It should come as a surprise to exactly no one that the platform of the Republican Party aligns more closely with resolutions passed by the Southern Baptist Convention than does the platform of the Democratic Party. What might be surprising, however, is where those differences occur.
As both major political parties have held their conventions this summer, Baptist Press has run articles comparing the official party platforms to positions taken by messengers to SBC annual meetings in recent years. See the article on the Republican platform here, and see the article on the Democratic platform here. Baptist Press is the official in-house news organ of the SBC.
In the official parlance of the SBC, resolutions approved at annual meetings are nonbinding and represent only the consensus of those gathered in that place at that time. In the past, SBC leaders urged extreme caution in extrapolating from resolutions the mind of every Southern Baptist or every Southern Baptist church.
However, in recent years, resolutions often have become litmus tests for fellowship and orthodoxy. That’s why these position statements matter in an election year.
It has been well documented that Southern Baptists, on the whole, have joined the white evangelical voting bloc that has supported Donald Trump in 2016, 2020 and likely will do so again in 2024. However, there are significant outliers within the SBC — not necessarily those who will vote for Democrats but those who will vote for alternate conservative or independent candidates.
As Benjamin Cole and I discuss in a forthcoming episode of the “Stuck in the Middle with You” podcast, over the past three decades the SBC has moved further to the right while those of us who left the SBC have moved further to the left.
Abortion
Abortion may appear to be the tightest connection between the GOP and the SBC, but this year’s Republican platform took a curiously vague approach to the most contentious social issue of the past 50 years.
BP’s coverage noted this:
The previous GOP platform, released in 2016, referenced abortion 35 times in 66 pages — about once every two pages. It advocated a constitutional amendment applying the right to life to children in the womb. The platform also aligned with SBC calls to defund Planned Parenthood (2017), repeal Roe v. Wade (2022) and ban the sale of fetal tissue from elective abortions (2000) among other pro-life causes.
This year’s 16-page Republican platform references abortion in just one paragraph, celebrating the overturning of Roe v. Wade, opposing late-term abortion and vowing to “protect and defend a vote of the people, from within the states, on the issue of life.” The apparent retreat from pro-life issues has drawn criticism from Southern Baptists as well as former vice president Mike Pence.
“The RNC platform is a profound disappointment to the millions of pro-life Republicans that have always looked to the Republican Party to stand for life.”
“The RNC platform is a profound disappointment to the millions of pro-life Republicans that have always looked to the Republican Party to stand for life,” Pence posted on the social media site X.
Still, SBC voters appear likely to stick with Donald Trump and the GOP because they believe the Democrats would open the door to more abortion and roll back the restrictions Trump made possible.
Baptist Press states:
The Democratic platform laments the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, claiming the decision “has already had devastating consequences nationwide.” Restrictions on abortion are “extreme and dangerous” and “put the health and lives of women in jeopardy.”
SBC resolutions repeatedly have affirmed the sanctity of unborn human life and stood against abortion. A 2021 resolution “on abolishing abortion” “state(d) unequivocally that abortion is murder” and “reject[ed] any position that … compromises God’s holy standard of justice.” The following year, another resolution “encourage(d) all Southern Baptists to pray for the overturning of the disastrous precedent set in Roe v. Wade.”
Religious liberty
The most telling difference — showing the rightward tilt of the SBC — is comparing SBC resolutions to the parties’ views on religious liberty.
Baptists historically have been staunch defenders of religious liberty for all people. But the modern SBC often has aligned with the conservative evangelical view that religious liberty should be applied differently to Christians than to people of other faiths or no faith. This is rooted in their belief that America is a “Christian nation.”
According to this view, conservative Christians are being persecuted by liberals and Democrats who seek to stop evangelicals from controlling school libraries and curricula and forcing their children to be around gay people and see transgender people.
The Baptist Press article says SBC resolutions are in “partial agreement” with the Democratic platform.
In keeping with Southern Baptists’ longstanding advocacy of religious liberty, the Democratic platform pledges to “protect the First Amendment right to free exercise of religion for everyone.” A 2024 SBC resolution “on defending religious liberty” reaffirmed “numerous Southern Baptist resolutions throughout our history which reject government restriction of religious opinion” and “religious expression.”
Yet the Democratic platform states it “will continue to honor both religious freedom and other civil rights, not put(ting) them at war with one another.” In the past, such language has been used to justify criminal and civil penalties against Americans whose religious convictions prevent them from providing goods or services that affirm LGBTQ lifestyles. In contrast, a 2012 SBC resolution called on the government to “guarantee the right” of Americans “to express their religious convictions about homosexual behavior without fear of reprisal.”
Baptist Press sees more alignment with the GOP platform on religious liberty, which calls out the perceived persecution evangelicals face in a secular culture.
