NASHVILLE (TN)
In Solidarity with Christa Brown
June 5, 2026
By Christa Brown
When Southern Baptists gather for their annual convention next week, they’ll debate for the fourth year in a row whether to oust churches with women pastors.
They just can’t let this go.
We’re seeing the previews of the debate play out on social media, and this time around, they’re even more rabid. Now, they’re not just talking about churches with women who carry the title of “pastor,” but churches with women who “function” in any way that resembles something a pastor might do.
With seminary president Al Mohler in the vanguard, they’ve even been debating whether women can talk on church podcasts. Mohler said it would be a “problem.”
Yeah. I kid you not.
To the rest of the world, I imagine this all looks ludicrous. But this is Baptistland, where the “good-ole-boys” gather in their “no girls allowed” clubhouse and beat their chests over such things.
Can women speak from the pulpit? Can women be children’s ministers? Can women evangelize? Can women be hospital chaplains? On and on and on.
It’s a cabal of grown white men trying to control what women can say and do. (And of course, they’ve got a few “Serena Joy”-type women who aid them.)
This is why Baptist Women in Ministry (BWIM) put up a billboard to greet convention delegates (“messengers”) as they drive from the Orlando airport to the convention center.
I love this, because as BWIM’s executive director, Meredith Stone, explained:
“Even beyond the SBC, when women everywhere learn Southern Baptists are once again arguing about women’s value to God and the church, they also feel the pain caused by harmful theology and rising threats to women’s rights. We are speaking out so that they too will clearly hear the message that women are equally valued.”
This is why, in 2024, I was honored to stand in solidarity with Baptist Women in Ministry when they protested publicly against that year’s effort to oust women pastors in the SBC.
I’m not going to engage the debate, but if you’re interested in the ins and outs, Beth Allison Barr and Savannah Locke provide a friendly and illuminating analysis of what’s happening, and Barr brings the historical receipts. (This is, after all, Barr’s niche, and really, when you listen to her, you’ll know that Mohler is out of his league.)
Barr also points out how the SBC’s fixation on women pastors “goes hand in hand with their refusal to accept responsibility for the SBC sex scandal” and for the harm that so many Southern Baptist pastors have done to women and children… with impunity. And none of it is really about “autonomy.” Instead, it’s all about power and institutional self-protection.
I agree 100%. The SBC has twisted its faith into serving as both a prop for patriarchy and a curtain for abuse. And when their misogynistic obsession with women pastors sits side-by-side with their refusal to reckon with clergy sex abuse, it makes for an ugly picture indeed.
Some of the more “moderate” SBC voices would limit the exclusion of women to the senior pastor position – they call themselves “soft” complementarians – but I can’t find it in me to feel gratitude for their “moderation.”
Oh gee whiz… the “good guys” are willing to let women be children’s pastors. I just can’t go there.
“Soft” complementarianism is still patriarchy, and putting lipstick on it doesn’t change the reality that patriarchy is degrading and devaluing of women.
In my view, their whole debate is gross.
And the fact that they cast their arguments as “biblical” only makes them all the more gross. I’ve seen far too much of how so many Southern Baptists twist “biblical” into a sword for their own self-serving ends.
There’s typically a lot of press surrounding the SBC’s annual meeting. So, I’m hoping that, over the next week, the whole world will get a good look at this faith group’s small-minded, misogynistic meanness.
And, as the SBC shows itself for the high-control, authoritarian faith group it is, more and more people will continue to reject it.
Why would anyone choose to be a part of the SBC? I see this question a lot. To ordinary people, who didn’t grow up in the faith, it often seems a mystery. As one woman commented recently:
“SBC women and their supporters, husbands, families, and friends should be leaving so fast their feet would sound like thunder.”
Of course, a lot of people ARE leaving, and that’s a documented fact. The Southern Baptist Convention has lost 3.6 million members over the last 20 years, and the downward trend shows no sign of stopping.
Perhaps you’re someone who’s still in the SBC and mulling things over. If so, and if you’re among those who are rightly repulsed by the SBC’s long recalcitrance on dealing with clergy sex abuse or by its persistent devaluing of women, I would urge you to sit a bit with this thread by Sheila Wray Gregoire on “when it may be time to leave.”
“Should you STAY in a church of denomination with the hopes of changing it?
What if, by staying, you’re lending your seal of approval to an organization that harms people?
I attended a conservative Baptist church for about 10 years. I led a praise team, but the deacons board spent a year debating whether it was okay for me to pray or speak between songs, since I am a woman.
We volunteered heavily and gave generously, but nothing ever changed.
We felt discouraged. I was worn down by being put in a box because I’m a woman.
Then I started hearing about how some elders were counseling abused women to stay in their marriages.
And I realized: By attending this church, I am lending my seal of approval to it.
My husband and I were well-known in our small community; by going to that church, we were signaling, ‘This church is safe.’
What would happen if someone started attending the church because of the great programs we were adding to? What if a woman started bringing her kids?
Those kids would learn that women are subordinate to men. That woman might see the pastor about her marriage problems, only to be told she needed to submit more.
I was trying to change it, but my involvement was making the church seem healthy, when it fundamentally wasn’t.
We left, and we felt like we could finally breathe again.
This has wider implications for denominations. I have heard SBC pastors (and even the SBC president) say…they wish they could revoke the ordination of some pastors or disfellowship some churches, but they can’t.
Here’s the thing: As an SBC pastor, you may have an amazing, healthy church that takes a firm stance against abuse and treats women well.
But let’s say a family at your church moves to a different city. What’s the first thing they’ll do? They’ll look for another SBC church.
And they may find one that looks great on the outside. But they may not know that this pastor has integrity issues and has covered up for the youth pastor. They may not know that this church has ended domestic abuse help groups, because too many women were leaving their husbands.
You may be a great church. You may want to change the SBC. But by partnering with churches that are enabling abuse, you are lending your seal of approval to those churches. And vulnerable people will be hurt.
If your denomination is impotent to kick out bad pastors and bad churches, then perhaps you need a different organization.
‘Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.’
You may think you can change the church or denomination. But what if, in the interim, you’re merely giving your money, time, and effort to prop up a church that is harming people?
Hoping that is food for thought.”
For more on the ruses and maneuvers of the Southern Baptist Convention, check out my book, Baptistland: A Memoir of Abuse, Betrayal, and Transformation.