Faith
Newly elected president Ed Litton faces disputes over race, declining membership, and a drift away from biblical principles.
Internal Challenges Confront Southern Baptist Leadership
A BY RICK HINSHAW
t a contentious national convention in June — the most widely attended in 25 years — Pastor Ed Litton of Redemption Church in Alabama was narrowly elected president of the
infl uential Southern Baptist Convention. Litton won 52 percent of the vote in a runoff with more conservative challenger Mike Stone, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Georgia. Litton has had little time to savor his victory. He is
already having to confront serious challenges facing the 14-million-member organization, the nation’s largest prot- estant denomination, including: Sexual abuse, declining membership, racial reconcilia- tion, and critical race theory; Concerns over what Stone and the Conservative Bap- tist Network see as a drift from biblical principles, and; Incendiary charges by departing Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission president Russell Moore that SBC is rife with “white nationalists and white suprema- cists.” Also at issue is SBC engagement with social and politi-
cal issues. It’s a “critical but exciting” time, Litton insists to News-
max. “We need to fi x our hearts on Jesus,” as SBC’s 2022 National Convention theme, “Jesus, the Center of It All,” proclaims. Sexual abuse revelations, which exploded in a 2019
48 NEWSMAX | OCTOBER 2021
Houston Chronicle report, are diffi cult to address for SBC, a cooperative partnership of autonomous local churches with no hierarchical authority. Litton says a task force he appointed is working to
develop responses, provide healing for victims, and help make all Southern Baptist churches “safe places.” He told National Public Radio’s Rachel Martin he
hopes victims will be “heartened that the whole conven- tion resoundingly said, ‘deal with this,’” not just out of public embarrassment but “because it’s wicked.” Amid a membership decline — down from roughly 16
million in 2006 — Litton says, “Southern Baptists need to return to the language and practice of Christ: Boldly go after people, love them loudly.” He cited tremendous growth “in our ethnic churches”
as testament to SBC’s growing diversity. Since 1995, when SBC apologized and repented for past
support of slavery and segregation, “We have seen prog- ress,” Litton said. “But we have a lot of work to do.” He called for “Gospel-centered reconciliation. Every
person has value because he was created and redeemed by God. The Gospel compels us to love one another and serve God together.” Divisions within SBC were highlighted by Moore’s res-
ignation letter, and the strength of Stone’s candidacy and the Conservative Baptist Network at the June meeting. Stone denied Moore’s claims of racists in infl uential positions. “If they were,” he said, they would be “voted
CHURCH©REUTERS / LITTON/AP IMAGES
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