Former president Jimmy Carter may well go down as having the most accomplished post presidency in history, his commitment to human rights is unparalleled.
Carter recently added to this already distinguished legacy by making a difficult personal decision.
After more than 60 years, Carter broke the sociological and theological ties he formed with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).
The Nobel Prize winning former president recently wrote, "Faith is a source of strength and comfort to me, as religious beliefs are to hundreds of millions of people around the world. So my decision to sever my ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, after six decades, was painful and difficult."
The cause for this irreconcilable difference was the failure of SBC to recognize women as equal with their male counterparts.
SBC's official statement on women reads:
Women participate equally with men in the priesthood of all believers. Their role is crucial, their wisdom, grace and commitment exemplary. Women are an integral part of Southern Baptist boards, faculties, mission teams, writer pools, and professional staffs. The role of pastor, however, is specifically reserved for men.
This led Carter to write:
It was, however, an unavoidable decision when the convention's leaders, quoting a few carefully selected Bible verses and claiming that Eve was created second to Adam and was responsible for original sin, ordained that women must be "subservient" to their husbands and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service.
Carter adds:
At its most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives, and continues to deny them fair access to education, health, employment and influence within their own communities.
SBC is the largest Baptist denomination, with more than 16 million members, and probably its most conservative. It's origin as a stand-alone denomination dates back to 1845, when it split with northern Baptist over slavery.
In 1995, SBC voted to adopt a resolution renouncing its racist origins, formally apologizing for its past defense of the institution of slavery.
Carter is not the first high profile elected official to leave SBC. Former president Bill Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore have also left, citing disagreements with a number of SBC positions.
SBC is hardly alone. Many churches, along with organizations outside of religious circles either overtly or covertly struggle with gender equality. Lest we forget, the 19th Amendment, which guaranteed women the right to vote was ratified in 1920.
With few exceptions, the American church has traditionally been slow to adapt to change.
It was moderate white clergy and not conservative pastors from SBC affiliated churches that called Martin Luther King's nonviolent tactics in Birmingham, "extreme" in a full-page ad in 1963, which provoked King to write his famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail."
The legacy of the historical black church standing at the vanguard of the Civil Rights Movement has more to do with the few than it does the masses. In 1963, when King led Project "C" in Birmingham of the 500 black churches in the city, less than 20 actively participated.
Moreover, a number of historical black churches still struggle with gender equality today.
In an ironic twist, First Baptist Church of Decatur, GA, a 2,700-member Southern Baptist church called Julie Pennington-Russell to become its senior pastor last month -- the first woman to lead a SBC church.
Whether this signals a philosophical change within SBC or Carter's resignation will lead a mass exodus from the denomination, though both are unlikely, misses the point.
If those of us who are not members of SBC, or affiliated with any religious institution, look at this with an elitist eye that narrows Carter's decision to one that holds only internal ramifications we might overlook the injustice that occurs in the organizations with which we do associate.
I applaud the former president for his progressive stand. Carter had to fight 60 years of familiarity and comfort to see an injustice he could no longer tolerate. That is indeed a lesson we can all embrace.
Byron Williams is an Oakland pastor and syndicated columnist and blog-talk radio host. He is the author of Strip Mall Patriotism: Moral Reflections of the Iraq War. E-mail him at byron@byronspeaks.com or visit his Web site: byronspeaks.com.