Southern Baptist Convention upholds expulsions of two churches with female pastors; many more seem likely follow

Delegates voted at the convention in New Orleans.
(Photo by Christiana Botic, The New York Times)

Southern Baptist Convention delegates voted to uphold the denomination's previous expulsion of churches with women pastors who had appealed their "disfellowshiped" status, report Liam Adams and Katherine Burgess of The Tennessean. "The nation's largest Protestant denomination took a major stand this week on the role of women in the church, emphatically making clear that the office of pastor is reserved for men only. . . . Voting delegates upheld the ouster of Saddleback Church in Southern California and Fern Creek Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., for having women in lead or senior pastor roles and took steps to enshrine in its constitution a prohibition on female pastors. . . . The decisions made clear that the conservative denomination will kick churches out with women pastors."

"Until now, the fight was limited to pastoral leadership and was included in theological statements, not the group's official legal documents. The amendment must be passed again next year for it to go into effect," report Ruth Graham and Elizabeth Dias of The New York Times. "The constitutional amendment threatens to unleash a crisis for the denomination ahead of next year's final vote. Bart Barber, who was re-elected president of the SBC on Tuesday, acknowledged that the faction pushing for the change was poised to file complaints against every church that they believed violated the tightening standards — potentially an estimated 1,900 churches who have women pastors."

Mike Law, a young pastor who proposed the amendment, said, "speaking from a microphone in the convention hall, 'Now is not the time for half measures or delay.' He framed voting against the amendment as being afraid of the Bible," the Times reports. "The dramatic clash over the place of women in leadership is the result of moves by an ultraconservative wing of the SBC to reverse what it sees as a liberal drift. More than 90 percent of the delegates voted in favor of Fern Creek's expulsion, and almost as many voted to confirm the removal of Saddleback, which was founded by the prominent preacher and author Rick Warren."

Two years ago, the ultrconservatives were considered a fringe minority. Some compared themselves to pirates who wanted to 'take the ship' and steer the church in a new course on issues of race, gender and politics," The Times reports. "Evidence of the denomination's rightward turn could be seen in their rejection of Warren, Saddleback's founder. . . . Warren noted that the denomination's theological statement was 4,032 words long. 'Saddleback disagrees with one word,' he said on Tuesday. 'That's 99.99999999 percent in agreement! Isn't that close enough?'. . . The crowd shouted back at him, 'No!'"

The Tennessean explains, "At the national level, the decisions about Saddleback and Fern Creek sets a precedent for the SBC Credentials Committee, an oversight group that evaluates churches’ affiliation with the Nashville-based SBC, to recommend disfellowshipping more churches with women pastors in the future. The SBC Executive Committee decides whether to approve those recommendations. . . . Meredith Stone, executive director of Baptist Women in Ministry, said in a statement, 'These votes devalue the worth and callings of women to participate in God’s work through the local church. . . . The emotional, spiritual, and physical safety of women is further threatened when they are not only devalued, but used in a political denominational battle.'"