Jeff Iorg, the longtime president of the SBC’s only seminary outside of the denomination’s historic Bible Belt heartland, is the incoming president and CEO of the denomination’s Executive Committee.
This issue of A Public Witness digs into the recent Paul Pressler news and responses from leaders to investigate the roots of the SBC’s “conservative resurgence” and consider a more appropriate response than just continuing to water the tree.
Confusion over the status of a DOJ investigation into the SBC has strained already tense relationships between abuse survivors and the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.
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.
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.
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.