As the Southern Baptist Convention prepares for its annual meeting in Nashville next week, observers from inside and outside the denomination are watching to see what will happen on a number of controversial issues.
To preview those issues and explore why they matter far beyond the SBC, Baptist News Global will convene a panel of notable SBC exiles for a free webinar on Sunday, June 13, beginning at 5 p.m. Eastern time/4 p.m. Central time.
BNG Executive Director Mark Wingfield, who has worked in and covered the SBC across four decades, will moderate the conversation with others who were raised in the denomination and have historical insight. Confirmed panelists include Bill Leonard, church historian and retired dean of the Wake Forest University School of Divinity; Suzii Paynter, former executive coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship; Wendell Griffen, Arkansas judge, Baptist pastor and civil rights advocate; Linda McKinnish Bridges, former president of Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond; and Marv Knox, veteran Baptist journalist and leader.
Webinar participants will be able to ask questions of the panelists. Projected topics to be covered include the accusations of Russell Moore about racism and a cover-up of sexual abuse concerns in the SBC, the debate about Critical Race Theory, the four-person presidential race, and the declining membership of the denomination.
In sum, panelists will be asked to explain the broad implications of current SBC drama and its intersections regarding racial justice, white male authoritarianism, misogyny, white Christian nationalism, and the future of democracy in the United States.
Discussion also will include how the legacy of the SBC’s origins in support of slavery still shape the denomination’s views and actions today and the influence of fundamentalism in the denomination from the 1920s to the present day.
Registration for the webinar is free but required. Register here.
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