Pastor Rick Warren issued an apology to Christian women after the Southern Baptist Conference voted to exclude two churches with ordained female pastors.
Warren also said that he had “held” women back from using their “spiritual gifts and leadership skills.”
“That breaks my heart now, and I am truly repentant and sorry for my sin,” Warren tweeted. “I wish I could do it all over. Christian women, will you please forgive me?” (READ MORE: Southern Baptist Convention, Engaged in Fight Over Female Pastors, Is in Freefall)
According to NBC News reporter Corey Siemaszko, “12,000 or so ‘messengers’ who had gathered at their annual meeting in New Orleans voted by a 9-to-1 ratio to seal the exit of California’s Saddleback Church and a smaller congregation in Kentucky.”
After the vote passed, the SBC also amended its constitution on June 14, saying that “while both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor/elder/overseer is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.” The Associated Press reports that the amendment cannot be ratified until next year’s meeting.
Warren, who founded Saddleback Church in 1980, tweeted that he wished he had completed his own “personal exegesis” on “the 4 passages used to restrict women.”
“I PUBLICLY APOLOGIZE to every good woman in my life, church, and ministry that I failed to speak up for in my years of ignorance,” Warren tweeted. “What grieves me is that I hindered them in obeying the Great Commission command (And Acts 2:17-18) that EVERYONE is to TEACH in the church.”
Warren stated that his opinion on the subject of female ordination changed after reading commentaries from “inerrantist” scholars and books on the early church.
The Associated Press reports that while “all Baptist churches are independent” the convention can “decide which churches are ‘not in friendly cooperation.’”
Rev. Linda Barnes Popham — pastor of Fern Creek Baptist Church in Kentucky — told the Associated Press that she had hoped the voting margin would have been smaller.
“I knew they would uphold the expulsion,” Popham said. “However, I guess I am a bit naive. I did not think it would be that drastic a result. I thought there were more people left in the Southern Baptist Convention who support the autonomy of the local church, if not women in ministry.”
Beth Allison Barr, professor of history at Baylor University, expressed her frustration with the conference’s amendment and handling of sexual abuse allegations on Twitter.
“Landslide vote by SBC messengers to disfellowship churches with female pastors,” Barr tweeted. “More votes supporting a man advocating for women than a woman advocating for her church. Shockingly few messengers attending the sex abuse break out session.”
Elizabeth Crawford is a rising senior at Hillsdale College studying politics. A member of The American Spectator’s 2023 intern class, Elizabeth enjoys drinking good tea and plans to pursue a career in journalism
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