President of Baptist seminary calls for women to be barred from pastorate

President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr. Photo: screenshot from Albert Mohler YouTube channel

On April 16, 2026, Dr. R. Albert Mohler, President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, called on the Southern Baptist Convention to adopt a constitutional amendment restricting the office of pastor to men alone. According to him, the ongoing uncertainty over the issue has brought the largest Protestant denomination in the United States to a “breaking point.”

In a video address posted on his YouTube channel, Mohler said he has been receiving numerous appeals from pastors and church leaders demanding that the matter of women serving as pastors finally be resolved once and for all.

He described an amendment to the convention’s constitution as the most effective and constitutionally sound way to safeguard the internal order of local churches, stressing that the overwhelming majority of Southern Baptists have consistently held that, according to Holy Scripture, the office of pastor is reserved for men.

Mohler warned that continued confusion on the issue poses a serious threat to the future of the denomination as a whole. He urged delegates to the upcoming annual meeting in Orlando to use every available mechanism to enshrine traditional by-laws in the SBC’s official governing documents.

American Baptists have already attempted to formally prohibit women from serving as pastors at the constitutional level. At the 2024 annual meeting in Indianapolis, the so-called Law Amendment received the support of 61.45% of delegates. However, that was not enough for final ratification, since amending the convention’s constitution requires a two-thirds supermajority.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that the Vatican had published a report ruling out women’s ordination.

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