At the Southern Baptist Convention, representatives just voted overwhelmingly to oust churches with female pastors. I want to bring in NBC’s Aaron Gilchrist, who is following this story for us. What exactly happened here, Aaron?
Aaron Gilchrist (00:13):
So a couple of things, Chris. Actually, just as you were reading that intro, I got confirmation that the same organization, the same annual meeting that’s been happening in New Orleans, the membership there just voted to essentially ban women from any leadership role in the Southern Baptist Convention, any church that is a part of the Southern Baptist Convention. This is a two-part vote, if you will, that has to happen. The vote today passed the amendment changing the constitution for this organization. There will have to be a second vote next year at the next annual convention to make it a permanent move for the church.
(00:46)
These two churches in particular that were expelled from the Southern Baptist Convention earlier today are Fern Creek Baptist Church in Louisville and Saddleback Church in Southern California. You may recognize the name Saddleback Church. It is the largest church of the Southern Baptist Convention, or one of, founded by Rick Warren, the author of The Purpose Driven Life. You may be familiar with that book. 23,000 members at this church. And because there were women in roles that earned them the title of pastor in some function, the Southern Baptist Convention membership, 12,000 members at this annual meeting, said that that was not something that was in line with Scripture and not something that was in line with the faith statement of the Southern Baptist Church. And because those two churches were not in line, they wanted to expel them from the convention as a result of these women being in those leadership roles, holding titles that included the word pastor.
(01:45)
There were impassioned statements made yesterday before the vote by Rick Warren and by the pastor of Fern Creek Baptist Church trying to maintain their memberships in this organization. But today, the vote that happened, 92% of the voters said they did not want Fern Creek Baptist to stay in the SBC, 89% said the same of Saddleback Church. And so at this point now, those two churches have been removed from membership, if you will, from the Southern Baptist Convention. Chris.
Chris (02:18):
Aaron Gilchrist, thank you for that late breaking news.