Southern Baptists expel Virginia church for believing women can serve as pastors

Indianapolis, US AP Even as they prepare to vote on a formal ban on churches with women pastors, delegates to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to boot one such church from its ranks. Messengers, as voting representatives are known, voted 6,759 to 563 to oust First Baptist Church of Alexandria, a historic Virginia […]
Preaching bans: Like Beth Moore, many women have had to break free to follow God’s call

BOB SMIETANA, writing for Religion News Service, reports from the US…
Parting company: US Bible teacher Beth Moore splitting with LifeWay, says, “I am no longer a Southern Baptist”

BOB SMIETANA, of Religion News Service, speaks with high profile US Bible teacher Beth Moore about her decision to leave the Southern Baptist Convention and Christian publisher LifeWay…
For now, Southern Baptists stick by Hosanna Wong, spoken word artist and pastor

RNS Organisers of a major Southern Baptist pastors conference are standing by their choice to feature a spoken word artist and pastor named Hosanna Wong despite a growing controversy over whether Wong’s presence contradicts the Southern Baptist Convention’s doctrine on women pastors. Wong, who is scheduled to perform a spoken word selection at the June meeting of […]
Essay: Most Southern Baptist women would welcome a woman pastor. It’s unlikely to happen

Against the backdrop of the Southern Baptist’s annual meeting being held in the US this week, RYAN BURGE, a political science teacher at Eastern Illinois University and co-founder of Religion in Public, looks – in an article first published on Religion News Service – at beliefs about women preachers…