Once upon a time, starting in the late 1970a, the Southern Baptists Convention had a big civil war — fighting about the authority of the Bible and “biblical inerrancy,” a rather inside-baseball term that was little known by pew-folks at that time.

There were two big armies, with the gray three-piece-suit players of the Southern Baptist establishment and on the other the rebels who, if my memory is correct, sometimes wore plaid. Cut me some slack, because it’s been a long time. But this background was crucial in this week’s “Crossroads” podcast (click here to tune that in), focusing on early coverage of strife leading up to the 2023 SBC meetings next week in New Orleans.

The good guys back then called themselves “moderates” because they tended to seek compromise stances on hot-button issues — such as abortion and the ordination of women. Thus, journalists called them “moderates.”

The bad guys called themselves “conservatives” and took strong stands on the big Bible issues (with the exception, let’s say, of economic justice). Thus, many journalists called them “fundamentalists” — including some rather ordinary evangelicals who didn’t fit that f-word term.

The right said there were “liberals” all over the place and the SBC left said “liberals” didn’t exist. Truth is, there were very few doctrinal liberals around (in a seminary chair or two) who were weak in defending ancient beliefs — think the Resurrection and the Virgin Birth of Jesus. Journalists were not interested in investigating facts related to these debates, since the “moderates” said that was all, well, disinformation.

Flash forward to the present. The few remaining “moderates” have mainline Protestant demographics and often have quiet disputes about mainline Protestant-style issues (think LGBTQ+ matters).

The hot-button SBC 2023 issues are (1) how tough to be on fighting sexual abuse and (2) the ordination of women (and old issue is back).

Everyone defends biblical inerrancy (while maybe offering slightly different definitions). Everyone stands together on the big doctrinal issues. In the background, however, is an important issue — when it comes to an issue like ordaining women, does the SBC have “doctrines” or “opinions”?

Read this Religion News Service overture carefully:

Days before the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting, former megachurch pastor Rick Warren has appealed to his fellow Southern Baptists to overturn a denominational decision to oust his Saddleback Church because it permits women to serve with the title pastor.

“This should be the moment where 47,000+ autonomous, independent, freedom-loving churches say NO to turning the Executive Committee into a theological Magisterium that controls a perpetual inquisition of churches and makes the EC a centralized hierarchy that tells our congregations who to hire and what to call them,” Warren wrote in an open letter released Friday (June 2).

The SBC’s Executive Committee voted in February to oust Saddleback, approving a recommendation of its credentials committee that determined the congregation was “not in friendly cooperation” because Stacie Wood, wife of Warren successor Andy Wood, had the title of “teaching pastor.”

Let’s keep reading:

… Warren has mounted a campaign that includes the open letter, a website and a video series detailing why he thinks the church should be permitted to remain within the Southern Baptist fold.

“Your own family members often hold opposing opinions, but you don’t disown them for that,” he wrote. “You still love them in spite of disagreement.” …

Warren also cited Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong, two women missionaries in whose names major denominational missions funds are collected in SBC churches every year. The letter encouraged fellow Baptists “to say NO to those who would have silenced these Southern Baptist women.”

Note the strategic use of “opinions.”

Obviously, Warren is a famous preacher and writer and, at this moment in time, may be the world’s most famous Southern Baptist. The status of the influential megachurch he founded is a valid story.

But there is a bigger story here about the SBC as a whole. Alas, covering this story requires journalists to cover doctrine. There are religion-beat pros who want to do that — but many more reporters who do not.

The key question, again: Are Southern Baptists united by opinions or doctrines? And, as Warren noted, who gets to define (and maybe police) those doctrines. When discussing the ordination of women in other settings — think Rome and the Christian East — there are centuries of doctrines involved. That matters.

For Southern Baptists, everything appears to depend on how one views that document called the Baptist Faith & Message. Read this bite of an online essay by Southern Seminary President R. Albert Mohler, Jr., and contrast it with Warren’s statement. The big word — “codified.”

Southern Baptists codified the convictional issues as part of our confession of faith in the year 2000. The Baptist Faith & Message was revised to make clear that, "While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture." Again, the statement is quite clear, and that statement is part of the confessional foundation that allows Southern Baptist churches to cooperate in mission and ministry. Every single seminary professor teaching in our six seminaries is obligated to that teaching, and had better be clear about it. The same is true for every missionary and worker with the International Mission Board and the North American Mission Board — and for every SBC convention work. The BF&M is the summary of Baptist beliefs that define what it means to be a cooperating Southern Baptist and a church "in friendly cooperation with" the Convention.

