Baptist

Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear would like Southern Baptists to be less known by the word “Southern,” which references the SBC’s birth as Baptists in the southern part of the U.S. broke away from the national body to support slavery. He prefers the moniker “Great Commission Baptists.”

Last year’s annual meeting of the Missouri Baptist Convention featured controversy over how the MBC treated Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri, during the process of nominating trustees. So, the MBC this year changed its nominating rules ahead of its annual meeting.

Crowds gather every year at 16th Street Baptist Church to mark the anniversary of the horrific day when a bomb planted by Ku Klux Klansmen went off just before worship, killing four Black girls. This year’s 57th observance will be virtual because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Executive Committee of the American Baptist Churches USA’s Board of General Ministries voted Thursday (Sept. 10) to move the ABCUSA’s Biennial Mission Summit in 2021 to a virtual format due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

A prominent Southern Baptist theologian who sparked controversy for defending the slavery of the founders of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary doubled-down in another essay praising “the wisdom of Providence” that saw the evangelization of enslaved persons through the institution of slavery.

Two Baptist schools in Texas have sued a charitable foundation they say is trying to misuse millions of dollars in assets. Baylor University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary filed suit Tuesday (Sept. 8) against the Texas-based Harold E. Riley Foundation and its board of trustees.

Professors in the Redford College of Theology and Ministry at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri, will be required to sign three additional statements — beyond the Baptist Faith & Message of 2000 — if they wish to keep their jobs.

Disaster response and state/regional leaders of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship gathered in Lake Charles, Louisiana, to assess damage wrought by Hurricane Laura and plan for long-term recovery efforts in collaboration with the National Baptist Convention of America and its president, Samuel Tolbert.

Buckner International, a Baptist charitable organization based in Texas, recently learned 160-year-old records show its long-revered namesake founder, R.C. Buckner, was a slaveholder. The 1860 “slave schedule” for Lamar County, Texas, revealed Buckner as the owner of an enslaved 16-year-old Black female.

As some Black Southern Baptists urge their denomination’s flagship seminary to remove honors to enslavers, prominent White Calvinists associated with the school are defending not only the founders but even slavery.