sarah Palin running for vice president and yet [Southern Baptists] don’t think a woman can be a preacher?” asked Brody.

Sarah Palin herself is a Pentecostal believer. Pentecostals believe Christians are endowed with spiritual gifts, which they say are signs of God’s miraculous ways. Among these are the gifts of prophesy, healing and speaking in tongues.