In response to the letter from Mr. Jim Stinson: I'm one of those “degradated” Baptist women you mentioned in your recent letter. I guess you've never really met one of us face to face because you've really got the wrong idea about our lifestyle.

I'm not pregnant, barefoot, or in the kitchen. As a matter of fact, I don't spend very much time in the kitchen at all because I really hate to cook.

I've held a full-time job outside my home for over 20 years and it was my choice to do so. However, I never needed a reason to choose to expose any part of my body to excel in either my home or my job.

I've raised two Baptist daughters. Both have respectable jobs, respect for and from their elders and peers, and — above all — respect for themselves as women. If your wife or daughter was a Hooter's Girl, what would your respect level be for them? What level of respect would your male friends have for them? Could you trust your friends to be alone with them? Could you trust them to be alone with your friends?

I brought up my girls the same way my mother brought up her children. She is also a Baptist woman who held a job, by choice, during a time when it was frowned upon by society as a whole for a woman to work outside the home. She did, however, cook a lot, by choice.

My Baptist father fixes my mother a cup of coffee every morning. My Baptist husband does the same for me. Our husbands love us, they don't degrade us. We never given them reason, because — by choice — we don't degrade ourselves.

Our KJV Bible tells our husbands that it is their responsibility to support their families. My mother and I never had to work. We chose to work. If more men used the backbone God provided them, more women might not resort to working at places like Hooters — whether by choice or not.

If more women lived by the standards God set before us, there may not even be a place like Hooters. Yes, my mother, my daughters, and I believe that the man is the head of the household. After discussions within the family and a lot of prayer, they make the decisions that our families live by, and they shoulder the responsibility of those decisions — good or bad.

We as Baptist women are to be support for our men — a “help meet”. We are to help them stand, not be a doormat for them to wipe their feet. God designed this during the creation. Baptists didn't even exist way back then.

No, we don't believe women should be pastors because God is very specific in the New Testament (KJV) of how a church is to be operated and how meetings are to be conducted. So far, I've not seen any procedural changes handed down by God. I've seen a lot of changes handed out by men, simply to suit the purpose needed at the time.

The Baptist women I've known throughout my entire life don't usually need instructions from the Southern Baptist Convention. In fact I don't put much stock in what the Convention does or doesn't do. We get our instructions for living straight from the source.

Mr. Stinson, if you want to know how Baptists really live, pick up the instruction book that God gave you. You may be surprised at what you learn about the role these “degraded” women have played throughout history. It could even change the way you look at yourself as a man.

Virginia Buehl

Fayetteville

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