After attempting for six decades to change the Southern Baptist Convention from within, Pres. Jimmy Carter recently wrote that he severed ties with the organization due to its belief that women “are somehow inferior to men.” It was a decision he referred to as “painful and difficult” in a recent article for the UK Guardian.
I don’t at all disagree with Carter when he writes that “this discrimination, unjustifiably attributed to a Higher Authority, has provided a reason or excuse for the deprivation of women’s equal rights across the world for centuries.” I agree with him without hesitation, and applaud him for writing about the reality of many organized religions so intimately.
The part that caused me hesitation… the part that has kept me from writing about his article for more than a week… is the fact that he chose to stop working from within to achieve equality. If Carter is right in his belief that eventually a line has to be drawn in the sand, that one has remove him or herself from a group when he/she encounters irreconcilable differences, then I have to wonder if I’m merely spinning my own wheels while avoiding the ultimate conflict I’ve known to be on the horizon.
In Carter’s own words about the process which led him to walk away, I find understanding.
The question becomes where one should stand on the quest to implement change? Do you stand within, balking the system already in place and possibly compromising your own values, or do you stand without where you can be charged with casting stones from afar? Exactly when do your principles become too marginalized by being surrounded by those who believe differently?
Carter, in introducing why he and a group of international leaders are calling upon the world’s religions to move toward gender equality, explains that “the impact of these religious beliefs touch(es) every aspect of our lives.”
“They help explain why in many countries boys are educated before girls; why girls are told when and whom they must marry; and why many face enormous and unacceptable risks in pregnancy and childbirth because their basic health needs are not met,” he wrote.
He also explains that he and the other leaders brought together by former South African president Nelson Mandela can speak so freely because they are no longer faced with potential political ramifications. Consider that for a moment. This group of leaders, arguably some the most powerful people on the planet, now consider themselves to be able to freely speak out against injustice because they no longer are tied to politics?
Every day in our nation and across the world, groups of individuals, confident that they can create change, sign up for one political party or another. Their intentions are noble. Their beliefs are pure. They fight unrelentingly for their target issues — anything from massive social injustices to better roadways.
And, each day, those who stay within the system to fight are called upon to violate other principles they hold dear for the sole benefit of playing the game.
But, if Jimmy Carter and his group are right, then I and all the others who are fighting need to re-evaluate where we are standing. If Carter is right, then we need to understand that both organized religion and politics are too often barriers to the values and principles we already hold within our own hearts.
