I look forward to Rick Warren addressing the Southern Baptist Convention at its annual meeting in New Orleans, June 13-14. Warren deserves more credit for his decision to publicly dissent from the SBC ruling expelling the church he founded from…
Is Rick Warren reviving the fight against the fundamentalist takeover of the SBC?
Rick Warren announced a couple of weeks ago that he will appeal the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee’s decision to disfellowship Saddleback Church. In the past few days, Warren has grabbed a bullhorn and “taken to the streets,” so to…
An open letter to all Southern Baptists
Editor’s Note: Rick Warren published this open letter Friday, June 2, and sent it to various media outlets, including BNG. Rather than write a news story about the letter, we decided to run the full letter as an opinion piece….
A primer on why Southern Baptists are fighting over women in ministry once again
Casual observers might have thought the Southern Baptist Convention settled its position on women in ministry 30 years ago. Turns out, that’s not the case at all. An issue that was explosive for the SBC during the heyday of its…
The generational pain and hope of the Southern Baptist witch trials
I was born in 1993 in the same month that, just a state away, Al Mohler was being elected to replace Roy Honeycutt as president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Both my parents attended and graduated from Southern in the…
Five things Southern Baptists should do now to address clergy sex abuse
Seventeen years ago, the two of us wrote to Southern Baptist Convention officials, urging creation of a denominational database of pastors criminally convicted or credibly accused of sexual abuse. “Moral obligation demands it,” we said. That moral obligation still stands…
Why we must be cautious about understanding what’s going on at Southwestern Seminary
Other news outlets are likely to publish accounts today about dissension among trustees at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and allegations of impropriety related to real estate deals. We’re not publishing such a story today for two simple reasons: We don’t…
Here’s how to force SBC entities to be accountable to people in the pew about their finances
Within the past week, Baptist News Global has run two news analysis pieces about Southern Baptist Convention agencies and leaders who are not telling people in the pew the full story of their financial situations. There are policies in place…
‘Pastor Johnny’ is the head of a family empire that feeds off the SBC
In modern terms, Johnny Hunt is an “influencer.” Over the last 40 years, he has become someone with the ability to influence thousands of other pastors and even an entire denomination. Perhaps that’s why his naming in the 2022 Guidepost…