June 14 (UPI) -- The Southern Baptist Convention voted Wednesday to ban two churches because they have women pastors.
The group voted to uphold the ousters of Fern Creek Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., and Saddleback Church in Southern California in a vote at the 2023 SBC annual meeting.
The SBC said Fern Creek was not in cooperation with the Baptist Faith and Message 2000's statement that Biblical scripture "reserves the office of pastor for men."
Fern Creek pastor Linda Barnes Popham addressed the SBC convention Tuesday afternoon, saying the focus on women pastors was meant to divide.
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"Satan loves dividing us, he's tearing this convention apart," Popham said. "He loves seeing religious leaders sitting on protected and padded pontifical thrones being consumed by tradition and opinions and power and non-salvific issues."
The SBC said Saddleback was also in violation of the message due to the church "continuing to have a female teaching pastor functioning in the office of pastor" specifically Stacie Wood who is married to Andy Wood, who succeeded founding pastor Rick Warren.
"If you think every Baptist thinks like you, you're mistaken," Warren told the Conference of its decision. "Saddleback disagrees with one word (of the Baptist Faith & Message 2000). That's 99.99999% in agreement. Isn't that close enough?"
The SBC voted 91.85% in favor of upholding the ouster of Fern Creek and 88.46% of ousting Saddleback.
Another vote Wednesday is expected on amending the SBC constitution to permanently ban women pastors in SBC churches.
The SBC constitutional amendment would stop a woman from serving as a "pastor of any kind." Virginia pastor Mike Law proposed the amendment that would permanently ban women from pastor roles.
Freedom Church in Vero Beach, Fla., was also ousted by 96.46% of the vote for allegedly failing to cooperate to resolve an abuse allegation.
But Freedom Church said the issue was resolved after an investigation by the Anglican Church of North America.
The SBC executive committee said the pastor there allegedly admitted to sexual misconduct and was removed by the Florida Baptist Convention and the local Baptist association.
