Thousands of Southern Baptists have voted overwhelmingly to advance a formal ban on churches with women pastors in the nation’s largest conservative evangelical denomination. The vote at their annual meeting sent a clear message that men alone should preach to congregations. They easily exceeded the two-thirds majority required to amend the Southern Baptist Convention’s constitution. The ban will require a similar vote at next year’s annual meeting to gain final approval. The amendment would tighten existing restrictions in the Southern Baptist Convention, which already has a faith statement opposing women pastors.

The Pentagon’s recent revision to its list of Christian religions has reignited a long-standing debate about whether The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a Christian denomination. Latter-day Saints identify as Christian. But some core beliefs, particularly involving the Trinity, differ from Catholic and mainline Protestant denominations. Utah's U.S. Senators Mike Lee and John Curtis, both Republicans and Latter-day Saints, challenged the Pentagon’s exclusion of their faith from its list of Christian religions. The Pentagon removed the Christian label from 20 traditions, including Catholic and Lutheran, and stated the new rubric is not meant to question any faith’s legitimacy.

Southern Baptists will gather for their annual meeting on Tuesday. And for the fourth year in a row, they'll debate whether to formally ban churches with a woman in any role resembling that of pastor. One thing they're unlikely to debate is any noticeable change in the politics of many Southern Baptists. They form the vanguard of the broader white conservative evangelical support for President Donald Trump. More than 11,000 church representatives have preregistered for the two-day meeting in Orlando, Florida. The Southern Baptist Convention's membership has declined to its lowest since 1973, but it remains influential as the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S.