Southern Baptists exclude churches with female pastors from denomination.

The Southern Baptist Convention has upheld the ouster of Saddleback Church in Southern California and Fern Creek Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky for having women in lead or senior pastor roles and took steps to enshrine in its constitution a prohibition on female pastors. The SBC changed its doctrinal statement, the Baptist Faith & Message, in 2000 to say, “the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.” But a debate about whether the SBC should enforce that belief statement and how emerged only recently.