Mickey Starling
reporter3@greenepublishing.com
The Southern Baptist Convention met in Indianapolis, Ind. on Tuesday, June 11 and Wednesday, June 12 for what is described as the “world’s largest business meeting,” with over 10,000 members present. The convention voted on several issues, but at the forefront were votes concerning in vitro fertilization (IVF) and ordaining women as senior pastors.
The convention opposed the use of IVF, because the process creates a large number of embryos that are never used. A resolution released by the convention called for Baptists “to reaffirm the unconditional value and right to life of every human being, including those in the embryonic stage, and to only utilize reproductive technologies consistent with that affirmation, especially in the number of embryos generated in the IVF process.” Members were further encouraged to consider adopting embryos that would otherwise be destroyed. The convention overwhelmingly endorsed the belief that embryos are human beings, whether conceived naturally or in a lab.
Last year, the annual meeting saw the removal of two churches over the issue of women serving as senior pastors. That trend continued this year, as First Baptist Church of Alexandria, Virginia was removed from “friendly cooperation status” due to their status involving women pastors The senior pastor at Alexandria is not a woman, but the church has expressed no opposition to having a woman as the lead pastor. Sixty-one percent of Southern Baptist churches voted the year to exclude women from serving in pastoral leadership. The vote requires 66 percent to pass to become part of their bylaws. The view of some at the convention was that the measure failed because of a “deeper risk for Baptists.” That risk entails vacating the time-honored tenant of autonomy within the local church. Southern Baptists are not opposed to having women serve as pastors in various ministries within the church, so long as they don’t fill the senior pastor’s position.