{"id":131943,"date":"2026-06-05T05:01:56","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T11:01:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/4-years-running-southern-baptists-weigh-tightening-ban-on-churches-with-women-pastors\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T05:01:56","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T11:01:56","slug":"4-years-running-southern-baptists-weigh-tightening-ban-on-churches-with-women-pastors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/4-years-running-southern-baptists-weigh-tightening-ban-on-churches-with-women-pastors\/","title":{"rendered":"4 years running, Southern Baptists weigh tightening ban on churches with women pastors"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FILE
FILE – Messengers attending the Southern Baptist Convention participate in worship during the 2025 SBC Annual Meeting, June 10, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo\/Richard W. Rodriguez, File)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Richard W. Rodriguez, File)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Southern Baptists gather Tuesday in Florida for their annual meeting, they’ll debate for the fourth year in a row whether to formally ban churches with a woman serving in any role resembling that of pastor<\/a> \u2014 not just the top job.<\/p>\n

One thing they are unlikely to debate is the politics of many Southern Baptists, the vanguard of broader white conservative evangelical support<\/a> for President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

Officials for the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, say more than 11,000 church representatives have preregistered for the two-day meeting in Orlando.<\/p>\n

Revisiting a ban on churches with women pastors<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the previous three annual meetings, a majority of representatives voted to amend the SBC constitution to ban churches with women in any pastoral role. But the measures failed to get a two-thirds supermajority in two consecutive years that is required to pass an amendment.<\/p>\n

The denomination\u2019s statement of belief, the Baptist Faith and Message, declares that the office of pastor is limited to men. While nonbinding on churches, this has prompted the SBC to expel some churches with women in leading pastoral roles. Now the focus is those who preach or serve in subordinate pastoral roles.<\/p>\n

This year, an amendment proposed by Albert Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, would exclude any church that acts \u201cto affirm, appoint, or endorse a woman serving in the office or function of a pastor\/elder\/overseer, specifically preaching to the assembled congregation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mohler noted the debate has consumed too much time and attention. \u201cClarity in the constitution would settle that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The outgoing SBC president, Clint Pressley, supports the amendment, as do both candidates running to succeed him.<\/p>\n

Another nonbinding resolution with similar language will be considered. It requires only a simple majority to pass.<\/p>\n

As an association of independent congregations, the SBC can\u2019t tell them what to do. But it can expel any church deemed not to be in \u201cfriendly cooperation.\u201d The convention has ousted churches<\/a> in recent years that appointed women to top pastoral positions or asserted the right to do so. But the status of churches with female assistant pastors is still debated.<\/p>\n

On his own podcast, Mohler recently said it would even be a \u201cproblem\u201d for a church podcast to include a woman answering questions about that week\u2019s sermon.<\/p>\n

Array of issues queued up for debate<\/strong><\/p>\n

That view drew pushback online, including from prominent Bible teacher Beth Moore<\/a>, who left the SBC after she faced criticism for advocating for victims of sexual abuse<\/a> and criticizing evangelical support for Trump despite such things as his crude sexual boasts.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow in heaven\u2019s name a woman discussing a sermon on a podcast could be objectionable to some is beyond me and what I believe to be beyond scripture,\u201d she posted on X.<\/p>\n

She added later: \u201cWhich has been the greater problem: women trying to become your senior pastors or pastors misusing or abusing women?\u201d<\/p>\n

Amy Sims, associate pastor of preschool and children at Sugarland Baptist Church in Sugarland, Texas, described a now-yearly contrast of preparing for vacation Bible school just as Southern Baptists are debating women’s ministry.<\/p>\n

\u201cI preach. I teach. I disciple children and families,\u201d she wrote on the independent site Baptist News Global. \u201cI walk with parents through crises. I visit hospitals. I help lead people to faith in Christ. I perform baptisms. … I serve now at a church that is beautifully supportive of my work and calling as a woman and pastor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every June, Sims added, “there are those who seem determined to remind me they do not believe God could have called me to do the very work I am doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even as the convention’s membership shrinks, the annual meeting serves as a bellwether for religious and political trends among evangelicals. And as is typical, the biggest attention will be on whether the already-conservative SBC decides to move further rightward.<\/p>\n

