Southern Baptists Overwhelmingly Affirm Saddleback Church Expulsion After Pastor Ordained Women

Saddleback Church's expulsion was finalized this week after first being announced back in February

The Southern Baptist Convention has upheld its decision to expel Saddleback Church for having women pastors.

Thousands of Southern Baptists voted overwhelmingly to affirm the church's ejection from the SBC, according to data shared by The Baptist Press, which describes itself as “the official news service” of the SBC.

Nearly 89% of the voters (9,437) voted in favor of expelling the California-based megachurch, while just 11.4% voted to reject it, per the report.

Additionally, they also voted to finalize the expulsion of Kentucky's Fern Creek Baptist, which has been led by a woman for decades, during the SBC’s annual meeting in New Orleans, according to NBC News and Associated Press.

Related: Southern Baptists Expel Saddleback Church, One of the Denomination's Largest, Over Female Pastor

Rick Warren, retired pastor and founder of Saddleback Church, lamented the decision to deny their appeal during a news conference after the results were revealed, per the AP.

“Messengers voted for conformity and uniformity rather than unity,” Warren said. “The only way you will have unity is to love diversity.”

The SBC is known as the largest Protestant denomination in the United States. Saddleback was the denomination's second-largest congregation, according to the AP.

The church’s expulsion was originally approved in February following a vote by the SBC's Executive Committee. The group cited Saddleback's decision to have "a female teaching pastor functioning in the office of pastor,” according to a previous AP report.

Stacie Wood, wife of pastor Andy Wood, accepted the role as teaching pastor following Warren’s retirement in 2022.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Despite the vote, women have still been allowed to serve as pastors at Saddleback. In May, Saddleback announced Katie Edwards would take over as campus pastor at its Lake Forest location.

Edwards is one of the three women ordained by Saddleback in 2021, according to the Press. 

Before the vote, Warren encouraged SBC members to vote against the expulsion “in order to share a common mission,” according to the AP. Afterward he criticized members’ outdated beliefs.

“There are people who want to take the SBC back to the 1950s when white men ruled supreme and when the woman’s place was in the home. There are others who want to take it back 500 years to the time of the Reformation,” Warren said Wednesday.

Related: Hillsong's Carl Lentz: What to Know About the Megachurch's Former Celebrity Pastor

In the 1980s, the SBC determined that scripture says “women are not in public worship to assume a role of authority over men,” and amended its Faith and Message statement to note that women should submit “graciously” to their husbands, per The Washington Post,

At the turn of the century, the SBC amended the Faith and Message again to say, “the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.”

On Wednesday, the SBC is expected to consider amending its constitution to prohibit churches from allowing women to hold any leadership roles, according to the Post and The New York Times.

Related: Married Pastor, Who Stepped Away After Messaging Another Woman, Cheered as He Returns to Pulpit

Although the SBC cannot directly tell its independent churches how to operate, as noted by the AP, churches can be expelled should they be determined to no longer be “in friendly cooperation."

Shortly before Tuesday’s voting results were revealed, SBC President Bart Barber suggested that expelling a church is nothing to celebrate, per the AP and NBC News.

“I know sometimes there are churches where people wind up in biblical divorce," Barber said. “But we don’t throw divorce parties at church. And whatever these results are, I’m asking you, behave like Christians.”

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.