Tag Archives: Southern Baptists

The Tennessean reports: In a marker of evangelical Christians’ hopes for President-elect Donald Trump’s second term, Southern Baptist Convention public policy leaders asked the incoming administration to prioritize restricting abortion and reversing anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people. Despite evangelicals’ frustration with Trump on the campaign trail for easing his stance against abortion, a letter from the SBC’s Ethics & Religious …

Huntsville’s ABC affiliate reports: A former pastor has been found guilty of sodomy after days of testimony. According to court officials, Danny Duane Pitts was found guilty of second-degree sodomy Thursday after a trial in Morgan County. Testimony in the trial began on Tuesday with former Hartselle Police Investigator Amy Crouch. Crouch testified the then-teenage accuser disclosed details about several …

The Tennessean reports: The first Southern Baptist pastor to face a federal criminal charge related to an abuse inquiry pleaded guilty to a felony, according to court filings on Wednesday. Matt Queen, currently a pastor in North Carolina and a former interim provost for Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, reached a plea agreement prior to a trial …

The Christian Post reports: Former Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt, who previously admitted to engaging in “kissing and some awkward fondling” with the wife of a younger minister who accused him of sexual assault while on a beach vacation with his family in Panama City, Florida, in 2010, says he was stalked and seduced by the woman. Hunt made …

The Texas Tribune reports: Paul Pressler, the monumental Southern Baptist leader and Republican activist at the center of a massive sex abuse scandal, died on June 7. He was 94. Pressler was one of the most influential, if lesser-known, evangelical figures of the last half-century, having co-led a movement in the Southern Baptist Convention that pushed the nation’s second-largest faith …

The Washington Post reports: Southern Baptists, the country’s largest Protestant denomination, voted on Wednesday to oppose the use of in vitro fertilization. The vote was an indication that ordinary evangelicals are increasingly open to arguments that equate embryos with human life, and that two years after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, “fetal personhood” may be the next front for …

The Texas Tribune reports: In 2017, a Houston college student wrote to the family of Paul Pressler, warning them that the former Texas judge and Southern Baptist leader was a pedophile. “There is a serious issue at hand,” he wrote in an email, adding that Pressler had recently touched him and bragged about being naked with young boys. “I do …

The Wisconsin State Journal reports: The former pastor of a West Side church was charged Thursday with two counts of first-degree sexual assault of a child for alleged incidents about four years ago in which a girl who was then about 10 said he touched her improperly during a day camp that was held at the church. Robert C. Stine, …

The Daily Beast reports: Even the odious Sen. Ted Cruz expressed outrage at Uganda’s draconian new anti-LBGTQ statutes. But Cruz’s rare moment of moral truth was immediately challenged by the same pastor who delivered the invocation at Gov. Ron DeSantis’ second inauguration. “Tell it to God, Ted,” Tom Ascol of Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Florida, tweeted in reply. …

From the president of the Southern Evangelical Seminary: Most of the world has heard by now of Target’s ‘Bud Light moment’ regarding the sordid display of their gay pride collection, much of which was directed at young children. But just when the large retailer thought that perhaps their stock had bottomed out, Fox News is reporting that in putting together …

The Baptist News reports:  Drew Erickson, lead teaching pastor at Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, resigned suddenly March 5 after he was arrested in Tarrant County two days before on suspicion of carrying an unlawful weapon and driving while intoxicated with a child under age 15 in the car. “Over the last 12 months and more recently, …

The Associated Press reports: 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 women as pastors — and …

The Christian Post reports: Southern Baptist Convention President Bart Barber has condemned the idea that the church should be running government and warned advocates of Christian nationalism that pursuing such an agenda will result in the persecution of Christians. “It stands contrary to 400 years of Baptist history and everything I believe about religious liberty. I’m opposed to the idea …

“We have a responsibility to make certain that Christians understand the stewardship of the vote, which means the discipleship of the vote, which means the urgency of the vote, the treasure of the vote. And they need to understand that insofar as they do not vote, or they vote wrongly, they are unfaithful because the vote is a powerful stewardship.” …

The Christian Post reports: In a wide-ranging interview, Dr. Richard Land, executive editor of The Christian Post, urged American Christians, regardless of their political persuasion, not to allow the Left to define how they see the United States. According to Land, the Left-leaning American media invented the hot-button phrase “Christian nationalism” as a pejorative term that serves to undermine the …

The Washington Post reports: The Southern Baptist Convention, the second-largest faith group in the country, said Friday that the Justice Department is investigating multiple arms of the denomination following an internal report that showed mishandling of sexual abuse cases. The investigation is related to a recent bombshell third-party report commissioned by the SBC, a spokesman said late Friday. The report …

The Christian Post reports: Southern Baptists adopted a resolution Tuesday rejecting the prosperity gospel, calling it false teaching and distortion of Scripture, particularly regarding Jesus Christ’s atoning work on the cross. Assembled in Anaheim, California, this week for the denomination’s annual meeting, messengers passed Resolution 2, which defines the prosperity gospel as the belief that “Jesus’ sacrificial and atoning death …

The Christian Post reports: The Southern Baptist Convention has delayed a decision on whether to remove Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church from the denomination in light of the California megachurch’s ordination of three female pastors last year. Saddleback Church’s ordination of the three pastors last May in what the church called a “historic night” drew the ire of many in the …

The Christian Post reports: Former Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt has been formally suspended as pastor emeritus at First Baptist Church Woodstock in Georgia after an investigation deemed credible allegations that he sexually assaulted a younger pastor’s wife several years ago. While praising “the supernatural work of God” over the last three decades, church leaders said they believe “this …

The Christian Post reports: Willy Rice, pastor of Calvary Church in Clearwater, Florida, and a candidate to become the next president of the Southern Baptist Convention, has removed a deacon from leadership, citing the denomination’s ban on individuals who have committed sexual abuse from church leadership roles. Rice did not identify the deacon in the video. But other outlets identified …