Al Mohler discusses potential need for SBC to consider ban on transgender pastors

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler has acknowledged the possibility that the Southern Baptist Convention might have to someday clarify that the office of pastor belongs to “biological men” and not women who identify as men.

On an episode of his podcast “The Briefing” that was posted online last Friday, Mohler was asked by a listener about the SBC’s standards for who can serve in the office of pastor, in light of the denomination’s recent decision to clarify that only men can serve as pastors.

“That position is reactive. Should we also not be proactive and amend further so that it says only biological males at birth may be a pastor?” asked the listener, identified as Scott. “It seems like only a matter of time before the Convention is faced with possibly having to disfellowship a church for having a transgender pastor.”

Mohler responded that while he agreed with Scott that it was possible, the Baptist Faith & Message 2000, an authoritative book in the SBC, “makes very clear that gender is a part of the goodness of God’s creation, making human beings as male and female.”

“So, I think any fair reading of that accomplishes what you’re looking for here,” Mohler continued. “The Southern Baptist Convention’s Baptist Faith and Message is quite clear. The 2000 revision, now going back 20 plus years, had to be revised in order to make very clear that there is no transgender, non-binary option when it comes to biblical Christianity.”

“In every generation, the Christian Church has to closely monitor what can be assumed and what must be articulated. The longer we go in all of this confusion, I think it’s safe to say the more that is going to have to be articulated.”

Back in June, at the SBC’s Annual Meeting in New Orleans, messengers overwhelmingly approved an amendment to the Convention’s constitution to bar women from serving as a “pastor of any kind” in member churches.

Championed by Pastor Mike Law of Arlington Baptist Church in Virginia, the amendment still has to be approved by a messenger vote at next year’s Annual Meeting before it can be added to the constitution.

At the same SBC Annual Meeting, messengers also voted to uphold the disfellowshipping of Saddleback Church due to the California-based megachurch having a woman serving in the office of teaching pastor. Some 90% of messengers voted to disfellowship churches that have women in the role of pastor.

During the appeals process, Saddleback founder and author Rick Warren argued that Southern Baptists could agree to disagree on the matter of female pastors, comparing it to the SBC’s decision not to disfellowship churches that adhered to Calvinist theology.

“We should remove churches for all kinds of sexual sins, racial sin, financial sin, leadership sin, sins that harm the testimony of our convention,” Warren told the SBC gathering. “But the 1,129 churches with women on pastoral staff have not sinned.”

For his part, Mohler spoke against Saddleback’s appeal, warning the SBC messengers that Saddleback was threatening the unity of the denomination and that the issue was not nonessential.

“It’s not just a matter of church polity; it’s not just a matter of hermeneutics,” Mohler stated. “It’s a matter of biblical commitment, a commitment to the Scripture that unequivocally we believe limits the office of pastor to men.”

“Here we face the unusual situation in which Dr. Warren himself has made repeated statements, and the church has taken repeated actions that make very clear it rejects the confessional understanding of the Southern Baptist Convention on this issue.”

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