Don’t underestimate uber-Calvinist/Christian nationalist Doug Wilson. Recent Southern Baptist Convention history demonstrates how someone who seems far outside the mainstream eventually can wield exorbitant strength. In other words, if Al Mohler can become the most powerful person in the SBC,…
Embattled ERLC looks toward a new leader
The man nominated to lead the embattled Southern Baptist Convention Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission believes “a married couple’s efforts to prevent pregnancy might be morally problematic.” Evan Lenow, an administrator at Mississippi College, is the nominee to lead the…
The Southern Baptist Convention did not get ‘played’
I’ve spent a heckuva lot of time at the pottery studio this week. Working with clay is one of the things I do to try to keep myself steady when everything else seems too overwhelming. And with the release of…
Why did it take 15 years to implement greater funding for IMB?
Editor’s note: This is the first installment in a multi-part analysis BNG will publish over the coming weeks about the work of the SBC Executive Committee. After resisting messenger directives for more than 15 years, the 86-member Southern Baptist…
SBC influencer William Wolfe wants an America of white people
“My boys all look like me. And I want my children to grow up in a country where they’re not minorities,” William Wolfe said out loud in a video now posted online. “I want my boys to grow up in…
Giving to BGCT dropped 17% in a decade, following national trends
The Baptist General Convention of Texas has experienced a 17% drop in Cooperative Program income in the past decade, Treasurer and CFO Ward Hayes told the state convention’s Executive Board Feb. 23. Earlier in that meeting, BGCT Executive Director Julio…
SBC president endorses bill that would allow death penalty for abortions
The president of the Southern Baptist Convention appears to have endorsed proposed legislation in Tennessee that would impose the death penalty on women who have abortions. Clint Pressley, pastor of a church in Charlotte, N.C., weighed in on social media…
Conservative lawyer warns of legal overreach by NAMB and SBC
Attacks on the Southern Baptist Convention North American Mission Board are coming not from the left or center but also from the far right, as evidenced by an article published online Feb. 11. The Center for Baptist Leadership — a…
Trump guidance on school prayer downplays neutrality, separation
President Donald Trump has released federal guidelines that reaffirm some Biden-era policies against school-sponsored prayers, highlight teachers’ freedom to say prayers that students can join, and dismiss the metaphor of a “wall of separation” as “legally unsound.” Trump promised new…
Will anyone in the SBC really speak against racism?
In 1995, the Southern Baptist Convention adopted a resolution apologizing for its past ties to systemic racism and repenting of its founding history rooted in support for slavery. In 2015, the SBC adopted a resolution vowing to “rededicate ourselves to…
This week on BNG podcasts
BNG’s reporting on financial obfuscation at the Southern Baptist Convention North American Mission Board is the topic of a new “Stuck in the Middle with You” podcast. Co-hosts Mark Wingfield and Benjamin Cole welcome to the show Jon Bullock, a…
As religious leaders decry Pretti’s death, SBC president is silent
The president of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination apparently had nothing to say about the murder of a 37-year-old ICU nurse in Minneapolis last Saturday. But Clint Pressley had quite a lot to say a week earlier when a group…