From the time I was born until just a couple of years ago, I was a Southern Baptist to my core. I was baptized by immersion at a young age. I learned the Bible in Southern Baptist children’s ministries, GAs…
SBC agency vows to ‘advocate for the complete end of abortion’ in America
When conservatives gained control of the Southern Baptist Convention and its agencies and seminaries in the late 20th century, a top priority was to convert the Christian Life Commission into an anti-abortion advocacy group. That came true with the first…
SBC’s ‘conservative resurgence’ has brought two decades of baptism declines
The year conservatives consolidated control of the Southern Baptist Convention is the last year a key marker of denominational growth showed an overall upward trend, according to new annual data released by Lifeway Christian Resources. Even a slight rebound in…
Texas Tribune says candidate for Texas House enabled Pressler’s antics with boys and young men
The Southern Baptist Convention’s most notorious sexual predator was enabled by his former law partner, who now is running for the Texas House of Representatives and wants to become speaker of the House, according to a new report in the…
Georgia leader withdraws from consideration for SBC Executive Committee presidency
More than two years after its last president resigned, the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee is back to the drawing board in its search for a staff leader. Thomas Hammond, executive director of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, told his…
SBC attorney calls Pressler a ‘monster,’ a ‘predator’ and ‘of the devil’
The question of who knew what when about Paul Pressler’s alleged molestation of boys and young men surfaced anew over the weekend in a series of tweets between the reporter who broke the story of sexual abuse in the Southern…
CRT is a useful tool in analyzing Southern Baptist history on race
In 1980, legal scholar and critical race theorist Derrick Bell penned his pioneering article, “Brown v. Board of Education and the Interest-Convergence Dilemma” in Harvard Law Review. In it, Bell tackled a controversial and difficult question: In the wake of…
Every member of the SBC’s abuse reform task force should resign in protest
When a member of the Southern Baptist Convention’s prior Sexual Abuse Task Force emailed me to apologize, I felt grateful for the candor and honesty. “I want to personally apologize to you,” the person wrote, “if anything I did ever…
More Baptist leaders cite pattern of bullying from Ezell and NAMB
Bobby Gilstrap seemed to model what Southern Baptists would want in a denominational leader. Educated at two Southern Baptist Convention seminaries, he served as a pastor, then served 10 years as an associational director of missions in Michigan, where he…
What the SBC should do about its most famous accused sexual abuser
Thank God, Paul Pressler has lived to the ripe old age of 93. That’s long enough to expose the Southern Baptist Convention’s most malevolent hypocrite to the shame of his reported double life. Just before the end of the year,…
Confidential settlement reached in Pressler sexual abuse case
A confidential settlement has been reached in the lawsuit accusing prominent Southern Baptist figure Paul Pressler of sexually abusing a teenage member of his Houston church multiple times beginning in 1977, the Texas Tribune reported Dec. 29. Duane Rollins filed…
Rick Warren’s letter to the SBC was BNG’s most-read opinion piece in 2023
Rick Warren’s personal appeal to Southern Baptists about his battle with the Southern Baptist Convention over church autonomy and women in ministry were the most-read Baptist News Global opinion pieces in 2023. The issue of patriarchy and women’s roles in…