Delegates at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting have narrowly rejected a proposal to enshrine a ban on churches with women pastors in the denomination’s constitution.
Southern Baptists narrowly rejected a proposal Wednesday to enshrine a ban on churches with women pastors in the denomination's constitution after opponents argued it was unnecessary because the denomination already has a way of ousting such churches. The vote received support from 61% of the delegates, but it failed to get the required two-thirds supermajority. The action reversed a preliminary vote last year in favor of the official ban.
Opponents noted that the SBC already can oust churches that assert women can serve as pastors — as it did last year and again Tuesday night. The vote was perhaps the most highly anticipated of the annual meeting, reflecting years of debate in the United States’ largest Protestant denomination. It is the final day of the SBC’s two-day annual meeting in Indianapolis. Since 2000, the SBC’s nonbinding statement of faith has declared that only men are qualified for the role of pastor.
The denomination can’t tell its independent churches what to do or whom to appoint as a pastor. But they can say which churches are in and which are out. Last year, Southern Baptists refused to take back Saddleback, one of the convention’s largest congregations, and a small Kentucky church over the issue. Both churches, which had women in top pastoral positions, appealed their ouster to the 2023 annual meeting and were overwhelmingly rejected by the delegates.
The SBC president — one of the most prominent faces of the conservative evangelical network of churches — presides over the annual meeting and appoints members to the denomination’s committees. Pressley's nearest opponent, Tennessee pastor, Dan Spencer, received 44 percent of the votes after four other candidates were eliminated in earlier rounds. Pressley has said he favors a measure being voted on later Wednesday to amend the SBC constitution to ban churches with women pastors.
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