Southern Baptists finalized the expulsion of two churches with female pastors on Wednesday, after a dramatic clash at their annual convention over moves by an ultraconservative wing on multiple fronts to reverse what it sees as a liberal drift.
The ousted congregations are the Saddleback Church in Southern California, one of the denomination’s largest, and the Fern Creek Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. They were expelled in February, but were given the opportunity to appeal the decision at the church’s annual meeting in New Orleans, which ends Wednesday.
Impassioned appeals by the two churches’ leaders were resoundingly rejected by the more than 10,000 delegates. The results, announced Wednesday, were not close. More than 90% of the delegates voted in favor of Fern Creek’s expulsion, and almost as many voted to confirm the removal of Saddleback, which was founded by the prominent preacher and author Rick Warren. Delegates also affirmed the expulsion of a church in Florida that the denomination said had failed to cooperate in a sexual abuse investigation.
The convention is scheduled to vote later Wednesday on a proposal to amend its constitution to more clearly and strictly ban women from leadership roles.
On Tuesday, the leaders of two expelled churches each had three minutes to make their appeals from the convention floor to be allowed to stay in the denomination.
At the microphone, Linda Barnes Popham, the pastor at Fern Creek, related how she had dedicated her life to Jesus when she was 8. She spoke of being taught “to follow to the ends of the earth” whatever Jesus called her to do, and of how her church shares the gospel.
When Warren’s turn came, he noted that Billy Graham had once said his daughter, Anne, was “the best preacher” in the Graham family.
Warren noted that the denomination’s theological statement is 4,032 words long. “Saddleback disagrees with one word,” he said. “That’s 99.99999999% in agreement! Isn’t that close enough?”
The crowd shouted back at him, “No!”
The ousted churches will continue to function as churches, but lose their association with the denomination and the ability to participate in its programs, including its robust missionary and disaster relief programs.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
