The Southern Baptist Convention meets next week after revelations of widespread stories of sexual abuse and coverup in a six-part series of investigative reports by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News.
Petition demanding Southern Baptist seminary pay reparations collecting signatures online
Former faculty members at a Southern Baptist Convention seminary and Baptist professors at other schools joined a call urging financial reparations to American descendants of slavery in a petition now collecting signatures on change.org.
Baptist professor quits over comments made in chapel about women’s bodies
A Louisiana College professor resigned in protest in February, claiming administrators at the Baptist school tried to suppress criticism of a chapel speaker for using sexualized imagery and leaving the impression that a woman’s value is measured by her physical appearance and sexual history.
Southern Baptist baptisms at lowest level in 74 years
In 2018 the Southern Baptist Convention recorded the fewest baptisms in a year since World War II, according to statistics released last week by LifeWay Christian Resources.
SBC urged to ‘reset spiritually and strategically’ amid continuing declines
There were areas of improvement, too, including an $82-million increase in giving from 2017 to 2018, and a rise in new churches in four states.
Debate over women in Southern Baptist pulpits flares on social media
A Southern Baptist Convention seminary professor who teaches that males and females are created for distinct and complementary roles in the home and church criticized the denomination’s president and a popular Bible teacher for suggesting it can be OK for a woman to preach.
SBC’s sexual abuse study should include a probe of its own files on reported abuse
The Southern Baptist Convention purports to be studying the problem of clergy sexual abuse. But if the SBC is sincere about wanting to get a handle on this scandal and to understand its institutional failures, it should authorize an independent commission to delve into its files containing reports of abuse.
Retired BWA leader Denton Lotz dead at 80
Denton Lotz, who led the Baptist World Alliance through some of its most challenging years, died April 23 at age 80
Former Baptist preachers face abuse charges in Vermont, Mississippi and Guam
Two months after a series of investigative newspaper stories reported widespread sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention and while denominational leaders ponder solutions, the numbers of Southern Baptist clergy in the criminal system for alleged sex offenses continues to grow.