The narrow failure of the Law Amendment to receive two-thirds affirmation at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting should not give anyone a sense that women in ministry are welcome in the SBC.
Nor should this vote — or any of the others taken at the two-day meeting — give anyone reason to assume the SBC is somehow moderating its hardline conservatism.
(Photo via BP)
The SBC remains in conflict, yes, but that conflict is between super conservative people and super-super conservative people. All this drama is playing out on the far right of the continuum of American politics. If the SBC weren’t so huge, this would be a tempest in a teapot.
While the constitutional amendment that would have codified disfellowshipping of churches that allow women to be ordained, preach or hold the title “pastor” in any form narrowly failed, it nearly passed. Despite massive efforts to defeat it.
And the practical effect remains the same as at this very meeting messengers overwhelmingly affirmed kicking out another prominent church that is conservative in every way except the issue of women in ministry. For two consecutive annual meetings, messengers have broken ties with churches that previously were acceptable but became unacceptable only when the SBC’s Calvinists made the issue of women in ministry a test of fellowship.
They did not have to win the Law Amendment to win the war. They just wanted to build a statue to commemorate their victory.
“They did not have to win the Law Amendment to win the war. They just wanted to build a statue to commemorate their victory.”
Women in the SBC are no more safe or welcome today than they were yesterday. The same patriarchal hierarchy remains in place.
Meredith Stone, executive director of Baptist Women in Ministry, acknowledged this reality in a statement after the vote: “Even though the amendment did not pass, we are also grieved that this vote has ever even taken place. Further, the 61% of messengers who voted for it (66% was required to pass) demonstrate that women in ministry are still devalued.”
In every other way, actions taken by messengers to this year’s annual meeting demonstrate the extreme conservatism of the SBC, particularly the resolutions adopted.
One of those offered full support for the modern political state of Israel in its war against Hamas that has resulted in the murder of at least 36,000 innocent Palestinians — mainly women and children — yet assigned no blame to Israel for its actions.
Another on religious liberty sparked intense debate on a topic that historically has been beyond disagreement and debate among Baptists. For an SBC meeting to give serious consideration to the basic tenets of Christian nationalism should be a warning to us all.
Yet another resolution on in vitro fertilization elicited a bizarre debate about “adopting” frozen cells and the repeated assertion that these cells are fully human.
On top of all this, the Calvinist right in the SBC got closer than ever to taking out the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission for the crime of not being anti-abortion enough and for generally being too “woke.”
In reality, the only thing settled at this year’s SBC annual meeting is that the SBC remains so far to the right that average Americans likely do not understand the language they speak.
Mark Wingfield serves as executive director and publisher of Baptist News Global. He is the author of Honestly: Telling the Truth About the Bible and Ourselves and Why Churches Need to Talk About Sexuality. His forthcoming book is Troubling the Truth and Other Tales from the News.
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