Al Mohler admits that SBC may clarify female pastor ban due to trans ideology: The president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Albert Mohler has admitted that the Southern Baptist Convention may eventually need to make it clear that only “biological men” as opposed to women who identify as men have the right to hold the office of pastor.
In a bid to clarify the denomination’s stance that the post of pastor is only open to men who are qualified by the scripture, a listener asked Mohler in his podcast “The Briefing” shared online on Friday about the standards for who is eligible to serve in the office of pastor.
“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.”
At the SBC’s Annual Meeting in June, messengers endorsed a change to the Convention’s constitution that would exclude women from holding positions of “pastors of any type” in affiliated churches.
However, the amendment still needs to be adopted by a majority of votes during next year’s annual meeting.