Southern Baptists are beginning their annual meeting Tuesday morning, where church representatives in the staunchly conservative evangelical denomination are expected to vote on a constitutional amendment that would formally ban churches with women pastors.
Church representatives in the nation's largest Protestant denomination are also slated to elect a new leader and vote on a raft of resolutions ranging from immigration to antisemitism.
This will be the fourth year in a row that messengers, as the church delegates are known, are voting on an amendment regarding women pastors. The Southern Baptist Convention's statement of belief, the Baptist Faith and Message, opposes women pastors. But its churches are independent and the denomination can't tell them what to do.
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But the denomination can exclude a church from its ranks, and it has already expelled some churches with women in senior pastoral positions. Opinions have been more mixed on the status of churches with women in associate pastoral roles. The currently proposed amendment would specifically ban churches where women have the office of pastor or are functioning as one, including "preaching to the assembled congregation."
Such an amendment would require a two-thirds vote in two consecutive years, which it has failed to attain over the previous three years despite getting a majority of votes.
The latest version of the amendment is being proposed by Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky. He has said a constitutional amendment would provide clarity and prevent the long and time-consuming debates that the issue has drawn in recent years.
Mohler was also a lead author of the revision to the Baptist Faith and Message in 2000, which incorporated the opposition to women pastors. That statement was adopted in the the Orange County Convention Center, the same Orlando convention hall where this week's meeting is taking place.
Southern Baptist leaders cite biblical passages they say clearly limit the role of pastor to men.
While that view has predominated within the SBC, advocates for women in pastoral roles have cited biblical passages where women are empowered to share the gospel. "God calls women to pastor, preach and minister" proclaims a billboard near the convention center. The billboard is sponsored by Baptist Women in Ministry, an advocacy group working in a variety of Baptist denominations.
The messengers are also expected to vote Wednesday on resolutions that condemn antisemitism and call for humane treatment of migrants while affirming the legitimacy of immigration enforcement.
