When Women Can Preach but Not Pastor

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN — Now, as the nation’s largest, most influential Protestant denomination moves to formally enforce gender restrictions on who can preach and pastor, Black clergy and church leaders are confronting the much larger question of who gets to answer God’s call — and who gets to decide if it’s legitimate.

The Southern Baptist Convention’s vote to strengthen enforcement of its prohibition on women pastors landed like a thunderclap in some corners of American Christianity. In much of Black America’s church community, however, it exposed a contradiction that has existed for generations: women are often trusted to do the work of ministry, but not always granted the authority that comes with it.

Now, as the nation’s largest, most influential Protestant denomination moves to formally enforce gender restrictions on who can preach and pastor, Black clergy and church leaders are confronting the much larger question of who gets to answer God’s call — and who gets to decide if it’s legitimate.

At its annual meeting in Orlando, Florida, earlier this month, the SBC voted overwhelmingly to advance a constitutional amendment that would bar member churches from affirming women as pastors. The measure now requires a second two-thirds vote next year to become binding.

Codifying enforcement

If adopted, it moves the denomination from stating a doctrinal position to formally enforcing it through denominational membership standards. More than 3,875 Black congregations belong to the SBC, accounting for just 7% of the SBC’s total membership.

Albert Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a central voice behind the amendment, declared that “(t)here’s a great line that divides liberal and biblical evangelicalism, and you can see it on this very issue.”

Supporters argue that the amendment simply tightens enforcement of what the denomination already teaches — that the pastoral office is limited to men — and resolves ambiguity between belief and practice. But opponents say the SBC already has the power to remove churches that violate its doctrinal standards.

‘This is about who gets hired’

On her Facebook page, Bishop Corletta Vaughn, senior pastor and presiding prelate of Holy Ghost Full Gospel Church in Detroit, slammed the vote. She sees it as a way to marginalize and exclude women from power within the SBC and other Protestant institutions.

 

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