Corley Shumaker

stAte/NOBTS alum. Lover of flowers, cheese dip & good conversation. Kevin's wife, Ellie Joy's mom. Slytherin 🐍. Enneagram 3w2. Jesus is worth it.

[Corley Shumaker @corleycline]

It's so easy to assume the worst and believe the negative. Let's not be doubters and cynics but believers and hopefuls. Light, not darkness.

[Corley Shumaker @corleycline]

@CallMeOleMiss @GBNEWS @LimitlessSnark 1000%

[Corley Shumaker @corleycline]

@flemingrut So sorry for your loss.

[Corley Shumaker @corleycline]

@The_QVDS Where are India's siblings? Were they pictured at all?

[Matthew Boedy @MatthewBoedy]

A damning indictment of the SBC. Donors & MAGA loyalty ran off the most pro-life professor from seminary who recruited her. She left Liberty & warned new place criticisms of her would follow. The seminary promised support. They lied & caved. https://t.co/QzzMgw1KPG

[Corley Shumaker @corleycline]

@edstetzer What a dream. Congrats to you all!

[Corley Shumaker @corleycline]

Retweet times a thousand.

[Beth Moore @BethMooreLPM]

Those in the SBC who think I no longer should have anything to say about the SBC profoundly underestimate the power of love. I’d served southern Baptist women for 40 years by the time I left. And when I left, I left directly on their behalf because it became disturbingly clear to me that the SBC as an entity was more interested in protecting shepherds than the sheep entrusted to their care. When protecting the pulpit from women becomes a far greater priority than protecting women (& children) from an abusive pulpit, something is wrong. Which has been the greater problem: women trying to become your senior pastors or pastors misusing or abusing women?

My biggest concern is that what happened with the CRT witch-hunt will happen now in regard to women. The overreach resulted in numerous pastors, teachers and professors dropping the immensely important biblical teachings against racism rather than risk being accused of CRT. I heard from pastors at that time who preached against racism and already had emails Monday morning from people in their congregation accusing them of CRT. Because the difference wasn’t clarified, they lumped all of it into the one category. The aim became: shut every mouth to shut some mouths.

I pled for SBC seminary presidents and leaders to please clarify to pastors and teachers and, thereby, to congregations & students what qualified as CRT and what indeed was the proper and deeply rooted and needed biblical approach to anti-gospel racism.

Crickets.

I see the same potential here. I have never once fought for SBC women to take over church pulpits. I have esteemed and supported the role of male senior pastors. My own pastors would tell you that. If you think I was in the SBC trying to lead a revolution against men, you are clearly not familiar with my materials. What I believed then and believe now is that God has called both men and women to serve their churches and communities and proclaim the gospel. He has poured out his Holy Spirit on men AND on women, calling them to broadcast the good news.

You have beaten the drum loudly about what women in SBC churches cannot do. So, what CAN they do? Clarity here is essential. What is a woman to do who has been gifted BY GOD to teach the Bible, especially if her church has moved to the community group model and there is no Sunday school to teach?

Here is what I see on the horizon. If you leave these matters involving women so vague that it becomes about pastoral roles/actions rather than the title of pastor, it will shift to the subjective rather than objective. I wish I was naïve enough to think that wasn’t the point to some of these leaders but, sadly, I’m not.

What if that senior pastor doesn’t allow a woman on the prayer team to pray over people at the end of the service because he deems she is acting pastorally? What if the pastor sees that a woman’s Sunday school class of WOMEN is getting, in his estimation, a little too big? Can he just decide she acting pastorally and remove her from the role? Can she counsel people with her God-given wisdom and knowledge or would she be acting pastorally? The examples could go on and on. And, of course, I realize many would not use their positions to disesteem women but surely you and I both know countless others would. God only knows how many unqualified, unloving, mean-spirited men are in pastoral positions but the obsession remains the women.

I have no desire to see SBC women leave the denomination. I loved and flourished in that denomination. I want them to be able to flourish in their spiritual gifts. I want them to be esteemed in their serving inside and outside their homes. I want them to be able to serve Jesus and proclaim his glorious gospel.

I know I’m going to get hit here. That’s fine. But you should know I will fight for them to the death. Because I love them. And, yes, whether they love me or not.

[Corley Shumaker @corleycline]

@BethMooreLPM Say it, Beth. Say. It.

[The Prince and Princess of Wales @KensingtonRoyal]

Celebrating 15 years of marriage ❤️

[Royal Central Insights @Coronation2023]

The first and last photos...

Queen Elizabeth II, history maker

1926 - 2022

[The Royal Family @RoyalFamily]

After a day of events to mark what would have been Queen Elizabeth II’s 100th birthday, we remember the life of the longest serving Monarch in history.

