Southern Baptist Leaders And A Rising Number of Americans Reject Female Leaders

By John A. Tures, Professor of Political Science, LaGrange College

The Southern Baptist Convention made national news when their delegates voted overwhelmingly to punish Southern Baptist Churches that have women as leaders. It’s not out of step with current politics in the U.S.A. An increasing number of Americans, especially younger people, say or know someone who would reject a qualified woman for president.

When I started teaching political science in the 1990s, I showed my students a Gallup poll revealing that an overwhelming number of Americans would vote for a number of people for president if they were qualified. It showed that with a few exceptions, most Americans were a pretty tolerant group.

Recent evidence shows that my charts badly need to be updated.

“Thousands of Southern Baptists overwhelmingly voted Wednesday to advance a formal ban on women pastors in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, sending a clear message that men alone should preach to these conservative evangelical congregations,” writes CNN. “The amendment would tighten existing restrictions in the Southern Baptist Convention, which already has a faith statement opposing women pastors. The vote at the annual meeting was 6,028 to 2,026 — a 3-to-1 margin — which easily exceeded the required two-thirds majority…”

Additionally, the AP reported story that CNN carried stated “A debate Wednesday over the location of a future SBC annual meeting took longer than the debate over women pastors…. There was only brief debate — and none of it contained support for women pastors.” And the SBC leaders have acted on such laws. “The denomination has also expelled churches with women in senior pastoral roles, including the large Saddleback Church of California, on the grounds of an existing clause in the constitution barring churches whose “faith and practice” was out of harmony with the denomination’s.” They quoted a seminary leader as saying “‘There’s a great line that divides liberal and biblical evangelicalism, and you can see it on this very issue. The trajectory of liberal denominations is clear.’”

Painting the issue of women earning a role as leaders is treated as “Biblical vs. liberal.” Critics point out that while Paul offers some strident opinions in his epistles about the role of women in the church, these are offset by the key Biblical roles for Phoebe, Junia, Euodia, Syntyche, Lydia of Thyatira, and Priscilla in Paul’s church and the building of disciples. Moreover, the role of Deborah the Judge, Miriam, Esther and Huldah the Prophetess in King Josiah’s reign can all be found prominently in the Bible.

Campaigning against women for leadership roles seems to have spilled over into the arena of American politics. Back when President Franklin D. Roosevelt nominated Frances Perkins to be the first female cabinet member (Secretary of Labor), only a third of Americans thought a qualified woman candidate for president should receive their vote, according to Gallup. Not until 1955 did a majority of Americans think they would vote for a qualified woman to be president. That jumped to 80 percent by the time President Reagan nominated Sandra Day O’Connor to be a Supreme Court Justice. By 1999, that number went up to 92% in Gallup polling.

But in today’s polarized politics, the chances of women getting into top leadership positions looks closer to the SBC’s vote. And it is younger voters, not older voters, driving this trend.

“Nearly one in five voters said they or someone they are close to would not elect a woman presidential candidate,” reports iknowpoiltics.org. “That includes one-quarter of women under 50 and 20 percent of men under 50, who said they would not back a qualified female candidate for president, while 13 percent of men and women over 50 said they wouldn’t be open to supporting a woman for president…. Four in 10 Americans personally know someone who would not elect a woman to the White House.”

There is some good news from that Women and Politics Institute survey. “[M]ost voters support electing more women and believe the government gets more done with women in office, according to the national poll of 801 registered voters.” But the trends against women in leadership roles is a worrying for those who think you should be judged by your experience, record and what you stand for, instead of anti-identity politics.

John A. Tures is a professor of political science at LaGrange College in LaGrange, Georgia. His views are his own. He can be reached at jtures@lagrange.edu or on “X” at @johntures2. His first book “Branded” a thriller novel where corporate greed, media manipulation and academic intrigue collide in a deadly game of product placement, has been published by the Huntsville Independent Press (https://www.huntsvilleindependent.com/product-page/branded).