The new president of the Southern Baptist Convention says that the issue of sexual abuse in the denomination has been “weaponized” and politicized.

Thousands of Southern Baptists have voted overwhelmingly to advance a formal ban on churches with women pastors in the nation’s largest conservative evangelical denomination.

Southern Baptist delegates have gathered in Orlando, Florida, for their annual meeting and they're expected to vote on a constitutional amendment to formally ban churches with women pastors.

Southern Baptists will gather for their annual meeting on Tuesday.

Southern Baptist membership sank last year to its lowest level since 1973.

The U.S. feminist movement’s perpetual quest for gender equality has suffered notable setbacks during President Donald Trump’s second term.

Southern Baptist representatives have fended off two efforts to move the staunchly conservative body even more sharply to the right.

Southern Baptist delegates at their national meeting overwhelmingly endorsed banning same-sex marriage — including a call for a reversal of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 10-year-old precedent legalizing it nationwide.

When the Episcopal Church announced cuts to its national staff last month, it was the latest in a long-running cycle among historic U.S. Protestant denominations — declines in members leading to declines in funding and thus in staff.

Ukrainian evangelicals are lobbying their American counterparts for continued support of their homeland in its war with Russia.

Trustees for the Southern Baptists' policy arm affirmed the leadership of their president in the face of criticism from some church members.

There’s been a head-spinning reversal of messages from the public-policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Former Vice President Mike Pence’s foundation is launching a $10 million campaign to preserve the Trump-era tax cuts.

Paul Pressler, a leading figure of the Southern Baptist Convention who was accused of sexual abuse and later settled a lawsuit over the allegations, has died.

Southern Baptists have expressed alarm over the way in vitro fertilization is routinely being practiced at their annual meeting in Indianapolis.

Delegates at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting have narrowly rejected a proposal to enshrine a ban on churches with women pastors in the denomination’s constitution.

Delegates to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting had voted overwhelmingly to boot a Virginia church from its ranks because of its declaration that it believes women can serve in any pastoral ministry.

Thousands will gather in Indianapolis June 11-12 for the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention.

The Southern Baptist Convention is preparing to vote on a proposed constitutional ban on churches with women pastors.

The status of a federal investigation into a leading Southern Baptist agency’s handling of sexual abuse is unclear.

A leader in the Southern Baptist Convention says the U.S. Department of Justice has ended its investigation of a top denominational agency's handling of sexual abuse and doesn’t anticipate further action.

The Southern Baptist Convention’s top administrative body has ousted four congregations.

The Southern Baptist Convention has refused to welcome Saddleback Church back into its fold.

Retired pastor Rick Warren, author of “The Purpose Driven Life,” is intensifying a media blitz in what he acknowledges may be a lost cause.

Two Southern Baptist churches ousted for having women pastors will be appealing that decision at the Southern Baptist Convention's upcoming annual meeting.

The Southern Baptist Convention says that Saddleback Church is appealing its ouster from the denomination for having women pastors on staff.

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.

Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, was one of five churches expelled by the Southern Baptist Convention for having women pastors on staff.

The Southern Baptist Convention has ousted its second-largest church — Saddleback Church — for having a woman pastor.

Last month, Andy Wood took the reins of California-based Saddleback Church from founding pastor Rick Warren, a bestselling author and influential figure in evangelical Christianity.

The new president of the Southern Baptist Convention is a staunchly conservative small-town preacher who touts biblical inerrancy, opposes women serving as pastors and supports abortion bans.

Leaders of College Park Baptist Church in Greensboro, North Carolina, thought it was odd when the Southern Baptist Convention recently sent queries about the congregation's LGBTQ-affirming ministry.

The Southern Baptists’ Executive Committee has voted effectively to cut ties with two congregations.

Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention say that several of their denomination’s major entities are under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Bart Barber, the newly elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention, is vowing to expedite sex abuse reforms in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

The Southern Baptist Convention has elected a new president — Texas pastor Bart Barber.

The Southern Baptist Convention has voted overwhelmingly to create a way to track pastors and other church workers credibly accused of sex abuse.

Recent weeks have seen an especially intense set of revelations about sexual assault and misconduct in U.S. churches.

Top Southern Baptists have released a previously secret list of hundreds of pastors and other church-affiliated personnel accused of sexual abuse.

Top Southern Baptists have released a previously secret list of hundreds of pastors and other church-affiliated personnel accused of sexual abuse.

Top administrative leaders for the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in America, said Tuesday that they will release a secret list of hundreds of pastors and other church-affiliated personnel accused of sexual abuse.

Southern Baptist leaders say they will release a secret list of hundreds of pastors and church-affiliated staff members accused of sexual abuse.

A blistering report on the Southern Baptist Convention’s mishandling of sex abuse allegations is raising the prospect that the denomination, for the first time, will create a publicly accessible database of pastors known to be abusers.

