Sexual abuse is “the rotten fruit of the Sexual Revolution,” says Jeff Dalrymple, director of the Southern Baptist Convention’s newly created Sexual Abuse Prevention and Response department, which operates under the SBC Executive Committee. In two Baptist Press columns published…
‘As God is my witness,’ Mohler has changed his tune on ERLC
R. Albert Mohler Jr. has declared another holy war in the Southern Baptist Convention, as if the nation’s largest Protestant denomination needed more side skirmishes among its institutional leaders. In a recent wide-ranging and low-impact interview on the “Baptist21” podcast,…
SBC membership shrank by nearly one-fourth in two decades
The Southern Baptist Convention has lost nearly one-fourth of its members in the past two decades. The latest report from the SBC’s Lifeway Christian Resources shows total membership in SBC churches nationwide fell to 12,722,266 in 2024 — a loss…
Why are SBC leaders supporting a group that competes with the Cooperative Program?
In a little over a month, Southern Baptists from across the nation will converge in Dallas for the 2025 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting. If you put any stock in the latest social media posts, there likely will be several…
Southern Baptist ethnic leaders call for compassion toward immigrants
More than a dozen Southern Baptist ethnic ministries have joined the chorus of other evangelical voices calling for immigration policies that protect religious freedom and show compassion toward migrants. A statement signed by the leaders of 13 ethnic groups aligned…
Judge picks apart Johnny Hunt’s claims against SBC point by point
With academic precision, a federal judge’s 74-page opinion picks apart Johnny Hunt’s lawsuit against the Southern Baptist Convention, SBC Executive Committee and Guidepost Solutions. The full decision was published April 1, the day after Judge William Campbell granted summary judgment…
Politics, faith and mission: A conversation with Beth Allison Barr
Beth Allison Barr holds the James Vardaman Chair in History at Baylor University. She is the New York Times bestselling author of the new book Becoming the Pastor’s Wife: How Marriage Replaced Ordination as a Woman’s Path to Ministry and…
Most of Hunt’s lawsuit against SBC thrown out by federal judge
“Pastor Johnny” will not be collecting $100 million from the Southern Baptist Convention as he had hoped. Almost all Johnny Hunt’s defamation lawsuit against the SBC, its Executive Committee and Guidepost Solutions was dismissed in summary judgment March 31 by…
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…
Closure of DOJ probe doesn’t mean no SBC sex crimes
The United States Department of Justice has shut down its investigation into sexual abuse within the Southern Baptist Convention. Attorneys for the SBC Executive Committee said they were notified last Wednesday of the investigation’s closure, and since then prominent Southern…
Marshall says ‘scandalous providence’ preserved her life’s work
When she was forced off the faculty of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and accused of heresy, Molly Marshall found “a scandalous providence preserved my vocation and my life’s work,” she recently recalled. Marshall, now president of United Theological Seminary of…
What I found hiding in my church library
Some of my former fellow seminarians reminded me on social media at the beginning of this week that 31 years ago on March 9, 1994, Russell Dilday was fired by trustees as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary after ultraconservatives…