[Archbishop of Canterbury @ArchbishopSarah]

Today marks the Centenary of Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. We invite you to join @churchofengland in prayer - giving thanks for Her Late Majesty's life and Christian witness.

[The Royal Family @RoyalFamily]

The King and Queen are joined by members of The Royal Family to remember the life of Queen Elizabeth II.

[The Royal Family @RoyalFamily]

Remembering Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 1926 – 2022.

© All Rights Reserved.

[Corley Shumaker @corleycline]

🤍

[The Royal Family @RoyalFamily]

“God bless you, darling Mama; you remain forever in our hearts and prayers.”

A special tribute from His Majesty The King on what would have been Queen Elizabeth II’s 100th birthday.

🔗 Watch in full on The Royal Family YouTube channel: https://t.co/u8jeiFocT5

[MOON @DailyMoonX]

I'm in love with the moon 🌕

[Corley Shumaker @corleycline]

@CallMeOleMiss It's just all so weird.

[Corley Shumaker @corleycline]

@TheLaurences_ She's got a new pair of sunnies!

[Corley Shumaker @corleycline]

Co-sign.

[Beth Moore @BethMooreLPM]

I share this post in earnest and (what may prove a naive) hope that a few people caught in the situation I’m about to describe will hear instead of rushing to the usual tropes, criticisms and caricatures. For what it’s worth, I offer this in good faith.

Between 2016 and 2022, I faced a test of the genuineness of my faith so large and consequential, I’m almost at a loss to think of the right adjectives to describe it. It might not have been so big to someone else but it involved so much of my Christian identity, it was all but existential. Well more than that. It was a dying.

It is this test that helps me understand why people who seem deeply devoted to the Lord Jesus and hold the scriptures in highest esteem also hold to a system, institution or leader no matter what they do and defend a side or individual to a degree that is baffling.

I can tell you why because I had to face every bit of it. Identity, community, camaraderie, what we’ve known and loved, what part of it we still love, the people we loved, the people we still love, reputation, what people will think, how you will be judged and condemned and thrown over to the other side who doesn’t want you either. And to whom you also do not align and would not belong. Friendships. How you will be misunderstood and misrepresented. How adrift and alone you will feel. How disliked.

And then there’s this and it would be a mistake to minimize it: your JOB. Your source of income. Your vocation.

This is the part of the crisis I most write these words to convey because I think they are most in play for many right now, whether in media, ministry or politics.

Let me try to put this in the words that were constantly resonant in my spirit in those years. And to this day.

Though you have no other place to go, Beth, and no place to fit and it not only MAY have financial repercussions but WILL have financial repercussions to the ministry and to your family and will also make them targets and none of it will ever look the same or be the same, will you choose what you believe to be right and put everything else in your vocational life at risk?

This is what is at risk for many people whose professional reputations and positions are tied up with leaders, institutions and political parties. Mine was, too. The cost is enormous and the options are often untenable. And so there we are.

Having to cast ourselves on the mercy of God. Not for a third way. But as THE ONLY WAY. The only truth. The only life.

I’ve made multiple errors in judgment. Jumped too quickly to condemn. Spoken wrongly. Remained silent wrongly and confusingly. I never get it completely together.

But what I will tell you is that I believe we are meant first and foremost to call out our own house, our own side, and our own identity group for its mind-boggling hypocrisy. These were my people. Evangelicals. Conservatives.

Claim what you will but I know who I am:

I am pro life from conception to casket.
I am pro small government.
I am pro godliness and the pursuit of a holy life.
I am pro marriage and family and pro-those God calls to remain single and sanctified and I’m deeply thankful for them.
I am pro traditional sexual ethics.
I am pro love of God and love of neighbor and the dignity of every person as an image bearer of Christ.
I am pro love all.
I am pro church. I believe in the community of the saints.
I am pro Bible study to the death and believe the aim of all discipleship is to know and love and follow and emulate Jesus Christ.
I am pro gospel. Dear God in heaven, I am pro gospel. I believe there is one name by whom we must be saved. Jesus.

What I am not is pro Trump.

Wasn’t pro Clinton. Wasn’t pro Biden. But those were not the candidates many in the world that I loved so much were cheering on.

I accept that Donald Trump is my president. I pray for him on a regular basis. I’m a law abiding citizen and pay my taxes. But I believe Trump fosters something in people that makes them lose their way.

[Corley Shumaker @corleycline]

@BethMooreLPM I just keep asking (of the White House), where are the adults??

[Corley Shumaker @corleycline]

🖤💛🖤💛

[Dustin McGrew @dmcgrew]

The frozen three rivers of Pittsburgh. Was a beautiful day out there today. The 20° weather today actually didn’t feel as numbingly cold as it has the past few days. #pittsburgh