Southern Baptist Convention

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IVF Condemnation Passes Southern Baptists' Vote

Measure barring women from all pastoral positions barely loses

(Newser) - Delegates to Southern Baptists' annual meeting voted Wednesday to oppose in vitro fertilization, a procedure the resolution calls "dehumanizing," as advocates cast IVF as the next battleground now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned. The measure calls for Southern Baptists to support the right to life of...

Southern Baptists Reject Pleas, Expel Churches Led by Women

Rick Warren, female pastor fail to move convention

(Newser) - Pleas from pastors whose churches are being expelled because they're led by women failed to persuade Southern Baptists to reverse their decision. Delegates made the expulsions from the denomination final at their annual convention in New Orleans, the New York Times reports, despite emotional speeches from the leaders of...

Southern Baptists Expel Saddleback Church

Megachurch voted out for having female pastor

(Newser) - The Southern Baptist Convention on Tuesday ousted its second-largest congregation—Saddleback Church, the renowned California megachurch founded by pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren—for having a woman pastor. The vote by the convention's Executive Committee culminates growing tension between the nation's largest Protestant denomination— which officially opposes...

After 'Past Mistakes,' a DOJ Probe Into Southern Baptist Convention

Nation's largest Protestant denomination says it's under federal investigation for sexual abuse

(Newser) - In May, church leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's biggest denomination of Protestants, put out a damning report by an independent consultant that acknowledged its higher-ups had kept sexual abuse allegations hush-hush for more than 20 years. Shortly after that, the SBC—which claims 14 million members...

In Crisis, Southern Baptists Agree to Track Alleged Abusers

Texas pastor Bart Barber also elected SBC president at national meeting

(Newser) - The Southern Baptist Convention voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to create a way to track pastors and other church workers credibly accused of sex abuse and launch a new task force to oversee further reforms in the nation's largest Protestant denomination. The vote came three weeks after the release of a...

Survivor Praises SBC Decision to Release Secret List of Abusers

The Executive Committee also voted to rebuke a former member

(Newser) - The depth of the problem surprised almost everyone, but the themes revealed in Sunday’s bombshell report on sexual abuse and coverups within the Southern Baptist Convention are not new to Christa Brown. She says she was sexually abused as a child by a minister, and she has been fighting...

Report Details Abuse Coverup by Southern Baptist Leaders

Members denounce 'astonishing and infuriating' treatment of sexual abuse victims

(Newser) - An outside investigation released Sunday by the Southern Baptist Convention found that survivors of sexual abuse were ignored, or worse, for decades by clergy. The almost 300-page report mostly addresses leaders' handling of reported abuse, the Washington Post reports, but includes details on individual cases. "While stories of abuse...

Southern Baptists Vote Against Divisiveness

In picking a new president, convention rejects denunciation of critical race theory

(Newser) - The Southern Baptist Convention tamped down a push from the right at its largest meeting in decades on Tuesday, electing a new president who has worked to bridge racial divides in the church. Ed Litton, a pastor from Alabama, won 52% of the vote in a runoff against Mike Stone,...

Latest Church to Face Rampant Sex Abuse: Southern Baptists

Texas newspapers uncover pattern going back 20 years

(Newser) - Two Texas newspapers are out with an investigation into the Southern Baptist church that reveals a long pattern of sexual abuse by church leaders, workers, and volunteers. The Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News found that 380 people—everyone from ministers to youth pastors to Sunday school teachers to church...

Southern Baptist Women Erupt Over Black-Eye Story
Story of Woman's
Black Eyes Roils
Southern Baptists
the rundown
May 8, 2018 12:02 PM CDT

Story of Woman's Black Eyes Roils Southern Baptists

They're calling for the ouster of seminary president Paige Patterson

(Newser) - In 2000, Paige Patterson told a story, and 18 years later, it's coming out of the woodwork and fomenting outrage. The Washington Post explains Patterson is the head of the Fort Worth-based Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, described as one of the biggest seminaries in the world. He's set...

Southern Baptists Vote to Condemn Alt-Right Racism

Outcry followed rejection of earlier resolution

(Newser) - The Southern Baptist Convention has voted to condemn "alt-right" racism—along with every other kind of racism. The denomination, which is holding its annual convention in Phoenix, approved a resolution Wednesday to "denounce and repudiate" racism, "including alt-right white supremacy, as antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus...

Southern Baptists Plan to Leave Boy Scouts 'En Masse'

Denomination will urge 16M members to cut ties

(Newser) - The Boy Scouts of America's decision last month to allow gay members was made with the blessings of many churches and religious groups—but not all of them. And here's a pretty significant opponent: The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in America with 45,000 congregations...

12 Stories