Southern Baptists Vote To Expel Churches Led By Female Pastors
Well, this makes sense. Compared to men, women are less likely to be pedophiles, so the Southern Baptists will obviously want to weed them out. Better to keep the predatory male pastors in control of the churches so they can all protect each other, if not share victims. Via NBC:
The Southern Baptist Convention voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to finalize the expulsion of two churches from the nation’s largest Protestant denomination for having female pastors.
And the vote wasn’t even close, according to the SBC’s tally.
Spurred on by arch-conservatives in the SBC, the 12,000 or so “messengers” who had gathered at their annual meeting in New Orleans voted by a 9-to-1 margin to seal the exit of California’s Saddleback Church and a smaller congregation in Kentucky.
[NBC]
There are multiple Saddleback Churches in California, which were founded by famous pastor Rick Warren (he actually tried to prevent the expulsions, and has often appeared to be a relatively reasonable person), but the one with the woman leader that’s been expelled is in Lake Forest, in Orange County. Here’s what the organization’s website had to say about their vote:
Saddleback Church was deemed the church not to be in friendly cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention’s statement of faith, the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, due to “the church continuing to have a female teaching pastor functioning in the office of a pastor.” The committee specified the teaching pastor role of Stacie Wood, the wife of Warren’s successor, Andy Wood. Since then, Saddleback announced May 7 that Katie Edwards would become the new campus pastor for its Lake Forest campus. Edwards was among three women ordained with the title of pastor at Saddleback in May 2021.
Saddleback Church expulsion vote:
- For – 88.46% (9,437)
- Against – 11.36% (1,212)
Last year, the sex scandal-plagued “men of God” at the Southern Baptist Convention were forced to release a list of hundreds of pastors and other church personnel accused of sexual abuse, so Saddleback and other churches should welcome their expulsions and be grateful they’re not associated with child rapists.
