Southern Baptists are officially ejecting churches with female pastors, hoping for more restrictions

The Southern Baptists on Wednesday confirmed the disqualification of two churches with female pastors and voted for a constitutional amendment to formally bar women from church leadership in the future.

The Convention voted in favor of it in February evict five churches with women pastors including Rick Warren’s Saddleback Megachurch in Southern California. Saddleback and another smaller church called Fern Creek Baptist of Louisville, Kentucky appealed that decision.

But the 12,700 members of the Southern Baptist Convention — so-called “messengers” — voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to reject those appeals, saying the two churches were no longer in “friendly cooperation” with the denomination.

The Southern Baptist Convention He later approved an additional change Its constitution states that churches may have “only men as pastors or elders” in the denomination. To become effective, the amendment must be approved a second time by a two-thirds majority at the next annual meeting.

Should this become the body’s policy, an estimated 1,900 more churches could face expulsion under the new restrictions, the New York Times reported. Bart Barber, the convention’s president, said the ultra-conservative wing of Southern Baptists could push for filing grievances against these churches, but stressed the leadership would tread cautiously.

“Despite these changes, they must be implemented from church to church, and Southern Baptists have a tradition of being extremely cautious in considering specific circumstances.” Barber said on Wednesdayaccording to the Times.

The votes took place at the annual convention meeting in New Orleans. The decision will have no obvious impact to the two churches that remain in existence but reflect the growing conservative leanings of the Southern Baptists.

Linda Barnes Popham, pastor of Fern Creek for 30 years, said the Washington Post Disappointed that her church had been disfellowshipped by the Southern Baptists, she described the decision as “a group of power-hungry men working in the dark.”

“If I were her, I would be really sorry I did that because what will be the next reason?” she told the Post. “It seems they are trying to cleanse the church by their standards, when only Jesus Christ can cleanse the church. It’s like they’re trying to legislate on cleaning.”

Warren, who led a public campaign to remain with the Southern Baptists, criticized Wednesday’s vote, saying the leadership wanted to take the body “back to the 1950s.” Saddleback ordained three women ministers in 2021.

“This is its golden age for the church, the 1950s, when basically white men call the shots and women’s place is at home and there isn’t a lot of diversity,” Warren said after the vote, according to The New York Times. “A fundamentalist is someone who stops listening.”

The 2000 congressional statement of faith entitled Baptist Faith and Message stated that for decades only qualified men could serve as pastors.