Referencing the Baptist Faith & Message 2000, which serves as the SBC’s unifying statement of belief and states that “the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture,” Stone recounted that a motion was made at the 2021 annual meeting of the SBC to disfellowship Saddleback Church for ordaining three women on their staff to the role of pastor.
While Stone noted that the church was found no longer to be “in friendly cooperation” with the denomination earlier this year, he said that this only came after “a process that took an amazing 20 months of debate and was not nearly unanimous.”
“And in two days, they will marshal their forces to your fair state to appeal their removal,” Stone lamented. “And while I believe that they will lose that appeal, it will once again be far from unanimous.”
“The attacks on this doctrine are ultimately an attack against scriptural authority,” Stone argued.
Stone: A Godly Man Is Not a ‘Theological Sissy’
Continuing to discuss gender distinctions, Stone later said, “Ladies, you may not always be satisfied with your husband because you wish he would tell long, detailed stories, love shopping all day Saturday at Hobby Lobby, and watch the Lifetime Network.”
“You know what you call a man like that? A woman,” Stone said. “I urge you today, don’t buy into the idea of toxic masculinity. As surely as a woman should act like a woman, a man should act like a man.” Pounding the pulpit with his palms, Stone continued, “And our culture constantly wants men to get in touch with their feminine side. May God raise up a generation of men who know how to get in touch with their masculine side.”
Stone argued that godly men “will like women” but “will not be like a woman…He will not be a theological sissy, who buys paisley pants at the Gap or carries a women’s NIV study Bible.”
Stone: Female Submission to Male Authority Is a ‘Token’ of God’s ‘Ownership and Lordship’
Conversely, Stone said that “a bossy, domineering attitude does not fit a woman making a claim to godliness.”
“A domineering position to authority over your church or over your husband does not fit a woman making a claim to godliness,” Stone reiterated. Referencing the “restriction” on women’s leadership, Stone said, “This is where the rubber meets the road.”
“In the home and in the church, submission isn’t so much something that is required—although it is—but it is something that the godly, mature woman of God gladly, joyfully, willfully, gives,” Stone said.
Referencing a recent article written by former SBC president J.D. Greear about Saddleback’s disfellowshipping, in which Greear argued that the denomination runs the risk of alienating faithful women by turning them “into a battleground,” Stone argued that no faithful Christian would ever be alienated “by the preaching of sound doctrine.”
