At the 2025 Annual Southern Baptist Convention, Southern Baptists once again debated the issue of female pastors. Juan Sanchez reintroduced the Mike Law Amendment and, in doing so, asked for standing rules to be suspended so that the amendment could get a vote in this convention. Ordinarily, it would have to go through the Executive Committee for a year before becoming a ballot item, but Christians won a procedural victory after Southern Baptists voted to suspend the standing rule. The Mike Law Amendment would place a constitutional ban on female pastors in the convention.
When the time came to debate the matter on Wednesday afternoon, many messengers had to leave to catch their flights. Juan Sanchez spoke in favor of the motion to pass the Mike Law Amendment, whereby he proclaimed that his church had female deacons. It was a disastrous speech for standing on biblical truth. In contrast, Jeff Iorg, president of the SBC Executive Committee, argued that the Mike Law Amendment invited legal liability despite the matter being an enforcement mechanism for a doctrine, which would naturally be protected under religious abstention. But if you can’t win a debate on theology, scare the messengers with legal babble.
Eventually, good speeches were made for the amendment and when the time came to vote, the amendment would fall short.
The amendment needed a 2/3 majority and only 60.74% voted in favor of it. 5632 ballots were cast, a low number. 38.90% of Southern Baptist messengers actively supported female pastors. Thus, 2025 brought renewed embarrassment for the SBC.
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