Southern Baptists will gather for their annual meeting on Tuesday.

Donald Trump has received strong support from white evangelical Protestants in his presidential bids.

A powerful Southern Baptist committee was planning to appoint a new president on Monday who could navigate controversies over its handling of sexual-abuse reforms and the ousting of churches with women pastors.

Race-related tensions within the Southern Baptist Convention are high heading into a national meeting next week.

In this June 7, 2020 file photo, Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church, and his wife, Vera McKissic, pray during services in Arlington, Texas. Divisions over race, politics, gender and LGBTQ issues are roiling America’s largest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, ahead of a meeting of its executive committee this week. Activists say inquiries related to sex abuse should be handled by independent experts, not by the SBC’s credentials committee. Ad“The alternative would have been to say, ‘We’re probably not ready for this,’ but I couldn’t do that,” said Conrad, pastor there since 1994. She now says the SBC’s credentials committee has failed in its response to allegations of abuse by pastors and staff.

Now hes pondering whether he and his congregation should break away -- following the steps of several other Black pastors who exited in dismay over race-related actions of some white SBC leaders. Albert Mohler, a high-profile conservative who heads the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, is elected SBC president. Mohler suggested his critics do not reflect the opinions of most Southern Baptists, white or Black. “The hard reality of the seminary presidents’ statement is that Black people will never gain full equality in the Southern Baptist Convention.”Other Black pastors who have cut ties include the Rev. “White evangelicals have gotten in bed with the Republican Party.”Some white SBC pastors are also troubled, such as the Rev.

America now has seen exactly what black America has been knowing for a couple of hundred years, he said. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)For black clergy across the United States, the past 10 days have been a tumultuous test of their stamina and their skills. For weeks, they had been striving to comfort their congregations amid a pandemic taking a disproportionately heavy toll on African-Americans. Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas. Just trying to pastor effectively in a pandemic world -- that alone has been a full challenge, McKissic said.