The upcoming meeting follows the release of internal statistics showing a continuation of a nearly two-decade-long decline in membership<\/a>. It\u2019s down to 12.3 million, the lowest since 1973.<\/p>\n

Southern Baptists have, however, seen a bump in baptisms. They consider this a key spiritual vital sign because it measures conversions, though the increase is not enough to stem the overall decline.<\/p>\n

Southern Baptists will consider other policy statements. One proposed resolution calls for humane treatment of immigrants<\/a> and rejecting nativistic and dehumanizing rhetoric while also affirming the government’s responsibility for immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n

Another denounces antisemitic violence and conspiracy theories, notably those arising since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. At the same time, the resolution affirms Southern Baptists’ hope for Jews’ conversion to Christianity.<\/p>\n

In 1996, an SBC resolution called for the evangelization of Jews, prompting major Jewish leaders to call it a setback for interfaith relations.<\/p>\n

Baptists’ long ties to conservative politics<\/strong><\/p>\n

Beyond denominational politics, the majority-white SBC is a core part of the wider, predominately white evangelical constituency<\/a> that has coalesced behind Trump. Prominent Southern Baptists say they see little change in that.<\/p>\n

They like Trump\u2019s official policy recognizing only two, biologically determined genders<\/a>, though they worry about his administration\u2019s moderation on abortion<\/a>. Baptist leaders have largely supported his war against Iran, but were quick to move on from Trump\u2019s posting in April of a social media meme<\/a> they deemed to be blasphemous.<\/p>\n

Trump won the support of about 8 in 10 white evangelical Christian voters<\/a> in 2020 and 2024, according to AP VoteCast, a large voter survey.<\/p>\n

About two-thirds of white born-again Protestants approved of Trump\u2019s overall performance in April, compared to about one-third of U.S. adults overall<\/a>. That\u2019s according to survey findings from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.<\/p>\n

Mohler said evangelicals were widely appalled at the Trump social-media meme depicting himself as a healing savior<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou had the vast majority of evangelicals saying this is fundamentally wrong,\u201d Mohler said. But that’s \u201cwithin the context of the fact that overwhelmingly evangelicals supported President Trump as president.”<\/p>\n

Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of the large First Baptist Church in Dallas and a longtime Trump supporter, said he appreciated that the president \u201chad enough sensitivity to remove\u201d the meme after the backlash.<\/p>\n

Emphasizing that he was speaking for himself and not his church or the SBC, Jeffress added that he supported Trump’s creation of a Religious Liberty Commission<\/a>, where Jeffress testified about what he contended was unfair scrutiny of his church by the IRS.<\/p>\n

Jeffress also supported Trump’s decision to go to war against Iran, saying a president has \u201cnot only the right but the God-given duty to protect our nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mohler agreed, but sought to temper expectations. He said he supported past wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but now realizes that some of their objectives, such as nation-building, were not realistic. A just war needs \u201climited and honest aims,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Dwight McKissic, senior pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, has criticized fellow Southern Baptist leaders for both their political slant and their gender focus.<\/p>\n

The Black pastor posted on X that the SBC and its theologians have been wrong about issues ranging from slavery and segregation to the mistreatment of sexual-abuse survivors.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd now they expect us to just blindly trust them on gender theology and women in ministry issues?” McKissic wrote.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP\u2019s collaboration<\/a> with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.<\/p>\n

\"FILE
FILE – A messenger attending the Southern Baptist Convention participates in worship during the 2025 SBC Annual Meeting, June 10, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo\/Richard W. Rodriguez, File)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Richard W. Rodriguez, File)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

– Messengers attending the Southern Baptist Convention participate in worship during the 2025 SBC Annual Meeting, June 10, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo\/Richard W. Rodriguez, File)(AP Photo\/Richard W. Rodriguez, File) When Southern Baptists gather Tuesday in Florida for their annual meeting, they’ll debate for the fourth year in a row whether to formally ban […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":131944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5734],"tags":[],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-131943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-associated-press"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131943"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=131943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}