Selective giving to the Southern Baptist Convention Cooperative Program budget is like believing children can choose their gender, Jeff Iorg told members of the SBC Executive Committee Sept. 22. Iorg, president of the Executive Committee, addressed the gathering on the…
Where are the SBC leaders who will call Allen Jordan to account?
For a decade now, the Southern Baptist Convention has abided a voracious liar in its midst and done nothing publicly to silence him. That liar is Allen Jordan, who lives in Houston and is the most persistent denier of a…
Does Jeff Iorg really believe Christa Brown and Tiffany Thigpen are liars?
The most persistent denier of a sexual abuse crisis in the Southern Baptist Convention now says SBC Executive Committee President Jeff Iorg agrees with him that the stories of two key abuse survivors are false. In a June 18 email…
Why won’t the SBC be more financially transparent?
Amid all the other headlines at this week’s Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, you might have missed an important internal debate that happened about financial transparency. To those outside the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, this may not matter. But for…
Here’s what didn’t happen at this year’s SBC meeting
The most notable thing about this year’s Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting is what didn’t happen. The convention did not advance a third try at the so-called Law Amendment that would enshrine a Constitutional ban on females in any role…
A guide to understanding this week’s conversations about the SBC and sexual abuse
When you hear people talk about sexual abuse claims and the Southern Baptist Convention, it’s not the same as talking about the Roman Catholic Church and sexual abuse. Yes, there are clergy culprits in both religious bodies. And yes, there…
For abuse survivors, SBC meeting brings pain and lessons
When the Southern Baptist Convention meets next week in Dallas, many clergy sex abuse survivors will feel the hurt and betrayal of it. This will be the first SBC annual meeting since Executive Committee President Jeff Iorg made it clear…
The SBC’s clergy sex abuse database is dead, so why the hotline?
After years of trailing out hollow words, impotent task forces and phony dog-and-pony shows of purported reform, the Southern Baptist Convention’s top CEO straight-up admitted that a database of clergy sex abusers is “not a focus for us.” This bit…
SBC Executive Committee can’t cover expenses, seeks extra $3 million
This story was updated Feb. 19 to include a clarification on staff compensation at the SBC Executive Committee. The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee cannot meet its financial obligations this year and needs $3 million in “priority funding” from…
SBC may be heading toward settlement with Johnny Hunt, will sell building
Faced with millions of dollars in unbudgeted legal expenses related to sexual abuse investigations, defenses and settlements, the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee will sell its downtown Nashville office building, which is valued at more than $30 million. While that…
When being a pastor is ‘the most important calling,’ family values take a back seat
Most of the noise at this month’s Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting was from men attempting to cement their pastoral power over women, Christian nationalists attacking religious liberty, messengers seeking to censure SBC leaders publicly, and the convention voting to…
Iorg gets a unanimous vote, and he’ll need that to do what must be done
By a unanimous vote of the 60 trustees attending today’s called meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, longtime Gateway Seminary president and one-time Home Mission Board-appointed church planter Jeff Preston Iorg was elected chief executive officer of the Nashville-based administrative arm of the SBC. Today’s meeting marked…