In a move that demonstrates the conservative hold on the nation's largest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention on Tuesday amended its official statement of belief to declare that wives must "submit graciously" to the leadership of their husbands.
"A wife is to submit graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ," said the resolution.
The vote by the convention, which is meeting in Salt Lake City, marked the first time in 35 years that the Southern Baptists have amended their statement of "Baptist Faith and Message," which sets out principles that Southern Baptists are expected to follow.
Husbands and wives are of "equal worth before God" and both bear "God's image," but in differing ways, the statement said. A wife "has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing her household and nurturing the next generation." A husband "is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family."
The messengers, as the Baptists call their convention delegates, rejected an amendment that would have said that husbands and wives should submit to each other.
The convention's position is hardly unique within the world of evangelical Christianity. Promise Keepers, the fast-growing Christian men's group, for example, espouses a similar view.
But because of their numbers, particularly in the South where they are by far the dominant religious grouping, statements by the Southern Baptists always attract additional attention. The new statement underscores how deep is the continuing debate over the changing roles of women in America.
"It represents a further tightening of the conservative understanding of the marriage roles of husband and wife," said John Orr, professor of religion at the University of Southern California. "While it affirms [gender] equality under God, it creates marriage roles that will bring the church into tension with a large segment of the American Christian church."
The statement drew immediate praise and criticism from outside the 15.8-million-member denomination.
"It sounds very Biblical," said Paul L. Hetrick, a vice president of Focus on the Family, the conservative Christian organization led by James Dobson, who is scheduled to address the convention on Thursday.
