A female pastor whose Kentucky church was ousted from the Southern Baptist Convention is doubling down on her disagreement with the SBC’s interpretation of Scripture, particularly when it comes to women in ministry.
During the SBC’s Annual Meeting last week, messengers voted to expel Linda Barnes Popham’s Fern Creek Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, from the denomination. Saddleback Church, the California megachurch founded by Rick Warren, was also expelled from the SBC due to its ordination of women pastors.
The SBC is the largest Protestant denomination in the United States.
According to ChurchLeaders.com, messengers also voted to amend the SBC constitution to assert that under the denomination’s interpretation of Scripture, “only men” can serve as “any kind of pastor or elder” in the church. The decision is expected to go into effect in 2024.
During a Sunday interview on CNN, Popham told host Jim Costa that she was “shocked” since the ouster came 23 years after the Baptist Faith & Message 2000 was adopted. Simultaneously, Popham said she has felt “overwhelmingly loved” and has received “support from all over the world” following the decision.
Popham noted that one woman from England contacted her, reminding her that “what really matters is that we are in the family of God.”
“So, it doesn’t really matter about the Southern Baptist Convention so much,” Popham added.
Costa then read a statement from SBC President Bart Barber.
“We believe that every believer is a priest… it’s just the Scriptures say the office of pastor is limited to men. I wanna be respectful to folks and their faith, but it is the year 2023, for goodness’ sake,” he added.
Popham maintains that her church holds to the biblical views of other Southern Baptists.
“We believe that we interpret differently because we believe that the Spirit can give illumination to our minds,” she said.
“Because some of the [Bible] verses they read out to us [to justify men-only pastors], if you just read, like, the verse before, it says women should not have braids or adorn themselves with jewelry, etc. etc.,” she continued.
“Well, I didn’t see too many women there without jewelry at the Southern Baptist Convention.” Popham said. “So how they differentiate between those two verses in the same chapter, two verses apart, I’ll never understand that.”
“We look at these [Bible] verses in the context in which they were written, as well,” she concluded.
Photo courtesy: ©Unsplash/Stephen Radford
Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for Christian Headlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.