Women, freedom, and exercise

[SallyNow]

Hi :wave:
I am very interested in learning about theology and about different denominations, and I found that looking at the schools and colleges associated with denominations can be a good window into the denomination itself.

I was looking at Baptist colleges, and found a strange trend: none of the women wore pants. I understand the ideas that lead people to allow women to only wear pants, but I do not see what it has to do with higher learning. So why is this?

I also noted that many times women are supposed to have someone with them at all times. Why is this? It seems to be at odds with such women as Lydia in the Bible.

My third question regards women and sports. Women seem to be excluded from all team sports, and even most individual ones... gymnastics, figure skating, recreational sports, dancing, etc. This leaves only a limited amount of "allowable" things for a woman to do that require physicality... cooking, cleaning, gardening, and walking!

So my question is... why the restrictions put on women at Baptist schools?

[rainbowpromise]

I know a lot of women who have gone to Baptist colleges joke about having taken the MRS. program. Cooking, cleaning, gardening and walking.

[Christianbelle]

This is why I turned down a full scholarship to a Baptist college. They were very strict, right down to the music. If you were caught with contriband (certain secular music) or caught practicing in recreational activities (i.e. dancing), even off campus, you were suspended if not expelled.

[lucypevensie]

Well, you CAN do those thing if you wear the lovely fashionable article of clothing known as culottes. In the Christian school and church I grew up in we were supposed to wear those things for sports and activites. Imagine running the 100yard dash in a pair of floppity flapping culottes:eek:. I always opted to wear a normal skirt because anything you can do in culottes you can do in a skirt. Really. I found that the 'lottes showed almost as much undie as a dress.

[arunma]

Well, you CAN do those thing if you wear the lovely fashionable article of clothing known as culottes. In the Christian school and church I grew up in we were supposed to wear those things for sports and activites. Imagine running the 100yard dash in a pair of floppity flapping culottes:eek:. I always opted to wear a normal skirt because anything you can do in culottes you can do in a skirt. Really. I found that the 'lottes showed almost as much undie as a dress.

Really? Based on this and the OP, it seems to me that these Baptist schools are tyrannical. This does not seem Biblical to me. I am especially concerned with the suggestion that women are supposed to have someone with them at all times. Is this really the case at Baptist schools?

[lucypevensie]

Really? Based on this and the OP, it seems to me that these Baptist schools are tyrannical. This does not seem Biblical to me. I am especially concerned with the suggestion that women are supposed to have someone with them at all times. Is this really the case at Baptist schools?
I was addressing question 3 of the OP, which has to do with dress code. Not all Baptist churches are like that, which I am sure you realize. I think that church/school I went to has even relaxed in recent years. But, yes, it was a bit tyrannical I suppose. At that time I saw the rules as ignorant and nonsense. Our youth pastor told us that if any of us girls came to an activity in pants he'd send us home. So I opted to wear a skirt when I participated.

I can't say much about the 2nd question because I didn't experience that.

But, yes, all the typical "women should only wear dress/skirts/culottes" worldview was of utmost importance. I know we spent more time discussing hem length discrepancies than how to witness to your unsaved friends.

[Seeker of the Truth]

People hang on to old beliefs that are supposedly true. You can see that all over the world; traditions that are kept.

[InHisSpirit]

I went to a Baptist College, we had dances, pool parties, and social lounges. Our only restrictions were no co-ed dorms or visitation and it was a dry campus. Not all Baptist colleges are so strict.

[SallyNow]

Thanks for the answers so far... I think I have to dig a little deeper in my research! :wave:

[nydaddy5]

I went to Samford University which is an SBC University. The only restrictions I remember were no alcohol, no coed dorms (there were certain "visiting hours" that females could go to males floors). That was about 20 years ago, so things could have changed since then but I doubt it. We even had frats and sororities.
Why other schools do that I can only guess. There are extreme fundamental beliefs out there that hold a very strict interpretation of scripture. These beliefs usually have a very BLACK and WHITE train of thought that leaves very little for the Holy Spirit to work with because "man" has usually told them what they can and can not do.

If you have some questions about Samford you can PM me

[EmbracingHim]

Baptist being viewed as a 'single' denomination is quite difficult as there are independent Baptists and then the Southern Baptists.

Like the other who have attended Baptist colleges...I do not see the requirements of women you state in my local area. There is a Baptist college close to my house that teaches flight instruction to woman who desire and they can not wear dresses in this instruction.

The ana-baptists and southern baptists usually hold to stronger traditional societal qualities/separations between men and women. I find them good myself, but they are not enforced or presented as any rule in my church or the baptist collleges like I already said in my area.

My thought is you found a traditionalist baptist college...perhaps southern or anabaptist...but I don't think it is typical today.

As far as sports...women have always been limited in this way -- don't you think? Tennis, swimming, gymnastics, basketball (today)...but certainly limited.

I'm glad you are searching. :)

[SallyNow]

Baptist being viewed as a 'single' denomination is quite difficult as there are independent Baptists and then the Southern Baptists.

Like the other who have attended Baptist colleges...I do not see the requirements of women you state in my local area. There is a Baptist college close to my house that teaches flight instruction to woman who desire and they can not wear dresses in this instruction.

The ana-baptists and southern baptists usually hold to stronger traditional societal qualities/separations between men and women. I find them good myself, but they are not enforced or presented as any rule in my church or the baptist collleges like I already said in my area.

My thought is you found a traditionalist baptist college...perhaps southern or anabaptist...but I don't think it is typical today.

As far as sports...women have always been limited in this way -- don't you think? Tennis, swimming, gymnastics, basketball (today)...but certainly limited.

I'm glad you are searching. :)

I was taking a look at the big Southern Convention ones... Bob Jones and Hyles-Anderson and Liberty. I thought they were a fair representitive of the Southern Baptists, but not the independant ones. I guess I was wrong :doh:

And well... yes, women have been pretty limited, which is why it's great when they can play more of the sports they want to, and I don't know... I would just expect a university or college to promote good health and recreational sports rather than discourage or disallow it.

ETA: I realize Liberty has fewer rules than Bob Jones or Hyles-Anderson, but it still rather restrictive compared to other unversities, although it does have many sports offerings for women, and keeps with the North American cultural standard of women wearing pants.

[arunma]

I was taking a look at the big Southern Convention ones... Bob Jones and Hyles-Anderson and Liberty. I thought they were a fair representitive of the Southern Baptists, but not the independant ones. I guess I was wrong :doh:


Just FYI: as far as I know, Bob Jones University is not associated with the Southern Baptist Convention. And I'm pretty sure they're not accredited either.

Maybe someone can help me understand this. I've never understood why someone would want to attend a non-accredited university. What's the point of investing four years to earn a degree that isn't recognized by anyone?

[rainbowpromise]

Just FYI: as far as I know, Bob Jones University is not associated with the Southern Baptist Convention. And I'm pretty sure they're not accredited either.

Maybe someone can help me understand this. I've never understood why someone would want to attend a non-accredited university. What's the point of investing four years to earn a degree that isn't recognized by anyone?
It became an accredited (http://www.bju.edu/accreditation.html) university fairly recently. I have friends who sent their children to BJU, but I would not encourage my children to go that far away.