The Southern Baptist Convention has refused to welcome Saddleback Church back into its fold, rejecting an appeal by the California megachurch over its February ouster for having women pastors.

Southern Baptist church representatives at their annual meeting here also rejected a similar appeal by a smaller church, Fern Creek Baptist of Louisville, Kentucky, which is led by a woman pastor.

The results of the Tuesday votes were announced Wednesday morning on the concluding day of the the two-day annual meeting here of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, whose statement of faith asserts that only qualified men can serve as pastors.

[Larry and I discussed this in our Off the Beaten Path VIP episode yesterday. One has to wonder why Warren and Fern Creek defied the SBC first in ordaining women rather than bring the issue to the convention first and have the debate beforehand. I’m not familiar enough with Baptist doctrine to do an analysis of why they see this as doctrine other than the ordination by Jesus of only men (an argument that the Catholic Church also uses, but it’s not the only reason or even the main one). However, it *is* SBC doctrine, and both Saddleback and Fern Creek knew it. It should not be a surprise that the rest of the SBC does not look favorably on their demand for a fait accompli revision of doctrine under the circumstances. — Ed]