Note: This story was updated Friday night, March 4, to include newly available comments from Voddie Baucham. With the surprise announcement by Southern Baptist Convention President Ed Litton that he will not seek a traditional second term, speculation has quickly…
SBC President Ed Litton will not seek second term
In a move breaking with decades of Southern Baptist Convention tradition, SBC President Ed Litton, pastor of Redemption Church in Mobile, Ala., announced in a video statement March 1 that he does not intend to seek a second term as…
SBC Executive Committee publicly apologizes to sexual abuse survivor
In a stunning reversal of course, the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee acknowledged its own mishandling of a report of sexual abuse and publicly apologized to the survivor in a statement by Chairman Rolland Slade Feb. 22. That statement was…
Litton and McLaurin urge SBC Executive Committee toward compassion and Christlikeness
The Southern Baptist Convention must address its “stains” of racism and tolerating sexual abuse, President Ed Litton told members of the SBC Executive Committee Monday night, Feb. 21. He spoke just hours after a group of sexual abuse survivors held…
SBC Sexual Abuse Task Force gives update at halfway mark in its mandated timeline
Five days before Christmas, the Southern Baptist Convention’s Sexual Abuse Task Force released an update on its work, right at the halfway mark in the 12-month timeline between its creation and its required report to the 2022 SBC annual meeting….
SBC faces a test of its governance with tug-of-war over sexual abuse investigation
The Southern Baptist Convention currently faces one of the greatest tests ever of its internal governance while also fending off serious accusations of mishandling sexual abuse claims. This dual problem consumed the Sept. 20-21 meeting of the SBC Executive Committee…
A modest proposal for imperiled pulpit plagiarists
Pulpit plagiarism has been making the news again. “Again” is the operative word. This is not new. A couple of friends, now in their 80s, recall making a wager about which swiped sermon a famous Baptist preacher/evangelist would deliver to…
Litton names task force to study sexual abuse handling in SBC, including a critic of past actions as an adviser
One of the most outspoken critics of the Southern Baptist Convention’s handling of alleged clergy sexual abuse has been named a special adviser to the seven-member task force mandated by messengers to this summer’s SBC annual meeting. In 2019, Rachael…
Where’s the line between finding inspiration in another pastor’s sermon and plagiarizing it?
“Borrowing” someone else’s sermon is one of the top four ways pastors get fired from churches, according to Thom Rainer, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s publishing arm and a noted interpreter of modern Christianity. Rainer made that statement…