Southern Baptists Elect Ed Litton, Who Worked To Bridge Racial Divides In The Church, As Its President
At one of its largest meetings in decades, the Southern Baptist Convention chose to elect a new president, and chose someone who has previously worked to bridge racial divides in the church and defeated an effort to make an issue of critical race theory.
According to CBS News, Ed Litton, a pastor from Alabama, won 52 percent of the vote in a runoff against Mike Stone, a far right Georgia pastor backed by a new group called the Conservative Baptist Network that had attempted to move the already-conservative denomination further right.
Litton, a white man, was nominated by Fred Luter, the sole Black pastor to serve as president of the United States’ largest Protestant denomination. Luter praised Litton’s commitment to racial reconciliation.
Stone had campaigned for the presidency aggressively, speaking at churches nationwide and even appeared on Fox News on Tuesday prior to the vote.
"We're a family, and at times it seems like an incredibly dysfunctional family," Litton said after the results were announced, according to CBS News. "But we love each other."
Additionally, delegates rejected a proposal that would have explicitly denounced critical race theory, which has been a target of the religious and political right. Instead, they approved a consensus measure that rejects any view that sees racism as rooted in "anything other than sin."
