The newest Southern Baptist battle does not pit liberals against conservatives nor Democrats against Republicans. Instead, it mostly pits theological conservatives against those who are ultraconservative in a struggle for powerful positions within a denomination of 14 million people….
…
Most of the voting on these issues, as well as the presidential election, will take place Tuesday.
The SBC, which hosted Vice President Mike Pence at its annual meeting in 2018, has always shared common ground with the GOP on issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage. But this coming convention could signal just how closely it wants to align itself to Republican priorities.
The share of White Southern Baptists who identified as Republican was once the same share as White United Methodists who identified as Republican from 1998 to about 2008. Ryan Burge, an assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, said around 2008, Southern Baptists began to shift. The share of White Southern Baptists who identify as Republicans went from about 50 percent in 2008 to about 71 percent in 2018, pulling much further to the right during Barack Obama’s presidency and into Trump’s tenure.
“I think what’s happening is that the SBC and the GOP are chasing each other further to the right,” said Burge, who analyzed data from the General Social Survey. “It’s become this game of chicken almost — who can go further to the right without going too far.”….
Update on the Southern Baptists….
Who have NOT turned their backs to racial concerns …
The Southern Baptist Convention tamped down a push from the right at its largest meeting in decades on Tuesday, electing a new president who has worked to bridge racial divides in the church and defeating an effort to make an issue of critical race theory.
Ed Litton, a pastor from Alabama, won 52% of the vote in a runoff against Mike Stone, a Georgia pastor backed by a new group called the Conservative Baptist Network that has sought to move the already-conservative denomination further to the right.
Litton, who is white, was nominated by Fred Luter, the only Black pastor to serve as president of the United States’ largest Protest denomination. Luter praised Litton’s commitment to racial reconciliation and said he has dealt compassionately with the issue of sexual abuse within SBC churches, another hot-button subject at the gathering of more than 15,000 church representatives….
More…