Carter's "Mother God" isn't listening

It was widely reported this week that former-President Jimmy Carter has launched a new coalition of Baptists, one that rejects a number of Southern Baptists' key scriptural positions, including the role of women in the church and home. Carter's liberal coalition is called the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, and they recently conducted their annual meeting in Atlanta.

Among Carter's objections are the SBC's call to boycott Disney, its evangelism efforts aimed at winning Jews, a declaration that women should not be called as senior pastors, and a statement that wives should "submit graciously" to their husbands' leadership.

Also included in the CBF's annual meeting were songs and prayers to "Mother God." Members also voiced their displeasure at calling God "Father," "Lord," and "King," because such terms are viewed as being oppressive to women. There were also calls for more openness towards homosexuals. The delegation even broke into thunderous applause when a teenage girl from Florida announced that she thought former SBC President Paige Patterson and the Apostle Paul had at least one thing in common: They were both wrong about women. However, it is not the Apostle Paul that was wrong – the CBF is.

The problem with Jimmy Carter and his flummoxed followers is really quite simple: They have rejected the divine authority of the Bible. If the Apostle Paul was wrong about the role of women in the church and home, then he was also wrong about the redemptive work of Christ on the cross, and wrong about the infallibility of the Scriptures. Now, I don't know about you, but I'll take the word of God over the word of Jimmy Carter any day!

Of course, this isn't new. Liberals, in and out of the church, have attempted to discredit or denounce Holy Writ for centuries. Usually, the parts they seek to discredit are the parts they don't agree with. That's too bad for them, because God's Word will still be standing long after the Jimmy Carters of this world have slipped into oblivion. In fact, it will be Holy Scripture, not Carter's opinions that men (even feminists) will give account to. Jimmy Carter can pray to his "Mother God" all he wants to, but she's not listening. She's not listening because she doesn't exist!

By leaving the SBC, Carter and company did us all a big favor: Now we can easily see who and what they really are. If we could only get all the liberals in the Republican Party to do the same thing.