By Will Hall, Baptist Message exeuctive editor NASHVILLE, Tenn. (LBM) – The Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention continues to experience presidential controversies. On Aug. 17, Willie McLaurin resigned as interim president and CEO of the national entity after a committee, looking into his background as part of his consideration as a candidate for the permanent position, found he had misrepresented his academic credentials. McLaurin had served in the interim president role since February 2022 after serving as an SBC EC vice president since 2020. He had followed Ronnie Floyd, who vacated 2021 in response to the SBC EC’s vote to renounce attorney-client privilege in an investigation into the alleged coverup by the SBC EC about sex abuse among SBC churches. Floyd had replaced Frank Page who quit in 2018 because of an admitted “personal failing” described in news reports as a “morally inappropriate relationship.” Meanwhile, Dan Summerlin, a retired Kentucky pastor who was announced, Sept. 18, as the candidate for the role of “transitional interim president and CEO,” unexpectedly withdrew his name from consideration on Sept. 19, only hours before it was anticipated he would be approved by SBC EC … [Read more...]

By Will Hall, Baptist Message executive editor AMORY, Miss. (LBM) – Will McRaney announced Sept. 11 his intention to appeal the Aug. 15 ruling by the U.S. District Court Northern District of Mississippi that determined his lawsuit against the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention would force the court “to inquire into religious matters and decision-making to a degree that is simply impermissible under the Constitution and the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine.” In a statement to The Baptist Paper, McRaney contended that the court’s decision “is built around the erroneous concept of ‘THE’ Baptist Church as a denomination like the Catholic or Methodist Church.” Indeed, in legal filings supporting NAMB’s position, the SBC is described as “the umbrella Southern Baptist governing body over all the various groups of churches.” This contravenes the SBC’s constitution which declares it “is independent and sovereign in its own sphere” and that it “does not claim and will never attempt to exercise any authority over any other Baptist body, whether church, auxiliary organizations, associations, or convention.” McRaney further argued that the Court’s latest ruling results in a legal determination that “a … [Read more...]

By Will Hall, Baptist Message executive editor NOTE: Dashes were substituted for letters of a curse word in paragraph five. Also, [fire emoji] is used in paragraph nine to indicate Smith substituted a picture of flames for the word “fire.” NASHVILLE, Tenn. (LBM) – Kevin Smith, pastor of Family Church Village in Palm Beach, Florida, was unanimously elected trustee chairman of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. His Sept. 13 election is being heralded as historic because this is “the first time a black individual has assumed this leadership role within the organization,” according to the Christian Post. Smith was lauded for his “deep ties in SBC life” and as someone who “personally understands the importance of cooperation as a Baptist distinctive,” in an ERLC press release published the same day. However, others pointed out that he attacks those who hold opposing views to his beliefs. National media sources cited Smith as saying, “I think some Southern Baptists just bent over and became political wh---s with this whole Trump stuff,” when he was an audience member commenting to a panel at the 2022 SBC Annual Meeting. Prior to that statement he declared, “I think some … [Read more...]