How women pastors became public enemy No. 1 in the SBC

In the first summer of this century, more than 11,000 Southern Baptists gathered in Florida to update their convention’s statement of faith by limiting the office of pastor to men only.

But that 2000 limit was not binding on local churches. Instead, it applied only to the denomination’s seminaries and mission boards.

“We don’t have the right, the authority or the power to limit anybody,” the Rev. Adrian Rogers, a famed Baptist preacher who chaired the committee that revamped the Baptist Faith and Message, told reporters at the time.

Now, the denomination has decided all women pastors must go.

Religion & Politics

Which Bible passages are in Texas’ proposed student reading list? Here’s what the sections reveal.

Is Bethany’s break with LGBTQ+ people a bellwether for foster care?

Haitian immigrants revived a church. Now the pews are empty.

Photos of the Week: Muharram, mud festival

A Shiite Muslim boy beats his chest with others in a ritual during a gathering for the mourning month of Muharram, in Peshawar, Pakistan, late on Sunday, June 21, 2026.
(AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad)

In Opinion

And finally, In Richmond, churches retrace the path of the enslaved to confront their own history.

From 1830 to 1860, tens of thousands of enslaved people disembarked ships at Richmond’s Manchester Docks, an entry point into a bondage system that built Virginia’s wealth and shaped the city’s history. Shackled together, the enslaved people trudged along a muddy trail connecting the docks to the city’s auction house, where they were sold and bought as property.

Today, the path, known as the “slave trail,” is part of a citywide walking tour exploring Richmond’s role as a major hub of the domestic slave trade.

As about 20 Virginians marched in line, in silence, over the muddy trail on Saturday (June 13) — some clinging to one another to understand the experience of enslaved people who walked the trail in chains — a gospel singer performed the African American spiritual “Wade in the Water” alongside them.

Walking silently, Renee Munford, who is Black, said she felt her ancestors. The 65-year-old wondered what they thought as they walked, whether they were afraid, confused or both. At some point, she cried.

Support our responsible reporting on religion