Al Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said women should have the right to vote in U.S. politics but should not interpret Scripture, during an episode of his “The Briefing” podcast last week.
Mohler was responding to a listener’s question about restrictions for women if a proposed amendment to the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) constitution is enacted next month, and whether he supports household voting, according to The Roys Report.
Some Calvinist pastors, including Doug Wilson, have argued that women should submit to their husbands in all areas, including family voting. Mohler said he understood that viewpoint “to a certain degree” but described such a change in the United States as “politically implausible".
He also spoke about what he described as the importance of “creation order".
“When you have a society that is so intentional in subverting creation order, so intentional in confusing these issues, I don’t think we should be surprised that a significant number of conservative Christians are asking, ‘How could this be avoided? How could our political arrangement be different?’”
Mohler also said he plans to propose a constitutional amendment within the SBC that would clarify that participating churches could not allow women to serve as pastors or use the title of pastor in any form.
He later addressed a listener’s question about a woman serving as an SBC pastor who hosts a podcast discussing weekly sermons with church staff.
“If she is functioning as a pastor, then she is assuming the role of a pastor and I think that’s what’s implied here. And yes, I do see that as a problem. I don’t think the church should ever lean into offering confusion on this issue but should lean into clarity […]” he said.
Author and Bible teacher Beth Moore criticised Mohler’s remarks in a post on X.
“I’ve never pastored a church. Couldn’t pay me a jillion dollars to. Never been ordained. Have no desire to. The only paid staff position I’ve ever held in a church was as an aerobics teacher in our church gym,” she wrote.
“But how in heaven’s name a woman discussing a sermon on a podcast could be objectionable to some is beyond me and what I believe to be beyond scripture.”
The Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting is scheduled to take place on June 9-10.