SBC Executive Committee disfellowships four churches baptiststandard.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from baptiststandard.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
J.D. Greear, president of the Southern Baptist Convention and pastor The Summit Church in Durham, North Carolina, speaks at the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission s Caring Well Conference in Grapevine, Texas, on Oct. 3, 2019. | ERLC/Karen Race Photography
John Randy Leming Jr., a pastor at Antioch Baptist Church in Sevierville, Tennessee, whose past as a convicted rapist caused the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee to disfellowship his congregation last month, has resigned.
Leming, according to the Baptist and Reflector, announced his resignation on Feb. 28, five days after the SBC Executive Committee announced the church was being expelled for employing the pastor who confessed to two counts of statutory rape.
SEVIERVILLE â A Sevier County church has been removed from the Southern Baptist Convention for employing a pastor who was convicted of statutory rape involving a teenager at another local church 20 years ago.
The Southern Baptist Conventionâs executive committee voted Tuesday to disfellowship four churches, including Antioch Baptist Church on White School Road. The decision means the churches are no longer part of the organization; it has no other impact on the churches.
Information released by the SBC indicates the local church was removed due to âknowingly employing a pastor convicted of statutory rape.â
Additional information from the SBC indicates the pastor was John Randy Leming Jr., who is listed on the churchâs website as Randy Leming. SBCâs report indicates he had served as pastor at Antioch since 2014.
The Southern Baptist Convention’s executive committee voted Tuesday to oust four of its churches, two over policies deemed to be too inclusive of LGBTQ .
Southern Baptists oust LGBTQ friendly churches in Georgia, Kentucky
Updated Feb 23, 2021;
Posted Feb 23, 2021
FILE - In this Monday, Feb. 18, 2019 file photo, Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear speaks to the denomination s executive committee in Nashville, Tenn., after a newspaper investigation revealed hundreds of sexual abuse cases by Southern Baptist ministers and lay leaders over the past two decades. In his opening speech to the 2021 executive committee meeting, he said, “We should mourn when closet racists and neo-Confederates feel more at home in our churches than do many of our people of color.” (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)AP
Facebook Share