Tag Archives: Southern Baptists

Emails Suggest Notorious Anti-LGBTQ Activist Helped Provide Victims To Accused Southern Baptist Pedophile

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 …

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Wisconsin Baptist Pastor Arrested On Child Sex Charges

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, …

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Southern Baptist Leader And DeSantis Pastor Cites “Execute Gays” Scripture After Cruz Criticizes Uganda

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. …

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Southern Baptists: Everyone At Target Is Going To Hell

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 …

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Texas Southern Baptist Megachurch Pastor Resigns After DUI And Weapon Arrest With Child Passenger In His Car

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, …

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Southern Baptists Oust Megachurch Over Female Pastor

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 …

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Southern Baptist President: Christian Nationalists Will “Wind Up Persecuting Christians Of Different Flavors”

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 …

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Southern Baptist Head: Real Christians Vote Republican

“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.” …

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Southern Baptist Leader: The Left Invented Christian Nationalism In Order To “Suppress Patriotic Beliefs”

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 …

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DOJ Investigates Southern Baptists Over Sex Abuses

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 …

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Southern Baptists Condemn “Prosperity Gospel”

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 …

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Southern Baptists May Boot California Megachurch For Ordination Of Female Pastors: “Contrary To Scripture”

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 …

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Ex-Southern Baptist Head Axed Over Sex Assault Claim

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 …

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Southern Baptist Convention Leader Fires DeSantis Faith Advisor Over “Terrible Sin” Of Past Sexual Abuse

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 …

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Southern Baptists Sue Biden Over Vaccine Mandate

Religion News Service reports: Attorneys for the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Asbury Theological Seminary — both in Kentucky — filed a petition Friday (Nov. 5) in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit alleging the rules violate the religious freedom of the seminaries. The schools are represented by attorneys from Alliance Defending Freedom, a major Christian legal …

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Southern Baptist Leader Sues Former Southern Baptist Leader For “Defamation, Invasion Of Privacy, Distress”

The Tennessean reports: Mike Stone, a leader of the group trying to pull the Southern Baptist Convention further to the right, has sued Russell Moore, the former president of the denomination’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, for “claims of defamation, false light invasion of privacy, and emotional distress.” The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court for Middle Tennessee, follows …

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Southern Baptist Head Quits In Sex Abuse Inquiry Fight

The Tennessean reports: Ronnie Floyd, the highest-ranking official of the Southern Baptist Convention executive committee announced his resignation Thursday evening, following weeks of contentious committee meetings about a sexual abuse inquiry. “Due to my personal integrity and the leadership responsibility entrusted to me, I will not and cannot any longer fulfill the duties placed upon me as the leader of …

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Southern Baptist Lawyer Calls Effort To Address Abuse Scandal “Satanic Scheme To Distract From Evangelism”

The Roys Report reports: The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is already reeling from recent allegations that key leaders mistreated sex abuse survivors and tried to intimidate advocates. Now comes another leaked document, showing that a former high-profile SBC executive called the movement to address sex abuse in the SBC “a satanic scheme to completely distract us from evangelism.” The document …

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Southern Baptists Report “Historic” Membership Decline

The Christian Post reports: A year after reporting the largest single-year membership decline in more than 100 years, churches in the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, lost more than 400,000 members in 2020 and set a new record for the single-year decline amid the coronavirus pandemic and a bitter culture war. The Annual Church Profile report shows …

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Southern Baptists Condemn Lego’s New Pride Month Toy Set For “Commercializing Moral Rebellion” Against Jesus

Southern Baptist leader Albert Mohler has written a 2500-word diatribe against Lego’s new Pride Month toy set. An excerpt: Is it true that a child playing with this new “Everyone is awesome” Lego set is going to feel affirmed? If that child, for instance, is nonconventional in sexual orientation, as someone represented even in an ambiguous way by this set …

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