Former President Jimmy Carter just says no to Southern Baptist Convention's second-class treatment of women.

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/07/20/jimmy-carter-leaves-church-over-treatment-of-women/?icid=main|htmlws-main|dl1|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.politicsdaily.com%2F2009%2F07%2F20%2Fjimmy-carter-leaves-church-over-treatment-of-women%2F

Although I didn't grow up Southern Baptist, I lived in a part of Texas where the church was quite prominent. And the church's eternal conservatism (no smoking, no drinking, no dancing because of "gyrations of the body") and literal-mindedness did cast a shadow over life in an increasingly strait-laced Wichita Falls, Texas during my college years.

One wishes Carter had made his break in the 1980s--when Southern Baptists such as Dr. W.A. Criswell, the pastor of a huge Dallas church, were quite prominent (a documentary called THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE featured Criswell) even on the national stage.

But maybe in the year 2009, Carter speaking up for oppressed women will inspire more Southern Baptist women to keep the conversation going--even when the Southern Baptist Convention decides to continue doing the same old things in the same old ways.