The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, has voted to expel two churches for having female pastors, a move that reaffirms its conservative stance on gender roles and sexuality.
The vote, which took place at the denomination’s annual meeting in Nashville on Tuesday, was influenced by a faction of arch-conservatives who oppose women’s leadership in the church and support former President Donald Trump. The expelled churches were Saddleback Church in California, founded by Rick Warren, the author of the best-selling book “The Purpose Driven Life,” and Fern Creek Baptist Church in Kentucky.
Both churches appealed the decision but were rejected by a 9-to-1 ratio. The convention also voted to amend its constitution to ban women from serving as pastors or elders, based on its interpretation of scripture that reserves the role of pastor for men.
“We should leave no room for our daughters and granddaughters in the generations ahead to have confusion on where the SBC stands,” said Sarah Clatworthy, a member of Lifepoint Baptist Church in Texas, who supported the ban on female pastors. “Let them know Scripture is our authority and not the culture.”
The expulsion of the churches comes amid a sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the denomination and exposed its mishandling of abuse cases and mistreatment of survivors. Last week, the convention released a list of hundreds of church leaders and members accused or found guilty of sexual abuse of children, after a third-party investigation by Guidepost Solutions revealed that the convention’s leaders in its executive committee failed the public and its community.
“In service of this goal, survivors and others who reported abuse were ignored, disbelieved, or met with the constant refrain that the SBC could take no action due to its polity regarding church autonomy – even if it meant that convicted molesters continued in ministry with no notice or warning to their current church or congregation,” investigators wrote.
The convention has also faced criticism for its history of racism and support for slavery, which was acknowledged by its flagship institution, the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, in a 2018 report. The report said that the seminary’s founders were slaveholders who defended slavery as “righteous” and that the seminary had taught white supremacy for decades.
The convention has also discriminated against gay and lesbian people for more than 25 years, and has affirmed that gender identity is determined by biological sex and not by self-perception. In a 1996 resolution on homosexuality, the convention declared that “even a desire to engage in a homosexual relationship is always sinful, impure, degrading, shameful, unnatural, indecent and perverted.”
The expulsion of the churches with female pastors has drawn condemnation from some prominent evangelicals, including Rick Warren, who retired in 2022 and named Andy and Stacie Wood as his successors. Three other women were installed as pastors at Saddleback in 2021.
In a letter posted on Twitter on Sunday, Warren said he regretted not speaking up for women earlier in his life, during what he called his “years of ignorance.”
“I held them back from using the spiritual gifts and leadership skills that the Holy Spirit had sovereignly placed in them,” he wrote. “That breaks my heart now, and I am truly repentant.”
Linda Popham, who has served as a pastor at Fern Creek since 1993, also addressed the convention on Tuesday.
“We believe the Bible allows women to serve in ways in which all of you do not agree but we should still be able to partner together,” she said.
Relevant articles:
–Southern Baptists vote to expel two churches led by female pastors, NBC News, June 14, 2023
–US Southern Baptist churches facing ‘apocalypse’ over sexual abuse scandal, The Guardian, June 12, 2023
–Southern Baptists Are Deciding If They’re Further Right Than Trump, NPR, June 15, 2023
–Stances of Faiths on LGBTQ Issues: Southern Baptist Convention, Human Rights Campaign, no date available