Southern Baptist Convention Conservative Resurgence

Southern Baptist Convention Conservative Resurgence

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) experienced an intense struggle for control of the resources and ideological direction of the now sixteen million member denomination. The campaign began around 1960. It was launched with the charge that the seminaries and denominational agencies were dominated by liberals. Its initiators called it a Conservative Resurgence while its detractors have labeled it a Fundamentalist Takeover. The movement was primarily aimed at reorienting the denomination away from a perceived liberal trajectory and towards an unambiguous affirmation of biblical inerrancy.

It was achieved by the systematic election, beginning in 1979, of conservative individuals to lead the Southern Baptist Convention. Theologically moderate and liberal leaders were voted out of office. Though some senior employees were fired from their jobs, most were replaced through attrition. All moderate and liberal presidents, professors, department heads, etc., of Southern Baptist seminaries, mission groups and other convention-owned institutions were replaced with conservatives. The Takeover/Resurgence was the most serious controversy ever to occur within the Southern Baptist Convention—the largest Protestant denomination in the United States. One of its chief architects later described it as a "reformation…achieved at an incredibly high cost."

Read more about Southern Baptist Convention Conservative Resurgence:  Earlier 20th Century Controversies, Background, Controversy Chronology, State Conventions React, Assessments, See Also

Famous quotes containing the words southern, baptist, convention, conservative and/or resurgence:

    My mother bore me in the southern wild,
    And I am black, but O! my soul is white;
    William Blake (1757–1827)

    I am perhaps being a bit facetious but if some of my good Baptist brethren in Georgia had done a little preaching from the pulpit against the K.K.K. in the ‘20s, I would have a little more genuine American respect for their Christianity!
    Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)

    The metaphor of the king as the shepherd of his people goes back to ancient Egypt. Perhaps the use of this particular convention is due to the fact that, being stupid, affectionate, gregarious, and easily stampeded, the societies formed by sheep are most like human ones.
    Northrop Frye (b. 1912)

    The Japanese are, to the highest degree, both aggressive and unaggressive, both militaristic and aesthetic, both insolent and polite, rigid and adaptable, submissive and resentful of being pushed around, loyal and treacherous, brave and timid, conservative and hospitable to new ways.
    Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)

    By now, legions of tireless essayists and op-ed columnists have dressed feminists down for making such a fuss about entering the professions and earning equal pay that everyone’s attention has been distracted from the important contributions of mothers working at home. This judgment presumes, of course, that prior to the resurgence of feminism in the ‘70s, housewives and mothers enjoyed wide recognition and honor. This was not exactly the case.
    Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)