Top Southern Baptists stonewalled and denigrated survivors of clergy sex abuse over almost two decades, according to a scathing investigative report issued Sunday.

Southern Baptist Convention President Ed Litton says he won't seek a second term in the top convention role.

A top Southern Baptist committee has publicly apologized and agreed to a confidential financial settlement with a sexual abuse survivor.

Women cannot serve as the senior pastor of a Southern Baptist church.

A top Southern Baptist Convention official is resigning amid internal rifts over how to handle an investigation into the SBC’s response to sexual abuse.

A top committee of the Southern Baptist Convention has agreed to open up legally protected records to investigators who will examine how it handled — or mishandled — cases of sexual abuse.

A top committee in the Southern Baptist Convention is facing mounting pressure from within the denomination over issues related to sexual abuse.

A top Southern Baptist Convention committee agreed Tuesday to fund a third-party investigation into its handling of sexual abuse allegations.

A new Southern Baptist Convention task force is overseeing a third-party investigation into how the denomination handled allegations of sexual abuse.

Delegates at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting have voted overwhelmingly to create a task force to oversee an independent investigation into the denomination’s handling of sexual abuse.

As ideological divisions wracked the Southern Baptist Convention this year ahead of a pivotal national meeting, one of the leading candidates for its presidency embraced a role as the man best equipped to build bridges.

The Southern Baptist Convention has tamped down a push from the right at its largest meeting in decades, 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.

A Southern Baptist governing panel has quashed for now a push to expand an investigation of its handling of sex abuse cases.

Controversies over the handling of sex abuse cases and critical race theory are likely to dominate the Southern Baptists' annual meeting, set to begin Tuesday.

The president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee says it is hiring an outside firm to investigate its actions amid accusations that top leaders mishandled sex abuses cases.

Releases of leaked letters and secret recordings from within the Southern Baptist Convention are intensifying as critics seek to show top leaders were slow to address sexual abuse and worried more about its reputation and donations than about victims.

FILE - In this Tuesday, June 11, 2019 file photo, Janene Cates Putman of Athens, Tenn., holds a sign during a demonstration outside the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting in Birmingham, Ala. (AP Photo/Julie Bennett)Emily Snook is the daughter of a Southern Baptist pastor. For many SBC women, even those committed to staying, the topic of gender became more volatile this month when popular Bible teacher Beth Moore said she no longer considered herself Southern Baptist. Yet she is among a number of SBC women publicly sharing their dismay about sex abuse and the vitriol directed at Moore. But she says many Southern Baptist women, including students of hers, were unsettled by the criticism of Moore.

(Adelle M. Banks/Religion News Service via AP)NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RNS) — For nearly three decades, Beth Moore has been the very model of a modern Southern Baptist. Her work as a Bible teacher has permeated down to small church Bible study groups and sold-out stadiums with her Living Proof Live events. It described what she and other concerned Southern Baptists were seeing as being wrong in their denomination. Barr, the author of “The Making of Biblical Womanhood,” a forthcoming book on gender roles among evangelicals, grew up a Southern Baptist. She still loves the things Southern Baptists believe, she said, and is determined to stay connected with a local church.

In its 2021 meeting, the Southern Baptist Conventions executive committee voted to oust the church for allowing LGBTQ people to become members of its congregation. (AP Photo/Angie Wang)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 people and two more for employing pastors convicted of sex offenses. The two churches expelled for LGBTQ inclusion were St. Matthews Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, and Towne View Baptist Church, in Kennesaw, Georgia. But the executive committee took no action on the report, declining to embrace some recommendations aimed at reining in Moore's outspokenness. Floyd said SBC churches are baptizing 38% fewer teenagers than in 2000.

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.

The Southern Baptist Convention released its 2019 membership numbers on Thursday, showing a membership decline of more than 287,000. Southern Baptist Executive Committee President Ronnie Floyd said in a statement that it is clear that change is imperative. Southern Baptists do not endorse female pastors. More than a decade ago, when he first started warning that the denominations membership was going to decline year after year, many Southern Baptists dismissed his numbers. Now, he said, I do think Southern Baptists are becoming used to decline.

Entangled in a multifaceted sex-abuse crisis, the Southern Baptist Convention is preparing to host a high-profile conference on the topic that has kindled skepticism even among some of the scheduled speakers. Its goal, Moore said, is to provide churches with expert advice on how to prevent abuse and support abuse survivors. Tchividjian has close ties with many abuse survivors and says he understands many of their concerns about the SBC's resolve in combating this problem. Psychologist Diane Langberg, who runs a clinic near Philadelphia, will address the conference on how to help support abuse survivors. The Southern Baptist Convention encompasses more than 47,000 individual churches.