Dr. Al Mohler’s theological evolution on the issue of women in ministry has been a wonder to watch over the last 25 years. Dr. Ken Hemphill pointed it out in his recent article, but as a certified old fogey in the SBC, I’ve watched it happen. When the BF&M 2000 was adopted, Dr. Mohler was clear that we were not adopting an authoritative creed that would seek a stranglehold on the inner workings of local SBC churches, but a broad consensus that defined where conservative Southern Baptists agreed.
The Senior Pastors of Southern Baptist Churches would be men.
That would be our hard and fast unifying point, and beyond that, local church autonomy would rule the day. That’s what Dr. Mohler said then. That’s what he assured us when we voted to adopt the new statement of faith.
I agree with him wholeheartedly.
His recent theological evolution, though billed as a search for “truth and unity,” is not going to bring unity at all. It is more division, and it needs to be voted down.
The most unifying principle in the SBC is one we have almost totally abandoned – the autonomy of the local church. We have a simple doctrinal statement which spells out a small core of theological principles on which we all agree, and under that doctrinal umbrella, each local church can operate by its own convictions.
Why did Mohler stray so far from his convictions of 2000? Why is the peacemaking voice of Mohler in 2000 now aligning with the more radical elements of the SBC who want to kick out hundreds, perhaps thousands, of SBC churches that don’t align with their views?
- The incursion of radical feminism into our culture is worrying to any biblical Christian. Western culture has bent gender so far that it has broken.
- Feminism has made incursions into the broader church.
- A small minority of SBC churches have women pastors (a minuscule minority), while a greater number have female staff.
- There is a growing paternalistic movement that has arisen in response to these trends that reasserts the leadership role of men. Some more radical elements of this movement have taken away the rights of women to vote in churches. Mohler said on a podcast that a woman giving public opinions about the pastor’s sermons is a violation of Scripture.
This oversimplified analysis only scratches the surface, but let me set the choice we face in Orlando. We will choose between Mohler in 2026 and Mohler in 2000.
Mohler in 2000 said that the BF&M was enough, and that women were valuable in our churches. He said that our churches should have a man at the helm as pastor, but that other decisions about church staff should be issues of local church autonomy. He rejected the idea of a magisterium that would govern the churches from above.
Mohler in 2026 has a new outlook and I do not agree. He no longer relies on autonomy but seeks more power for Nashville to govern churches that will shrink our ranks of churches that don’t conform to the Southern Way.
I will vote for Mohler in 2000 and vote NO on his 2026 motion.
