Southern Baptists reject constitutional ban on women in pastoral roles

Jackson thinks there are good people on both sides of the issue who are passionate about their interpretation of certain passages in Scripture. Is Scripture for all times and all places and all situation, he asked. Or is Scripture influenced by the events of the time?

The roots, he thinks, “parallel our times politically. We have a lot of fear in this culture.”

Many critics of the proposed constitutional amendment, named The Law Amendment after the Virginia pastor who proposed it, said it was unnecessary since the SBC already has a ban in place, or fear it will result in Black and Hispanic churches leaving the denomination.

Despite the amendment failing, there are still questions about the SBC’s commitment to difference and inclusion, especially in Black churches and those from other racial and ethnic majorities, said Nichole R. Phillips, associate professor in the practice of religion and society and director of Black Church Studies at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology

“Opposition against the amendment by wider margins would have been a radical statement about the Baptist tradition of local church autonomy, the doctrinal legitimacy of Christian women’s voices and authority in all aspects of church life, including church leadership, and at the least, the SBC’s interpretation of inclusion and difference,” she said.

Georgia is among the top five states with the highest number of messengers in Indianapolis with 710. Tennessee had the most at 944.

The Rev. Pennon Lockhart, is a retired Southern Baptist pastor from Georgia. When he pastored a church in Decatur, he once named a woman in a temporary assignment as interim executive pastor.

It didn’t cause a stir in his congregation because people already knew her. “When women come to a pastor and say they’ve been called to pastor, teach or preach, who am I to argue with God?” he said. “They are the ones who have to justify their calling and stand on it.”

Would he ever embrace the idea of a woman leading the congregation as senior pastor? Probably not, he said. “It would not have nothing do with the individual, but on biblical grounds.”

For the thousands of messengers who return to their home churches, gender roles are still firmly in place.

“So there is not much changed here at the end of the day,” said Ed Stetzer. dean of the Talbot School of Theology at Biola University. “It just appears that they are comfortable where they are on the roles of women in the church and the way they have already set up their governance.”

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