A group of nearly two dozen persons comprised of both survivors and advocates convened across the street from Southern Baptist Convention headquarters Feb. 21 to protest the SBC Executive Committee’s alleged mishandling of sexual abuse and mistreatment of survivors. The…
This Mohlerian moment
Albert Mohler has a problem. You may be tempted to think this problem was his surprising third-place finish in the race for Southern Baptist Convention president at last year’s annual meeting in Nashville. But that is only partially correct. You…
A story behind the story on the SBC and sexual abuse
It has been a humiliating week for Southern Baptists. Earlier this week, as a Clemons Fellow with Baptist News Global, I reported on the release of a memorandum authored by a sexual abuse survivor that details stunning and sweeping allegations…
Willie McLaurin appointed interim Executive Committee president, becoming the SBC’s first-ever Black entity head
Willie McLaurin, Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee vice president for Great Commission relations and mobilization, has been appointed interim president and CEO of the Executive Committee. The appointment came 10 days before the four-month mark of Ronnie Floyd’s resignation from…
29-page memorandum illustrates what the SBC Sexual Abuse Task force is hearing
A 29-page single-spaced memorandum originally obtained by Baptist News Global and subsequently made public by the survivor and advocate who authored it alleges at least 18 years of mishandling specific instances of sexual abuse by the Southern Baptist Convention Executive…
They spoke out against the Capitol insurrection; one year later, they’re no longer pastors
Brandon Long wanted the doctrine of “redemption” to be the hill he would die on. Instead, the doctrine of evangelical loyalty to Donald Trump was his demise as a pastor. In 2018, Long and his wife experienced a divine call…
One year after Jan. 6, some things are worth dividing over
In his classic work Why I Am a Christian, the late Anglican theologian John Stott prophetically penned gloomy words that, at the time, mostly fell on deaf ears. “The technocratic society, which diminishes and even destroys transcendence and significance,” Stott…
If pickles had souls, would the SBC Executive Committee still ignore the will of SBC messengers?
On Tuesday, Sept. 21, the single greatest threat to the future of the Southern Baptist Convention since the controversy of the Conservative Resurgence was revealed. It was not revealed to be a liberal drift, inerrancy versus non-inerrancy, women preachers, the…
When your religion goes against my religion
On Sept. 2, Religion News Service published an opinion piece by Rabbi Danny Horwitz titled “Texas’ abortion ban is against my religion. As a rabbi, I will defy it if necessary.” The article certainly impressed me with its provocative title….
It’s time to pay the Piper
On a crisp November night in 2016, I stumbled upon a message from John Piper that changed my theological and ministerial trajectory forever. I was an eager high school senior with a passion for (what I perceived to be at…
Beware the Anti-Anti-Racist Evangelical Complex
Since publication of their new book addressing a Christian view on reparations for descendants of formerly enslaved Americans, Gregory Thompson and Duke Kwon have been met with harsh criticism by the “Anti-Anti-Racist Evangelical Complex.” That’s the best name I can…