ORLANDO, FLORIDA– Thousands of Southern Baptists An overwhelming majority voted Wednesday to impose a formal ban on women pastors in the country’s largest Protestant denomination, sending a clear message that only men should preach to these conservative evangelical congregations.
The amendment would tighten existing restrictions at the Southern Baptist Convention, which already has a religious statement opposing women ministers.
The vote at the annual meeting was 6,028 to 2,026 – a margin of 3 to 1 – which easily exceeded the required two-thirds majority. It will require a similar two-thirds vote at next year’s meeting to become part of the constitution.
Its sponsor, Albert Mohler, described the amendment as addressing a specific issue.
“This is an opportunity for Southern Baptists to speak truth, unity, and conviction,” said Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. “There’s a big line between liberal and biblical evangelicals, and you can see it in this particular issue. The path of liberal denominations is clear.”
There was only brief discussion, and none of it included support for women pastors.
The only opposition came from South Carolina pastor Doug Mize. He said the action was not necessary because the denomination already had a mechanism for expelling churches with women in senior pastoral positions, and had done so several times.
“What we have actually works,” he said.
Southern Baptist leaders cite passages of the Bible that limit pastors to men. Advocates of women’s ministry cite biblical passages declaring that men and women are equal before God and where women are called to proclaim the gospel.
While the Sudan Broadcasting Corporation cannot tell its autonomous churches what to do, it has the power to do so. eviction The churches are members of the conference, declaring that they are not in “friendly cooperation.”
There is already widespread agreement within the denomination that its religious statement rejects the appointment of women as senior pastors leading churches. Debate has continued over where to draw the line regarding churches where women serve in pastoral or auxiliary preaching roles.
“We need constitutional clarity on this issue,” Mohler said. He played a leading role in drafting the ban that was issued in 2000.
The amendment’s language requires the exclusion of any church that “confirms, appoints, or endorses a woman serving in the office or office of pastor/elder/supervisor, specifically preaching to the assembled congregation.”
Wednesday’s vote came on the final day of the conference’s two-day annual meeting in Orlando, Florida. More than 11,000 delegates, known as apostles, attended the conference.
At the previous three Annual Meetings, a majority of representatives voted to amend the SBC Constitution to prohibit churches with women in any pastoral role. But in only one of those years did the measure receive the required two-thirds majority, and thus the issue was weakened.
The denomination also expelled churches that had women in senior pastoral roles, including senior ones Saddleback Church California, based on a provision in the Constitution that prohibits churches whose “faith and practice” are not consistent with the denomination.
The SBC debate stands in stark contrast to the practices of many historically more liberal Protestant denominations, which ordain women and open their own councils. Top offices to them. Practices vary widely in conservative evangelical denominations, especially in Pentecostal and charismatic circles, where prominent women pastors include Paula White Cainhead of President Donald Trump’s White House Faith Office.
But other, more conservative Protestant groups do not ordain women as priests. The Catholic and Orthodox Churches – the two largest Christian denominations in the world – ordain only men to the priesthood.
Baptist Women in Ministry, which works with female ministers in a variety of Baptist denominations, issued a statement expressing its regret over the vote.
“We express our solidarity with the women in the department who were harmed by this vote, the hate speech and propaganda that preceded the vote, and the harmful ideology the vote represents,” the statement read. “Women in ministry deserve affirmation, respect and the opportunity to pursue God’s calling. We are deeply saddened that they were denied those basic freedoms in the process of this vote.”
Later Wednesday, SBC envoys will also consider a nonbinding resolution with similar language opposing women pastors. It only requires a simple majority to pass. They will also vote on resolutions addressing a range of issues, from immigration to anti-Semitism.
On Tuesday, delegates elected Florida Pastor Willie Rice To be its next president. He received 58% of the vote over South Carolina pastor Josh Powell.
Rice supported the amendment banning churches with female pastors, as did Powell and outgoing SBC head Clint Pressley.
Rice, a senior pastor at Calvary Church in Clearwater, has drawn support from advocacy groups such as the Baptist Leadership Center, which has argued that SBC leadership has been “woke” on issues ranging from race Gender migration.
The denomination is already considered deeply conservative in areas from its advocacy against abortion to its statement of faith that declares the office of pastor limited to men. But the main debates within the Sudan Broadcasting Corporation in recent years have been about the extent of the movement with regard to the religious and political right.
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