A retired Enid pastor is making waves by challenging a prominent Southern Baptist leader's proposal regarding female pastors in the nation's largest Protestant denomination.
Over the Memorial Day weekend, the Rev. Wade Burleson took to social media to share his opposition to Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President the Rev. Albert Mohler's proposed amendment to the Southern Baptist Convention's constitution that would make the denomination's stance explicitly clear that churches can not be part of the faith group if they allow women to fulfill pastoral roles.
"I'm not a rabble-rouser, but when they push an interpretation on every church, you've got to stop," Burleson said.
The retired Southern Baptist minister said he wondered why Southern Baptist Convention leaders claimed for years that a sexual predator database couldn't be established due to the denomination's policy on church autonomy ― meaning every local congregation is completely independent and self-governing — but the denomination won't allow churches to make their own independent decisions regarding female pastors.
The matter is currently gaining attention because Mohler, who could not be reached for comment, has said he plans to propose his amendment at the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting set for June 9-10 in Orlando, Florida.
In 2007, Burleson, after meeting with several sexual abuse survivors, asked the denomination to consider the establishment of a database tracking ministers and other leaders tied to Southern Baptist churches who have been credibly accused or convicted of sexual abuse. The group came back a year later citing the difficulty of creating such a database, including the autonomy of Southern Baptist churches.
Burleson said barring Southern Baptist churches from allowing women pastors hurts "female lovers of Jesus Christ who are gifted and called to serve," and the matter of female pastors should be up to each church.
Mohler is one of the Southern Baptist Convention's more high profile leaders due to several factors, including his more than 30 years at the helm of one of the denomination's seminaries, and his emergence as one of the nation's prominent evangelical and conservative voices on cultural issues and other matters.
Burleson's Facebook post on the Mohler's proposed amendment racked up more than 1,500 replies in about two days, showing that the topic of female pastors has continued to spark debate within the Southern Baptist Convention, even though the denomination has already ousted churches that allow women pastors.
In recent years, several churches, most notably best-selling author and evangelical leader Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in California, have been ousted from the denomination for having a woman in a pastoral role. Delegates, called messengers, at the denomination's 2023 annual meeting famously affirmed a decision by the faith group's executive committee to oust Saddleback Church — at the time, one of the largest Southern Baptist churches in the country — from the denomination because Stacie Wood, the wife of Andy Wood, Warren's successor as lead pastor, assumed a role as teaching pastor.
Some comments on Burleson's recent Facebook post accused him of bringing up Mohler's proposed amendment to drum up publicity because he is a Republican candidate for Oklahoma's 3rd Congressional District. Burleson will face Republican incumbent Frank Lucas in the June 16 primary election.
"I have nothing to gain," Burleson said, regarding the accusation. "I'm trying to change the world for my grandkids."
Second proposed amendment in recent years
The same year that Warren's church was expelled, messengers rejected a proposed amendment that would unequivocally prohibit women from becoming pastors of Southern Baptist churches.
Mohler outlined his proposal, the "Truth and Unity Amendment," on his website. The proposed amendment states that a church is not in fellowship with the denomination if it acts "to affirm, appoint or endorse a woman serving in the office or function of a pastor/elder/overseer, such as preaching to the assembled congregation."
On his website, Mohler said that Southern Baptists have been unified in their stance barring churches that endorse or affirm LGBTQ+ "lifestyles and activities" from the denomination, and he would like to see that same unity be shown in the adoption of his amendment.
"We need to be very clear about this in order that we don’t have to debate and discuss this and have floor action necessary every single year," Mohler wrote.
"This is an issue in which Southern Baptists stand together. Our unity is clear. Our commitment to the truth is clear. Let’s make our constitution equally clear."
In his social media posts, Burleson outlined other reasons besides the autonomy issue for his stance against Mohler's amendment. Mainly, he doesn't agree with the denomination's stance that only men should be pastors, according to the faith group's interpretation of the Bible. The denomination's stance is outlined in the faith group's Baptist Faith & Message: "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."
Burleson, 64, said there are scriptures that affirm that being a Christian pastor has nothing to do with gender, including 1 Corinthians 12:11, which concerns spiritual gifts: "All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines."
He said he's gratified that many people have read his posts.
"Whatever a church decides to do is their business," he said, of the issue of female pastors.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Retired pastor fights Southern Baptist proposal to ban female clergy