These are the latest in a series of expulsions in recent years, most notably when it ousted one of its largest, California's Saddleback Church, and a Louisville, Kentucky congregation for having women in ministry leadership roles.
For nearly a century, Southern Baptist churches have banded together to raise funds for mission in the US and around the world, raising more than $20 billion through their Cooperative Program. But the trust that once held the program together is fraying.
Many American congregations tend to focus on traditional families, recollecting a mid-20th-century model for church growth or else simply as a model of what a Christian life should be.
A pair of new lawsuits, including one that includes civil RICO claims, come at a time when the SBC Executive Committee faces a fiscal and leadership crisis.
After many in the room cheered her on and stood as she preached, the session featuring her sermon temporarily disappeared from the National Baptist Convention U.S.A. Inc.’s Facebook page.
The same area of the country that tends to be the most politically conservative and Republican-leaning was where most United Methodist churches voted to leave the denomination.
The Executive Committee, which oversees the SBC's operations between meetings of the convention's governing body, has been without a permanent leader since 2021.
The Progressive National Baptist Convention, the denominational home of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., publicly endorsed calls for a ceasefire in Israel-Gaza on Monday.
Revelations about the decadeslong abuse by a prominent SBC leader have led to fears that the denomination's sex-abuse reforms are doomed to fail.
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has been sending thousands of migrants to cities like Chicago, Illinois. Many churches in the Windy City are stepping up to help care for the migrants.