On Jimmy Carter and the Southern Baptists.

A good, nay, great article by Jimmy Carter has made it's rounds through the blogosphere the last couple of day, either on the Guardian's platform or on Australian website the-age.com It's a worthy read; Carter explains why he severed his ties with the denomination - based on the treatment of women, - and he also comments on why non-retired Presidents seldom dare to open the padora's box of status of women in traditional religious circles.

While reading, enjoying and agreeing with the article, I wondered why I haven't seen any coverage on this article or version of this piece in US media, i.e. the New York Times.

Then I found this article from 2000: Carter Sadly Turns Back On National Baptist Body:

Jimmy Carter, a third-generation Southern Baptist and the first United States president to call himself a born-again Christian, has reached what he calls ''a painful decision'' to sever ties to the Southern Baptist Convention, saying that parts of its ''increasingly rigid'' doctrines violate the ''basic premises of my Christian faith.''

Mr. Carter's decision, announced on Thursday in a letter that is being mailed this week to 75,000 Baptists nationwide, comes four months after the Southern Baptist Convention, the country's largest Protestant denomination, declared its opposition to women as pastors.

Though it doesn't really change anything about the recent article, I think it's pretty interesting to see that this is no new development. And at the same time it is also interesting that it is being portrayed as one.