c. 2007 Religion News Service

Pastor Says Female Professor Was Dismissed Because of Gender

(RNS) A pastor and influential blogger has accused Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and past president of the Southern Baptist Convention, of gender discrimination in denying tenure to a female former faculty member at the Fort Worth, Texas, seminary.

The allegations were made on the personal blog of Wade Burleson, a pastor in Enid, Okla., who gained attention in Southern Baptist circles last year when he challenged the denomination’s ban on missionaries who speak in tongues.

Burleson alleged that Patterson had promised Sherri Klouda, who taught Hebrew, that she would stay on faculty after he was appointed president in 2003, but later refused to grant her tenure.

Burleson alleged that Patterson dismissed Klouda because of his strict interpretation of key Biblical passages _ particularly that the Bible prohibits women from teaching men in the areas of theology and Biblical studies.

T. Van McClain, chair of Southwestern’s board of trustees, released a statement calling Burleson’s blog entry “filled with inaccuracies” and denied that Klouda was dismissed. “Actually, she did not have tenure and, like hundreds of professors around the U.S. every year, was told that she would not be awarded tenure,” he said.

McClain also denied that gender discrimination played a role in Klouda’s dismissal: “The second issue involves the desire of (the seminary) to have only men teaching who are qualified to be pastors or who have been pastors in the disciplines of theology, biblical studies, homiletics, and pastoral ministry. This is in keeping, of course, with the statement of faith of the SBC that clearly says the pastorate is reserved for men.”

McClain said the school was free to hire only men for these positions, saying, “It is a matter of freedom of religion in this country for a private institution to align itself with the majority views of its constituency.”

McClain called Klouda’s hiring a “momentary lax of the parameters” and said the school has now returned to “its traditional, confessional, and biblical position.”

Klouda, who has since obtained a position at Taylor University in Indiana, did not return calls for comment.

_ Greg Horton

Muslims Concerned Over `24′ Plot Line

WASHINGTON (RNS) When a network of terrorists sets off a chain of suicide bombs on the new season of Fox’s hit drama “24,” the fictional plotline mirrored the nightmares of many American viewers _ including American Muslims.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest Islamic civil rights group in the U.S., criticized the story line, suggesting it could foster discrimination against American Muslims. CAIR also expressed concerns that the program’s impact would help build public support for measures to deny civil liberties to Muslims.

“The raw emotional impact of fictional scenes that include widespread death and destruction in America may adversely affect the public’s attitude toward civil liberties, religious freedom and interfaith relations,” the group said in a statement. “The program’s repeated association of acts of terrorism with Islam will only serve to increase anti-Muslim prejudice in our society.”

Fox responded to the council’s concerns by issuing a written statement, noting that past seasons of “24” have portrayed villains such as a “shadowy Anglo businessman, Baltic Europeans, Germans, Russians, Islamic fundamentalists and even the (Anglo-American) president of the United States.”

The network maintains that the show’s fans are able to distinguish between the story line and reality in America.

“24 is a heightened drama about anti-terrorism,” the network said in its statement. “After five seasons, the audience clearly understands this, and realizes that any individual, family, or group (ethnic or otherwise) that engages in violence is not meant to be typical.”

The council also protested when Islamic terrorists were portrayed on the show two years ago. To help allay its concerns, Fox ran a commercial reminding viewers that the “24” plot was fictional and not representative of all Muslims.

_ Katherine Boyle

Virginia Bishop Says He Will Fight for Church Property in Court

WASHINGTON (RNS) The Episcopal Bishop of Virginia said his diocese has tried unsuccessfully to negotiate with dissident parishes for years and will now seek to settle differences over church property in civil courts.

Eleven conservative Virginia churches _ including two large, historic parishes _ have voted to leave the 2.2-million member denomination over differences on homosexuality and the authority of Scripture.

Bishop Peter Lee said in a letter Thursday (Jan. 18) that diocesan officials now consider those churches’ property “abandoned” and will seek to recover them in court.

“I have tried to find a way forward in our dispute over property that would keep us from having to resort to civil courts,” Lee wrote. “No longer am I convinced that such an outcome is possible, nor do I believe that such a move at this time is dishonorable.”

The value of the property of two churches _ Truro Church and The Falls Church _ has been estimated at $25 million. The two churches have joined a missionary branch of the Anglican Church of Nigeria.

Jim Pierobon, a member of Falls Church and a spokesman for the two parishes, told The Associated Press that all 11 congregations will fight for the property.

“We intend to protect our churches’ property rights to the fullest extent of the law,” Pierobon said.

Under the laws of the Episcopal Church, individual church property is held in trust by the diocese and the denomination. The breakaway parishes will argue in civil court that denominational trusts are not valid in the Commonwealth of Virginia, according to Pierobon.

Lee said his diocese has tried for years to accommodate the breakaway churches. However “it became clear that no position other than relinquishing our claim to Episcopal Church property would be satisfactory to those who have left,” Lee said.

Further negotiations would be “unduly cumbersome” and further alienate “loyal Episcopalians,” Lee said.

Tensions between Episcopalians have simmered for decades as conservatives decried the church’s increasingly progressive stance on women’s ordination, sexuality and the interpretation of Scripture.

_ Daniel Burke

Quote of the Day: Moises Monterio, Pastor in Pompano Beach, Fla.

(RNS) “There are always going to be good pastors, who work honestly, and bad pastors, who aren’t honest. That doesn’t happen just with evangelicals, but when there are bad evangelical pastors, there’s more attention because we are always preaching about behaving correctly.”

_ Moises Monteiro, president of the Brazilian community’s Florida Association of Evangelical Pastors, reacting to the detention of Brazilian megachurch leaders Sonia Moraes Hernandes and Estevam Hernades-Filho in Miami on federal charges of currency smuggling. He was quoted by The Miami Herald.

KRE/LF END RNS