With the election of an outsider president who had strong support from reform-minded pastors, the Southern Baptist Convention may be changing in tone. But substantive changes are still a ways off, say denominational observers. While there were surprises, messengers to…
Baptism meanings and methods spark debate among some Baptists
Disputes about baptism are troubling the waters among some Baptists. From a controversial policy of the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board, which narrows the definition of an acceptable baptism of a new missionary, to churches that wrestle with the…
WMU retains auxiliary status after Greensboro SBC vote
Messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting voted down a proposal asking the Woman's Missionary Union to become an official entity of the SBC. The proposal's defeat allows WMU to retain its status as an auxiliary of the SBC. The…
Abstinence resolution calls for trustees to be teetotalers
Declaring “our total opposition to the … consuming of alcoholic beverages,” Southern Baptist Convention messengers adopted a strongly worded resolution on the issue June 14. Messengers adopted 15 resolutions presented by the SBC Resolutions Committee on issues ranging from genocide…
SBC sends issue back to trustees
The SBC's International Mission Board will get a chance to resolve its own trustee dispute, despite a plea for outside arbitration. Trustee Wade Burleson asked SBC messengers to authorize the convention's Executive Committee to create a special committee to study…
Condi Rice tells messengers U.S.’s job is to spread freedom
In an address that was received like a campaign stump speech, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, exhorting her listeners to support the United States in spreading freedom around the globe. After a…
Seminary presidents Mohler and Patterson debate Calvinism
Baptist seminary presidents Paige Patterson and Albert Mohler may have philosophical differences on the subject of divine election as interpreted by Calvinism, but those differences have small practical effect, an hour-long dialogue between the two revealed. Patterson and Mohler discussed…
ANALYSIS: Will election of president deal blow to neo-Calvinism?
When Southern Baptist Convention messengers elected dark-horse candidate Frank Page of South Carolina as president, they not only sent a populist message to the powerbrokers who backed other candidates, but also — at least in the eyes of some observers…
New SBC president upsets power brokers in razor-thin victory
In a major upset, outsider Frank Page of South Carolina was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention over two candidates closely tied to the SBC's conservative power structure. Page, who described his election as a victory for grassroots Baptists,…