The $643,401 grant is being returned to the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation, which attributed the decision of the world’s largest Baptist university to an ‘online campaign of fear and misinformation.’
The resolution shines a spotlight on a critical moment in the history of the Baptist church, signed two years after the issue of slavery prompted southern Baptists to split from northern Baptists and form the SBC.
Casting a pall over the gathering is the recent death of one of the most high-profile whistleblowers in the Southern Baptists’ scandal of sexual abuse.
Years of controversy during the Trump era have some Southern Baptists arguing that the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission is more trouble than it is worth.
The Southern Baptist Convention lost 259,090 members in 2024 — the 18th consecutive year of membership decline — according to the denomination’s Annual Church Profile report, released Wednesday.