Southern Baptists Advance Constitutional Ban on Women Pastors

The Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Protestant denomination, voted overwhelmingly to advance a constitutional amendment that would formally ban churches with women serving as pastors. The vote of 6,028 to 2,026 easily exceeded the required two-thirds supermajority at the convention's annual meeting in Orlando, Florida. The amendment must pass a similar vote at next year's meeting to become part of the constitution. While the SBC already has a faith statement opposing women pastors and has expelled churches with women in senior pastoral roles, the amendment would provide explicit constitutional language requiring exclusion of any church that "affirms, appoints, or endorses a woman serving in the office or function of a pastor/elder/overseer." The measure faced minimal opposition, with only one pastor, Doug Mize of South Carolina, arguing the denomination already had sufficient mechanisms to enforce the restriction. The amendment's sponsor, Albert Mohler, framed it as addressing a fundamental theological issue dividing evangelical Christianity.