
Southern Baptist public policy arm survives challenge to its conservative credentials
Southern Baptist representatives have fended off two efforts to move the staunchly conservative body even more sharply to the right. They gave a vote of confidence Wednesday to its public-policy agency. It had faced criticism for not being conservative enough. They also defeated a proposed constitutional ban on churches with women in any pastoral role. That vote failed to reach the two-thirds majority needed for a constitutional change. The actions came in Dallas toward the end of the two-day annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, which is the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.