The Constitution of the Southern Baptist Convention includes this crucial statement: "The Convention will only deem a church to be in friendly cooperation with the Convention, and sympathetic with its purposes and work (i.e., a 'cooperating' church as that term is used in the Convention’s governing documents) which … (has) a faith and practice which closely identifies with the Convention’s adopted statement of faith."

Now, back to another important term in this debate — “pastor.”

Is that a “senior pastor”? The leader of a church with only one minister? How about an ordained hospital chaplain? A campus minister? The leader of a ministry for children?

There are (1) conservatives who favor the ordination of women (think Pentecostals and some evangelical Anglicans). There are (2) conservatives who favor the ordination of women — but only in ministries other than the authoritative role of senior or “teaching” pastor. I suspect this was Warren’s belief for quite some time.

Then there are (3) conservatives who do not support the ordination of women, but don’t want to punish Southern Baptists (especially those in that second, limited ordination category) who disagree. Finally, there are (4) those who want to break ties of fellowship with all churches that ordain women.

The Saddleback showdown is based on several facts linked to all of this. With Warren’s retirement, a few years ago the super-church’s new leader(s) became the Rev. Andy and Stacie Wood. The latter is ordained and her job description includes “teaching pastor” duties.

As I noted in an earlier GetReligion post (and podcast), some Southern Baptists argue that it is crucial whether a woman holds teaching authority over an entire congregation (including men). I wrote:

Why wasn’t Saddleback “disfellowshipped” three years ago? The key is in the term “teaching pastor,” a reference to the Rev. Stacie Wood being a pastor who, as a regular part of her ministry, preached to the entire congregation. Basically, this is a co-pastor role with her husband, when it comes to pulpit ministry and, trust me, Southern Baptists really care about preaching.

Let’s end with the journalism issue I mentioned at the beginning — the delicate task of labeling the armies in the 2023 war. The religion-beat pro at the Nashville Tennessean, Liam Adams, took to Twitter to open up a discussion of what terms should and should not be used. A thread about that is embedded above.

Adams managed to write a pre-SBC convention news feature (“Saddleback Church, others set to appeal ouster from Southern Baptist Convention”) without using the troubled term “moderate.” Read this crucial passage with that in mind and note the Baptist Faith & Message hook, too:

There’s … a pastor-led campaign for a constitutional amendment that would codify the SBC’s doctrinal statement to prohibit women pastors and make the prohibition a condition for affiliation with the SBC at the national level. A debate about the constitutional amendment is expected to arise at this year’s annual meeting.

The likely debates at the annual meeting over the constitutional amendments and appeals to the ouster of churches have the potential to transform the status of churches with women pastors in the SBC.

The SBC doctrinal statement, called the Baptist Faith & Message 2000, says the office of pastor is limited to men. Southern Baptists hold to a complementarian view, which believes men and women hold different roles.

However, the way Southern Baptists enforce the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 is more complicated at both the national level and at the state and regional levels.

What will readers see in the news, in terms of labels? I will end with five predictions — knowing that in this niche- and activist-journalism era, many journalists — left and right — will not be limited by logic, church history or facts.

* In a flashback to the past, some will say that this is another war pitting “moderates” (good) vs. “fundamentalists” (evil).

* After the results of the SBC civil war became the new normal, some journalists switched to “moderates” vs. “conservatives.” Of course, many (but not all) SBC “moderates” would be “conservatives” in mainline Protestant settings.

* How about “establishment conservatives” and those who are “more conservative”? If that’s the option, reporters need to try, try, try to discuss these differences in doctrinal, not political, terms. Avoid, in particular, “right-wing.” And leave Donald Trump out of all of this.

* In some conservative news outlets, we may see “woke” Southern Baptists vs. conservatives. I am not amused.

* Some on the journalism right may even turn the clock back to “liberals” fighting with “real conservatives,” or language of that kind.

I’ll be back to Tennessee early next week. Please help me look for these issues in the mainstream coverage! And enjoy the podcast and, please, pass it along to others.

FIRST IMAGE: Online program comparing the 1963 and 2000 versions of The Baptist Faith and Message.