ORLANDO, Fla. (RNS) — A proposal by the nation’s largest Protestant denomination to ban churches that have women pastors or let women preach on Sunday mornings passed overwhelmingly on Wednesday (June 10), marking the first step toward enshrining the ban in the Southern Baptist Convention’s constitution.
Almost three-quarters (74.6%) of local church delegates, known as messengers, voted in favor of the so-called Truth and Unity Amendment during a Wednesday morning session of the SBC’s annual meeting. A quarter (25.09%) voted against the measure.
Under the denomination’s rules, any change to its constitution must be approved by a two-thirds majority in two consecutive years. Two previous attempts to approve the ban had failed.
Al Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, has said the ban will keep the SBC from getting too liberal.
“There’s a great line that divides liberal and biblical evangelicalism, and you can see it on this very issue,” said Mohler, who wrote and proposed the amendment. “The trajectory of liberal denominations is clear.”
Thousands of people attend the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, Tuesday, June 9, 2026, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. (RNS photo/Marty Jean-Louis)
Ahead of the SBC meeting, Baptist Women in Ministry, which provides support and resources for women in ministry, paid for a billboard to go up in Orlando — where the SBC gathering is being held — defending women who teach and preach the Bible.
“Women in ministry deserve affirmation, respect, and the opportunity to follow God’s call,” the group said in a statement after the vote’s results were made public. “We are heartbroken that they have been denied those fundamental freedoms in the process of this vote.”
The SBC’s statement of faith, known as the Baptist Faith and Message, has held since 2000 that only men can be pastors. However, until 2021, the SBC took no national action to expel churches with women pastors.
Then, a couple of social media posts changed everything.
First, Bible teacher Beth Moore, then a Southern Baptist, tweeted about speaking at a church on Mother’s Day in 2019, which set off an online firestorm over the issue of women preachers and pastors. Then, in 2021, Saddle …