May 18, 2000 - Southern Baptist Convention

Human Rights a Day

No women pastors for us, say U.S. Southern Baptists. The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) was founded in Augusta, Georgia in 1845. One hundred and fifty years later, with 16 million members in more than 40,000 churches, the SBC represented the largest Protestant denomination in the United States. Although known for its conservative values, women had been allowed as pastors in small numbers. That changed when more conservative elements in the church decided to spell out a clear policy on women’s roles. In 1998, the church issued a statement at its annual meeting ruling that a wife should “submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband.” Two years later, on May 18, 2000, it followed that up with a document that declared, “While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.” SBC leaders accepted the resolution at their annual meeting on June 14, 2000, while specifying that the approximately 1,600 women pastors already in SBC would be allowed to stay in their positions. The change was welcomed by most of the churches and by organizations affiliated with the SBC. However, one high-profile couple, former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Roslyn, disagreed. On October 21, 2000, the couple severed their ties with the church in which they had both grown up.