Southern Baptists expel US churches with female pastors

The US's largest Baptist denomination has voted to expel 2 churches for having pistillate pastors.

A ballot by Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) members recovered Southern Californian megachurch Saddleback and Kentucky's Fern Creek Baptist Church were "not successful affable cooperation" with SBC, the Baptist Press reported.

SBC's ngo connection says the bureau of pastor should beryllium "limited to men."

Fern Creek's pastor told CBS News it was a "sad time for Southern Baptists".

SBC is an relation of much than 47,000 Baptist churches with a rank of much than 13 million, the group's website says.

The religion is simply a protestant denomination of Christianity, with congregations led by pastors.

In total, 5 churches person been expelled from SBC for being led by women.

Two were overwhelmingly voted retired astatine SBC's yearly normal successful New Orleans aft they had tried to entreaty their expulsions, the Baptist Press - which describes itself arsenic SBC's authoritative quality work - said. The different 3 did not appeal.

"This is simply a bittersweet time for Southern Baptists due to the fact that they are losing talented and talented and called women of God, arsenic we proceed to proclaim the gospel. Why they privation to get escaped of folks similar us, makes nary sense," Fern Creek Pastor Linda Barnes Popham said aft the vote.

She said the connection the expulsion sends to millions of pistillate members of SBC churches is "you are not valued."

"Messengers voted for conformity and uniformity alternatively than unity," added Rick Warren, retired founding pastor of Saddleback - which was SBC's second-largest congregation.

"The lone mode you volition person unity is to emotion diversity. We made this effort knowing we were not going to win."

Following the 2 churches' expulsion, a law amendment was besides passed astatine SBC's yearly normal stating that SBC-affiliated churches should employment "only men arsenic immoderate benignant of pastor oregon elder arsenic qualified by Scripture" - though that is taxable to support astatine adjacent year's convention.

Mike Law, a pastor astatine Arlington Baptist Church successful Texas, said the amendment "puts america each connected the aforesaid leafage astir what a pastor is, and who a pastor is: a biblically qualified man."

But Bob Bender, a pastor astatine Bross Fellowship Church successful Colorado Springs, Colorado, opposed the motion. "Should not rubric and relation beryllium synonymous?" helium asked successful quotes cited by the Baptist Press.

"Let's not springiness women responsibilities to shepherd different women, children oregon younker and not person their rubric enactment up with their responsibilities."

In caller years the SBC has travel nether progressively scrutiny from officials.

In 2022, it was recovered to person covered up decades of maltreatment wrong the church.

A study recovered that survivors who reported kid and intersexual maltreatment wrong the SBC were met with "resistance, stonewalling, and adjacent outright hostility from immoderate within" the church.