The 2024 Annual Southern Baptist Convention had its seminal vote this morning where it voted on whether or not to ratify the Mike Law Amendment. The amendment would deem churches with female pastors not in friendly cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention. The vote to ratify failed.
Outside the Southern Baptist Convention were protesters supporting female pastors in the church. Yet inside the convention, the support was more subtle. SBC president Bart Barber gave a convention address that signaled against the motion to be followed up by Jeff Iorg, the SBCEC president, who signaled against it after having explicitly taken a position opposing banning female pastors. Moreover, the SBC let a woman preach a sermonized prayer to close the afternoon session yesterday.
Moreover, the SBC voted to disfellowship FBC Alexandria for having female pastors. This was used to argue that the Mike Law Amendment was not needed despite current entity heads, like Brent Leatherwood of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission being a deacon at a church with women functioning as pastors.
The vote was taken by paper ballot, unlike when it passed in 2023.
The amendment failed getting only 61.45% of the vote which required a 2/3 majority. 3185 messengers voted against the amendment and around 2000 messengers didn’t show up for the most consequential vote of the convention.
This was a massive win for liberals in the Southern Baptist Convention who want to continue the trend of tolerating female pastors.