PHOTO BY GREGORY HAYES VIA UNSPLASH.COM
The Southern Baptist Convention held its two-day annual meeting at the Orange County Convention Center this week, drawing more than 11,000 delegates, known as messengers, from across the country. On Wednesday, those messengers voted 6,028 to 2,026, in a 3-to-1 margin, in favor of the so-called Truth and Unity Amendment, which would enshrine a ban on churches with women pastors into the denomination’s constitution.
The vote cleared the required two-thirds supermajority with room to spare.
The amendment was sponsored by Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, who framed the vote in pretty stark terms, saying, “This is an opportunity for Southern Baptists to speak in truth, in unity, in conviction,” Mohler said. “There’s a great line that divides liberal and biblical evangelicalism, and you can see it on this very issue.”
The SBC already has a faith statement opposing women pastors and has expelled churches, including California megachurch Saddleback Church, for having women in senior pastoral roles. A second vote at next year’s annual meeting in Anaheim, California, will be required before the amendment takes effect as part of the constitution.
The meeting wrapped Wednesday after two days of votes, sermons, and parliamentary proceedings at the convention center, which also passed resolutions condemning antisemitism, political violence, and affirming immigration enforcement.