Baptist Press sees more alignment with the GOP platform on religious liberty, which calls out the perceived persecution evangelicals face in a secular culture:
Americans possess the right “not only to worship according to the dictates of conscience, but also to act in accordance with those beliefs, not just in places of worship, but in everyday life,” according to the Republican platform. Religious liberty applies to “men and women from every faith and tradition.” The GOP advocated “a new federal task force on fighting anti-Christian bias” and affirmed students’ rights to pray and read the Bible in school.
The SBC has expressed its support for religious liberty dozens of times. Most recently, a 2024 resolution affirmed “that God has endowed every human with religious liberty.” The Convention rejected “any government coercion or enforcement of religious belief.”
LGBTQ rights
The SBC is stridently anti-gay in all its positions. There is no space for inclusion or same-sex marriage or protecting the civil rights of the LGBTQ community.
Baptist Press describes the Democratic platform as committed to defending “same-sex marriage, the right of transgender individuals to serve in the military and defining sex discrimination in schools to include sexual orientation and gender identity.”
And it states: “Democrats oppose efforts to help adolescents battle same-sex attraction. Additionally, they promise to ban employment discrimination against LGBTQ individuals, with no mention of exceptions to protect the religious liberty of employers and organizations.”
SBC resolutions, in contrast, have condemned gender-affirming care and gender transition and have called on the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the right of the evangelicals “to define marriage as exclusively the union of one man and one woman.” To do otherwise, the SBC has said, is “to negate or usurp God’s definition of marriage.”
In the Republican platform, the issue of LGBTQ inclusion is couched in terms of “parental rights.”
In the Republican platform, the issue of LGBTQ inclusion is couched in terms of “parental rights.”
Baptist Press explains:
“Republicans will support schools that focus on Excellence and Parental Rights,” according to the GOP platform. The party pledged to “restore parental rights in education” because “we trust parents.”
This year, the SBC addressed “the God-given rights and responsibilities of parents,” calling on government “to partner with, rather than act contrary to, the family unit, enacting legislation that protects and upholds parental rights, ensuring that parents have the freedom to make decisions regarding the upbringing, education, and health care of their children without undue interference.”
The GOP platform does specifically address transgender identity, however, and that lines up with the SBC’s zero-tolerance policy. Baptist Press states:
“Republicans will end left-wing gender insanity,” the platform pledged. That includes keeping men out of women’s sports, banning “taxpayer funding for sex change surgeries” and stopping “taxpayer-funded schools from promoting gender transition.”
The SBC has gone further. A 2023 resolution “condemn(ed) and oppose(d) ‘gender-affirming care’ and all forms of ‘gender transition’ interventions.” The “futile quest to change one’s sex” is “a direct assault on God’s created order,” according to the resolution. The SBC extended “the love of Christ” as well as “compassionate care and tender mercy to those experiencing identity or body-related distress.”
Immigration
In the broad view, immigration is the place where Southern Baptist theology comes into the greatest conflict with the Trump-inspired GOP stance, which is rightly described as “anti-immigrant.”
The Baptist Press article paints this as less of a conflict than it is. The proof of reality is that the current and past presidents of the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission have come under intense fire for being too compassionate toward immigrants — echoing biblical teaching but defying Trumpism.
SBC resolutions and the GOP platform agree on stopping “illegal immigration,” but the formal SBC positions “implore our government leaders to maintain robust avenues for valid asylum claimants seeking refuge and to create legal pathways to permanent status for immigrants who are in our communities by no fault of their own.” That is heresy to Trump and his acolytes.
Baptist Press notes: “At least three other times since 2006, the SBC has called for government officials to secure America’s borders. In all three resolutions, the convention highlighted the need for compassionate treatment of immigrants regardless of their legal status.”
Other issues
SBC resolutions line up or disagree with the two party platforms on a variety of other issues, including IVF treatment, Native Americans, use of artificial intelligence, racism, gun violence, climate change, and Israel.
With about 13 million members in its churches, the SBC is by far the largest Protestant denomination in the nation. Previous studies have found white evangelical churchgoers are more likely to vote than the average American and that Southern Baptists make up a large chunk of the evangelical base that made Trump’s 2016 election possible.
How that will play out in 2024 remains to be seen. Already earlier this year, Lifeway Research published polling data showing key differences between Southern Baptist pastors and laity compared to other broadly defined evangelicals.
And remember: SBC resolutions only reflect the views of those with the resources and time and interest to travel to annual meetings. The average view in the pew could be different.
Here’s one final way the Republican and Democratic platforms find common ground — much to the disappointment of the SBC. While the Democratic platform includes only one passing mention of “God,” the Republican platform only does so in two passing references.
Related articles:
Who’s an evangelical? New poll finds Southern Baptists separating from Christian nationalists on some points | Analysis by Mark Wingfield
On the Trump trial, the SBC and accountability | Opinion by Joe Westbury
Trump tells Southern Baptists, ‘You cannot vote for Democrats’ while Mohler opposes IVF