DANIEL WHYTE III TELLS SBC TO BE UPFRONT WITH BLACK PASTORS ABOUT WOMEN PASTORS
DANIEL WHYTE III, PRESIDENT OF GOSPEL LIGHT SOCIETY INTERNATIONAL AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF BLACKCHRISTIANNEWS.COM, WHICH IS THE #1 BLACK CHRISTIAN WEBSITE AND BLOG 4 YEARS RUNNING, INCLUDING THIS YEAR, ACCORDING TO THE INDEPENDENT FEEDSPOT, TELLS THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE BOARD TO WARN ALL BLACK SOUTHERN BAPTIST PASTORS BEFORE THE VOTE, THAT IF THEY ARE VIOLATING THE HOLY SCRIPTURES ABOUT HAVING FEMALE PASTORS OF ANY KIND, THEY NEED TO PREPARE TO DEPART FROM THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION, INCLUDING WHYTE’S FRIEND, WHO HAS GIFTED HIM, HIS FAMILY, AND MINISTRY THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS OF SUPPORT DOWN THROUGH THE YEARS AND WHO IS THE MOST GIFTED PREACHER AND WRITER IN THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION, DWIGHT MCKISSIC, PASTOR OF THE CORNERSTONE BAPTIST CHURCH IN ARLINGTON, TEXAS. WHYTE SAYS THIS IS NOT ABOUT BLACK AND WHITE PEOPLE; THIS IS ABOUT THE BLACK AND WHITE IN THE HOLY BIBLE FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION. WOMEN CANNOT BE PASTORS OR BISHOPS OF CHURCHES IN ANY SHAPE, FORM, OR FASHION OVER MEN. THAT IS NOT DECENT AND IN ORDER, AND IT VIOLATES THE DIVINE CHAIN OF COMMAND THAT GOD HAS LAID OUT IN THE HOLY SCRIPTURES FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION. GOD IS ALL ABOUT ORDER, AS WE BAPTISTS ALL KNOW. AS BAPTIST PEOPLE, MOST OF US LOVE DWIGHT MCKISSIC FOR SEVERAL REASONS:
1. HE IS A LOVING AND LOVEABLE PERSON.
2. HE IS SMARTER THAN MOST SOUTHERN BAPTIST AND NATIONAL BAPTIST PASTORS.
3. HE IS A PASTOR’S PASTOR AND A GENUINE, GODLY “LOVER OF GOOD MEN” AND GOOD PEOPLE IN GENERAL.
4. HE HAS A COLUMBO-STYLE SCHTICK THAT IS DISARMING.
5. IF HE KNOWS YOU ARE NOT GOING TO GO FOR WHAT HE IS TALKING ABOUT, THEN HE IS NOT GOING TO TRY TO CONVINCE YOU.
6. HE IS THE BEST PREACHER IN THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION AND THE NATIONAL BAPTIST CONVENTION.
7. HE IS THE BEST WRITER IN THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION AND THE NATIONAL BAPTIST CONVENTION BAR NONE.
8. MOST WHITE SOUTHERN BAPTISTS FEAR HIM, AND MOST BLACK NATIONAL BAPTISTS LIKE HIM.
9. YOU DO NOT WANT TO GET IN A DEBATE WITH HIM BECAUSE HE WILL EMBARRASS YOU AND EAT YOUR BREAKFAST, LUNCH, AND DINNER BECAUSE EVEN THOUGH HE IS OFF ON WOMEN PASTORS AND A COUPLE OF OTHER THINGS, HE HAS STUDIED THE SCRIPTURES MORE THAN YOU HAVE; THEREFORE, HE IS GOING TO BRING OUT THINGS YOU HAVE NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT AND DEFEAT YOU AT THAT POINT BECAUSE YOU HAVE NEVER HEARD OF THAT BEFORE AND YOU HAVE NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT BEFORE EVEN THOUGH HE WOULD BE PATENTLY WRONG.
10. THEREFORE, THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE SLENDER MINDS AS WELL AS “SLENDER APPARATUS” AND DO NOT HAVE THE BIG BRAIN CAPACITY OF A DWIGHT MCKISSIC MUST STICK WITH THE WORD OF GOD, THE HOLY BIBLE, AND RUN UP THE MIDDLE WITH IT.
FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION, GOD HAS A CLEAR DIVINE ORDER AND A CHAIN OF COMMAND IN THE FAMILY AND IN THE CHURCH. IN THE HOME, THE MAN IS THE HEAD, AND THE WIFE MUST SUBJECT HERSELF AND SUBMIT HERSELF TO HER HUSBAND. IN THE CHURCH, NO ONE SHOULD BE CALLED PASTOR OR BISHOP EXCEPT A MAN. AGAIN, THIS IS NOT ABOUT WHITE CULTURE OR BLACK CULTURE. THIS IS ABOUT BIBLE CULTURE. THIS IS ABOUT WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS. WHYTE BELIEVES IF YOU STAND UP FIRMLY TO THE PIED PIPER GENIUS, PASTOR DWIGHT MCKISSIC, HE WILL SIT HIS WIFE DOWN FROM PREACHING OVER MEN IN THE CHURCH AND THE SBC CAN POSSIBLY KEEP HIM IN THE FOLD, AND OVER 50% OF THE BLACK SOUTHERN BAPTIST CHURCHES WILL CONFORM AND STAY WITH YOU BECAUSE THEY ARE TRULY BORN-AGAIN-SAVED AND CALLED BY GOD AND THE REST WHO DO NOT STAY WITH YOU ARE NOT BORN-AGAIN, ARE NOT CALLED BY GOD, AND ARE VAGINA-WHIPPED PASTORS, WHO ARE MORE CONCERNED ABOUT PLEASING THEIR WIVES AND THE WOMEN IN THE CHURCH WHO THEY HAVE HAD SEX WITH AND WHO ARE POSSIBLY BEING BLACKMAILED, THAN PLEASING GOD. WHYTE SAYS LEST WE FORGET, FOOLISH-ACTING FEMALE PASTORS AND PASTORS’ WIVES, WITHOUT ANY HELP FROM BLACK LIVES MATTER, HAVE (1) GREATLY DIMINISHED IF NOT DESTROYED THE PATRIARCHY — MALE LEADERSHIP — IN THE HOME AND IN THE CHURCH; (2) HAVE DESTROYED MARRIAGES AND FAMILIES BY BELITTLING MEN AND OTHER BULL-SHEEP; (3) HAVE PROMOTED DIVORCE AND REMARRIAGE IN THE CHURCH ALONG WITH PROMOTING SOMETHING THAT IS NOT A BIBLICAL MINISTRY CALLED “DIVORCE CARE,” WHICH IS NOTHING BUT A MATCH-MAKING APP FOR HORNY, FORMERLY MARRIED PEOPLE, WHO REFUSED TO HAVE SEX WITH THEIR SPOUSES THAT GOD GAVE THEM; (4) THE SO-CALLED FEMALE PASTORS AND EVEN PASTORS’ WIVES WHO ARE THE JEZEBELS IN THE CHURCH BEHIND THE WEAK PASTOR AHABS, WHO HAVE PROMOTED AND PUSHED THE ACCEPTANCE OF SODOMY/HOMOSEXUALITY, HOMOSEXUAL MARRIAGE, AND TRANSGENDERISM IN THE CHURCH. IN THE WORDS OF THE APOSTLE JAMES, “DO NOT ERR, MY BELOVED” SOUTHERN BAPTIST “BRETHREN.”
WHYTE SAYS HE DOES NOT BELIEVE PRESIDENT BIDEN OR FORMER PRESIDENT TRUMP CAN SAVE AMERICA; HOWEVER, HE DOES BELIEVE THE SOUTHERN BAPTISTS AND THE NATIONAL BAPTISTS AT LEAST HAVE ENOUGH BIBLE KNOWLEDGE, UNDERSTANDING, AND ORGANIZATION THAT IF THEY WOULD HUMBLE THEMSELVES, PRAY, SEEK GOD’S FACE, TURN FROM THEIR WICKED WAYS, REPENT AND GET BACK TO THEIR FIRST LOVE — THE LORD JESUS CHRIST — OBEY THE GREAT COMMANDMENT AND THE GREAT COMMISSION, THEY CAN POSSIBLY SAVE THIS WAYWARD NATION AND TURN IT AROUND BY THE GRACE AND POWER OF GOD.
From its towering white steeple and red-brick facade to its Sunday services filled with rousing gospel hymns and evangelistic sermons, First Baptist Church of Alexandria, Virginia, bears many of the classic hallmarks of a Southern Baptist church.
On a recent Sunday, its pastor for women and children, Kim Eskridge, urged members to invite friends and neighbors to an upcoming vacation Bible school — a perennial Baptist activity — to help “reach families in the community with the gospel.”
But because that pastor is a woman, First Baptist’s days in the Southern Baptist Convention may be numbered.
At the SBC’s annual meeting June 11-12 in Indianapolis, representatives will vote on whether to amend the denomination’s constitution to essentially ban churches with any women pastors — and not just in the top job. That measure received overwhelming approval in a preliminary vote last year.
Leaders of First Baptist – which has given millions to Southern Baptist causes and has been involved with the convention since its 19th century founding — are bracing for a possible expulsion.
“We are grieved at the direction the SBC has taken,” the church said in a statement.
And it’s not alone.
By some estimates, the proposed ban could affect hundreds of congregations and have a disproportionate impact on predominantly Black churches.
The vote is partly the culmination of events set in motion two years ago.
That’s when a Virginia pastor contacted SBC officials to contend that First Baptist and four nearby churches were “out of step” with denominational doctrine that says only men can be pastors. The SBC Credentials Committee launched a formal inquiry in April.
