Southern Baptists repeat feuds over SBC public policy arm, women pastors at Dallas event
Legislative debates about women pastors and about the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission at this year's SBC annual meeting in Dallas have led some to complain the convention is spinning its wheels.
A renewed proposal at the Dallas legislative assembly for a constitutional ban on women pastors failed because it didn't meet a supermajority vote. Sixty percent of delegates, called messengers, voted for the proposal, just short of the required threshold.
'Why do they feel like they need to keep bringing this up over and over again when they already have mechanisms by which they can disfellowship churches,' Meredith Stone, executive director of Baptist Women in Ministry, said at a June 10 event protesting support for banning women pastors.
The proposed ban was the central debate at the 2023 and 2024 SBC annual meetings, and this week in Dallas messengers moved to reverse the last year's outcome. If two-thirds majority of messengers approved the measure, it would have required a ratification vote at next year's SBC annual meeting in Orlando.
SBC President Clint Pressley doesn't see these recurring debates as necessarily problematic, and in fact says it's a reflection of Southern Baptists' continued commitment to the convention business.
"That's the great thing about Southern Baptists is that they have a conversation, don't win a vote, and they still keep coming," Pressley, a North Carolina pastor, said in a June 11 news conference. Pressley said he expects some of the major legislative conversations at this year's SBC annual meeting to reemerge next year.
Messengers reelected Pressley to a second term, meaning he will preside over the 2026 SBC annual meeting in Orlando. This year, the convention also approved a resolution calling for the reversal of the U.S. Supreme Court decision Obergefell v. Hodges on the month of the 10-year anniversary of the landmark ruling that legalized same-sex marriage.
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission advocates for beliefs articulated in SBC resolutions, and is a reason why ERLC president Brent Leatherwood said the commission's work is essential for the denomination.
Leatherwood addressed messengers before it debated the proposal to abolish the ERLC, saying eradicating the commission 'means the public square would be abandoned by the SBC, losing a powerful voice for the truth of the gospel and in effect rewarding secular efforts to push religion out.'
Critics have accused the ERLC of promoting views on issues like the environment, immigration, and the war in Ukraine that are inconsistent with conventional Southern Baptist values. Leatherwood has been the specifically been a target of those attacks. He nearly lost his job last year when the commission's former board chair acted unilaterally to remove Leatherwood, who shortly before had commended former President Joe Biden for dropping out of the U.S. presidential race.
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission faced attacks at the 2022, 2023 and 2024 SBC annual meetings, each time narrowly surviving. This year, 56% of messengers voted to reject a proposal to abolish the ERLC.
The SBC seemed to settle the fight over women pastors at the 2024 SBC annual meeting in Indianapolis, but controversies since then have emboldened some Southern Baptists to resurrect the proposal.
In February, SBC administrative leaders opted not to disfellowship, or oust, a South Carolina megachurch that employs a woman pastor. The SBC Executive Committee did oust an Anchorage, Alaska congregation over an apparent set of beliefs on women pastors at odds with the denomination's position.
The South Carolina megachurch, NewSpring Church, ultimately withdrew from the SBC.
'If we don't give them that clarity, we're going to have to come back year after year to debate this indefinitely,' Travis Hartwell, a messenger from Houston, said during a June 11 floor debate. 'I for one do not wish to come to the convention every year to debate female pastors.'
Ultimately, the vote outcome at the Dallas meeting mirrored that of the 2024 SBC annual meeting in Indianapolis when a strong majority of messengers supported the proposal, but it was just short of a required supermajority.
Baptist Women in Ministry, a nonprofit that advocates for women in church leadership roles, organized the June 10 panel discussion on women pastors.
'What the Southern Baptist Convention is doing today in regards to women… is one of the harshest measures against women in ministry in the western world,' said panelist Beth Allison Barr, a religious historian. 'It's really making it clear to women that 'you belong under male power and there's no way around it.''
This story was updated to include a quote from SBC President Clint Pressley.
Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at ladams@tennessean.com or on social media @liamsadams.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Southern Baptists repeat public policy, women pastors feuds in Dallas
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