On Sunday night Anderson Cooper interviewed Southern Baptist Convention president Bart Barber. Barber talks about the denomination’s sexual abuse scandal, his belief that Joe Biden is the legitimate president, the reasons why he did not vote for Trump in 2016...
Southern Baptists
The president of the Southern Baptist Convention appears to reject Christian nationalism
Here is Bart Barber‘s recent Twitter thread: Samuel Perry, a scholar of Christian nationalism, offers to help:...
Adam Greenway resigns as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
He replaced the morally compromised Paige Patterson. Now he is out. Here is Mark Wingfield of Baptist News Global: Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary confirmed Friday afternoon, Sept. 23, what BNG first reported Thursday evening, Sept. 22: Adam Greenway resigned as...
The Southern Baptist Convention wraps-up another tumultuous annual meeting
I was recently speaking with someone who grew up as an evangelical pastor’s kid. This person described the chaos and division that took place at the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting this week in Anaheim as “what happens in every...
Day 1 of the 3-ring circus is over. The Southern Baptists elect a new president.
Anyone following the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting this week in Anaheim is witnessing a denomination in shambles. The Convention has a serious sexual abuse problem to deal with and not everyone agrees that there is a problem or how...
Voter fraud, attempts to steal the election, Charlie Kirk & Liberty University, and the potential ousting of Rick Warren’s church. And it’s only 9:25am in Anaheim!
Yes, the Southern Baptists are meeting in Anaheim this week. Later today they will elect a new president. We don’t have the time or the staff to follow all the details, so I am relying heavily on other more competent...
“Turns out the Roman Catholic Church has nothing on the Southern Baptists when it comes to covering up sexual misconduct”
Randall Balmer, a Dartmouth religion professor and one of the country’s most prominent religious observers, addresses the Southern Baptist sexual abuse report. Here is a taste of his piece at the Los-Angeles Times: In an origin story oft-repeated in SBC circles,...
Why have conservatives remained silent on the Southern Baptist abuse scandals?
Here is Paul Waldman at The Washington Post: There are few things that members of the American right emphasize more often about themselves than their deep commitment to protecting children — particularly when it comes to the threat of sexual...
Wehner: “No atheist has done this much damage to the Christian faith”
David August “Augie” Boto, a member of the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, referred to outcries of sexual assault victims as part of a “satanic scheme” to “distract us from evangelism.” After reading the report, Boto may want...
A word to Southern Baptist culture warriors: Please shut your mouths and start dealing with the systemic immorality in your own house
I am guessing a lot of the Southern Baptist theobros and others will be upset with the title of this post. But it was all that came to mind after I received a note from an old friend from Bible...
More responses to the Southern Baptist sexual abuse report
We gathered some very early responses here. These are responses we have seen since Sunday night: JOURNALISM: Adelle Banks of Religion News Service has a timeline. Ruth Graham and Elizabeth Dias at The New York Times. Some nice context here....
Systemic immorality or just 700+ bad apples?
Shane Claiborne gets the tweet of the day: Context....
“The scale of malfeasance is truly shocking”
Michael Gerson responds to the Southern Baptist sexual abuse scandal. Here is a taste of his Washington Post column: In nearly 300 pages, a third-party investigator has produced the Warren Commission report, the 9/11 Commission report, of Southern Baptist Christianity. And the scale of...
The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee’s third-party abuse investigation report was just released. It’s horrifying.
Here is Kate Shellnut at Christianity Today: Armed with a secret list of more than 700 abusive pastors, Southern Baptist leaders chose to protect the denomination from lawsuits rather than protect the people in their churches from further abuse. Survivors,...
More Southern Baptist drama
This comes from a blogger called “The Masked Baptist“: SBC entities work for the churches. Right? We thought so too. But what about when employees of an SBC Entity refuse to help stop the blackmail a Southern Baptist pastor and try to...
Albert Mohler responds to David Brooks’ essay on evangelical reformers
Writing at WORLD magazine, the latest imperial conquest of the fundamentalist fiefdom over which he presides, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Albert Mohler has responded to David Brooks’s recent New York Times piece on evangelical dissenters. Let’s break it down:...
Marvin Olasky discusses his resignation from World magazine
We covered this here and here. Here is Bob Smietana at Religion News Service: Olasky had hoped to end his tenure as editor-in-chief, which began in 1994, in the summer of 2022. Those plans changed after World’s publisher announced the...
Historian Thomas Kidd leaves Baylor for Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
I knew Tommy Kidd liked barbecue, but I was not expecting this. Here is the press release: Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Jason Allen has announced that historian Thomas S. Kidd will join Midwestern Seminary’s residential faculty as research professor...
Louisiana College is changing its name to Louisiana Christian University
The Southern Baptist College in Pineville, Louisiana is changing its name. Here is the Associated Press: Louisiana College in Pineville will formally announce its new name — Louisiana Christian University — on Nov. 16 during a meeting of the Louisiana...
Ronnie Floyd resigns as President and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee
Here is some context for Floyd’s resignation. Current received the following press release tonight: Dear SBC Executive Committee Trustees and SBC Family, I was planning to release this letter on Monday, October 11; however, I delayed the publishing of this letter...