Southern Baptists disagree on which ministry jobs this doctrine refers to. Some say it’s just the senior pastor, others that a pastor is anyone who preaches and exercises spiritual authority.
And in a Baptist tradition that prizes local church autonomy, critics say the convention shouldn’t enshrine a constitutional rule based on one interpretation of its non-binding doctrinal statement.
By some estimates, women are working in pastoral roles in hundreds of SBC-linked churches, a fraction of the nearly 47,000 across the denomination.
But critics say the amendment would amount to a further narrowing in numbers and mindset for the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, which has moved steadily rightward in recent decades.
They also wonder if the SBC has better things to do.
It has struggled to respond to sexual abuse cases in its churches. A former professor at a Southern Baptist seminary in Texas was indicted in May on a charge of falsifying a record about alleged sexual abuse by a student in order to obstruct a federal investigation into sexual misconduct in the convention.
SBC membership has dipped below 13 million, nearly a half-century low. Baptismal rates are in long-term decline.
The amendment, if passed, wouldn’t prompt an immediate purge. But it could keep the denomination’s leaders busy for years, investigating and ousting churches.
Many predominantly Black churches have men as lead pastors but assign pastor titles to women in other areas, such as worship and children’s ministries.
“To disfellowship like-minded churches … based on a local-church governance decision dishonors the spirit of cooperation and the guiding tenets of our denomination,” wrote Pastor Gregory Perkins, president of the SBC’s National African American Fellowship, to denominational officials.
The controversy complicates the already-choppy efforts by the mostly white denomination to diversify and overcome its legacy of slavery and segregation.
Amendment proponents say the convention needs to reinforce its doctrinal statement, the Baptist Faith and Message, which says the office of pastor is “limited to men as qualified by Scripture.”
“If we won’t stand on this issue and be unapologetically biblical, then we won’t stand on anything,” said amendment proponent Mike Law, pastor of Arlington Baptist Church in Virginia.
Since Baptist churches are independent, the convention can’t tell them what to do or whom to appoint as a pastor.
But the convention can decide which churches are in and which are out. And even without a formal amendment, its Executive Committee has begun telling churches with women pastors that they’re out. That included one of its largest, Saddleback Church of California.
When Saddleback and a small Kentucky church appealed to the annual meeting in 2023, delegates overwhelmingly refused to take them back.
The amendment would give such enforcement actions more teeth.
Some churches with women pastors quit on their own in the past year. They range from Elevation Church, a North Carolina megachurch, to First Baptist of Richmond, Virginia, which had close SBC ties from the convention’s founding.
Law contended the issue has been a “canary in the coalmine” for liberal denominations, several of which began ordaining women and later LGBTQ+ people.
“Southern Baptists are facing a decisive moment,” he said in a video on a pro-amendment website. “Here’s the trajectory of doing nothing: Soon Southern Baptist churches will start openly supporting homosexual clergy, same-sex marriage and eventually transgenderism.”
Others point out that Pentecostal and other denominations have had women pastors for generations and remain theologically conservative.
Some SBC churches with women pastors are heavily involved with the convention, while others have minimal connections and identify more closely with historically Black or other progressive denominations.
Also, some SBC churches interpret the 2000 faith statement as only applying to senior pastors. As long as a the church leader is male, women can serve other pastoral roles, they say.
Such churches may leave if SBC leaders interfere with congregations following “their conscience, biblical convictions, and values by recognizing women can receive a pastoral gift from God in partnership with male leadership,” said Dwight McKissic, a pastor from Arlington, Texas, on the social media platform X.
Other churches say women can be in any role, including senior pastor, and churches can agree to disagree if they embrace most of the SBC faith statement.
That category includes First Baptist of Alexandria. Though its current senior pastor is male, it recognizes “God’s calling to ordain any qualified individual, male or female, for pastoral ministry,” the church said in a statement.
First Baptist leaders declined interview requests, but it has posted extensively about the issue on its website.
It said while it plans to send representatives to the SBC annual meeting, it was warned to expect a motion to deny them voting privileges.
“I do believe we need to be heard and represented,” Senior Pastor Robert Stephens told members in a video-recorded meeting.
The SBC’s top administrative body opposes the amendment. Investigating churches’ compliance would consume an unsustainable amount of time and energy over something that shouldn’t be a litmus test for fellowship, wrote Jeff Iorg, president of the SBC Executive Committee, in a Baptist Press commentary.
Baptist Women in Ministry, which began within the SBC in the 1980s but now works in multiple Baptist denominations, has taken note. The Rev. Meredith Stone, its executive director, said some women pastors within the SBC have reached out for support.
The group plans to release a documentary, “Midwives of a Movement,” about 20th century trailblazers for women in Baptist ministry, on the eve of the SBC meeting.
“As they are saying women have less value to God than men in the church, we want to make sure that women know they do have equal value and that there are no limits to how they follow Christ in the work of the church,” Stone said.