Top leaders address divides in the denomination at the first in-person Executive Committee meeting in a year.
Kate Shellnutt| Image: Mark Humphrey / AP
At its first in-person meeting since the pandemic took off a year ago, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Executive Committee decided to cut ties with two churches whose pastors had been convicted of sexual offenses as well as two LGBT-affirming churches. But it was leaders’ concerns over ongoing tensions within the denomination that stirred Southern Baptists during the two-day gathering at its Nashville headquarters.
“Southern Baptists in large part are ready to walk into the future. But we are spending a lot of time tolerating those who would rip us apart,” said SBC president and Executive Committee member J. D. Greear during remarks Monday night. “Brothers, let’s just call it: These things are demonic.”
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 .
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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
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St. Matthews Baptist lost their affiliation with the Kentucky Baptist Convention in 2018 because they made financial contributions to a group that hired LGBTQ staff.