breakthroughs, any new discoveries that lend any substantial
strength to their position.
It seems to me that many people in leadership are now deciding that
the egalitarian view is simply not what the Bible teaches. And they are
deciding that it will not be taught in their churches, so they add clauses
to that effect to their statements of faith. Then the controversy is essen-
tially over, for that group at least, for the next ten or twenty years.
James Dobson saw the wisdom of this. After Campus Crusade
announced its policy in June 1999, Dobson’s newsletter in September
1999, on the front page, said, “We applaud our friends at Campus
Crusade for taking this courageous stance.” He quoted the statement
in full and then said, “It is our prayer that additional denominations
and parachurch organizations will join with SBC in adopting this
statement on marriage and the family. Now is the time for Christian
people to identify themselves unreservedly with the truths of the
Bible, whether popular or not.”^48
Many egalitarians were greatly troubled by Dobson’s statement.
In the Spring 2000 issue of the egalitarian newsletter Mutuality,there
was an article by Kim Pettit, “Why I Disagree with Dobson and the
SBC.” In the article she objected that “endorsement of the SBC state-
ment by an increasing number of Christian organizations means dis-
senters are excluded as this becomes a confessional issue.”^49
Personally, I do not think that the SBC statement or others like it will
mean that people who hold another view will be excluded from fel-
lowship in the church. But I do think it means that people who hold
an egalitarian view will be excluded from many teaching and govern-
ing positions within the denomination. Because I think that the egal-
itarian view is both harmful and contrary to Scripture, I think this is
an appropriate result, and I think it is the one intended by those who
added this statement to the “Baptist Faith and Message.”
People who are right in the middle of turning points in history do
not always realize it. I believe that today we are right in the middle of
a turning point in the history of the church. Organizations right now
are deciding these issues. They are making commitments and estab-
lishing those commitments in their policies. Some organizations are
66 BUILDINGSTRONGFAMILIES