Southern Baptists call their doctrine of gender roles "complementarianism," meaning they recognize both genders have different but complementary roles in the home and in church. The current debate is whether a church with women pastors can be a part of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).
Last year, two churches were disfellowshipped because they had women teaching pastors. Now, the denomination will be voting on amending its constitution to declare that any SBC church "affirms, appoints, or employs only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by Scripture."
"We need to just have it as a as a part of our bylaws in such a way that it settles the question, because basically, the bylaws are the means by which, cooperatively, we agree to work together," submits Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Dr. Albert Mohler.
He says some congregants, "especially in some of the more pragmatically minded of our churches," are trying to get around the scriptural limitations laid out in II Timothy, I Corinthians, and Titus.
"There has been a somewhat intentionally blurred line when it comes, I think, to the teaching office," Mohler notes. "So, it is time the denomination makes its position crystal clear."
"If this amendment were to fail, I don't think the issue would go away at all," he adds. "I think it would continue, and then every single year, there will be some call to take action on this, to clarify this."
While secular media outlets regard the issue as controversial, Mohler says it really is not.
"The idea that you would have the word 'pastor' applied to a woman in the Southern Baptist Convention, to the vast majority of Southern Baptists, I don't think, has ever made sense," he tells AFN.
