The Christian Post's top 10 news stories of 2021 (part 2)
4. Moores leave SBC; committee votes to waive attorney-client privilege
The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, was rocked by a series of unrelenting controversies in 2021.
The convention was already under strain due to a 2019 report from the Houston Chronicle that documented hundreds of alleged abuse cases at autonomous Southern Baptist churches, declining numbers, and debates over CRT. But in 2021, those issues came to head.
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In March, Living Proof Ministries head Beth Moore announced she was leaving the Southern Baptist denomination, saying she does not "identify with some of the things” in its heritage which she claims “haven’t remained in the past.”
Then, in May, Russell Moore, who previously led the SBC’s public policy arm, left his prominent position, his church, and the denomination. As he exited, two letters he sent to SBC leadership were leaked to the media. In them, Moore alleged there was a toxic culture in the SBC; one defined by racism and mishandling of sexual abuse claims.
That same month, Saddleback Church, one of the largest churches in the SBC and home to influential Pastor Rick Warren, ordained three women as staff pastors. The move drew criticism from Southern Baptist leaders who pointed out that female ordination goes against SBC teachings.
In June, at the organization’s Annual Meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, rank-and-file Southern Baptists known as messengers voted to elect Pastor Ed Litton of Redemption Church (formerly First Baptist North Mobile), as the convention’s president, beating out two more conservative candidates, including Albert Mohler, the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Georgia Pastor Mike Stone, the former president of the SBC's Executive Committee. They also voted to appoint a task force to oversee a third-party investigation of allegations SBC leaders mishandled a "crisis of sexual abuse.”
What followed was weeks of internal deliberations as SBC leadership debated whether to waive attorney-client privilege so that Guidepost Solutions, an outside investigative firm, could fully look into how the SBC Executive Committee handled allegations of abuse.
In October, committee members voted to waive attorney-client privilege. Following the vote, Ronnie Floyd resigned as head of the committee. Guenther, Jordan and Price, the longtime legal counsel for the convention, also informed the board of their resignation over the trustees' decision to waive attorney-client privilege. At least 10 executive committee members resigned either before the vote or shortly after.
In his resignation letter, Rod D. Martin, a prominent member of the Executive Committee, said the committee’s decision to “deliberately ... breach its legal and fiduciary duties poses an unacceptable risk to those entities which they and I serve.”
The reason for his resignation, he explained, was because of the legal threat this action posed to others to whom he owes a fiduciary responsibility.
“The SBC is in grave danger,” he warned. “We will have to do Herculean things to save it. And we must: we educate a third of the seminary students in America and field the largest missionary force in the world. We cannot allow this enormous force for good to be destroyed, whether by vile, wicked sex abusers who’ve violated the ultimate trust, or by foolish, self-serving leaders who’ve exposed the church to needless danger. We can punish the guilty while saving our churches and our Convention. We must.”
Leah Klett contributed to this report
