1st Baptist Differs on ‘Submit’ Policy

President Clinton politely dissented when his church said wives should “submit graciously” to their husbands. “What can I do about it?” the president responded, throwing up his hands in exasperation, when asked--at an event addressing equal pay for women--about the vote by the Southern Baptist Convention to amend its statement of beliefs to include the sentence, “A wife is to submit graciously to the servant leadership of her husband, even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ.” A White House spokesman noted that Clinton, a lifelong Southern Baptist, frequently has views “not identical” to the convention, and “this is clearly one of those cases.”