SBC Elects Alabama Pastor Known as Racial Healer

Ed Litton, left, pastor of Redemption Church in Saraland, Ala., speaks during a forum at the Southern Baptist Conference of Associational Leaders annual conference June 13, 2021, at the Sonesta Nashville Hotel. Mike Stone, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Blackshear, Ga., right, and Randy Adams, executive director of the Northwest Baptist Convention, not pictured, also participated in the discussion. Photo courtesy of SBC.

WASHINGTON, D.C.— In an unexpected move, the more than 15,000 “messengers” to the Southern Baptist Convention narrowly elected an Alabama pastor known for preaching racial reconciliation rather than the ultra-conservative candidate as the new president of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

Ed Litton, the senior pastor of Redemption Church in Saraland, Alabama, won 52% of the vote of convention delegates in a runoff election Tuesday evening after he and three other candidates failed to get more than 40% of the vote on the first ballot. The narrow win against the more conservative contender Mike Stone signals an ideological split among the 14 million Southern Baptists, considered the core of American White evangelicals. The divide in the SBC is far from resolving.

READ: Southern Baptist Convention To Discuss Race, Gender And Sex Abuse In Seminal Meeting

Stone centered his campaign on opposing Critical Race Theory, a secular academic theory that posits systemic racism is embedded in American institutions, while Litton made racial reconciliation and maintaining unity a central theme of his campaign during a tumultuous few years for the SBC. The denomination has recently shed prominent leaders like Bible teacher Beth Moore, former ethicist Russell Moore (no relation to Beth Moore) and many Black pastors over leadership’s stances on race and gender as well as responses to a sexual abuse scandal.

Litton was nominated by Rev. Fred J. Lutter, a pastor from Louisiana who in 2012 became the first and only African American elected as SBC president.

“Friends, we need a uniter, and Ed is uniquely that,” Luter told convention delegates Tuesday during his speech to nominate Litton. 

Since Luter’s time in SBC leadership, a conservative resurgence coinciding with Donald Trump’s election has attempted to maintain control of the SBC. The debates over the SBC presidency hinged on issues like how candidates respond to Critical Race Theory, whether the SBC should accept churches that ordain women and how the SBC should handle sexual abuse allegations.

“It is a tremendous honor that Great Commission Baptists would put their trust and dependence upon me for this very important role in our fellowship and our convention of churches,” Litton said. “Great Commission Baptists are leaving Nashville more focused and united to get the Good News to the Nations. Like any family we are working through our differences and hope to move forward to the future.”

Litton had more support from Black pastors for his approach to racial reconciliation and openness to other congregations in the SBC (while not his own) allowing women to preach. Stone, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Blackshear, Georgia and immediate past chairman of the SBC Executive Committee, was the most politically conservative candidate. He’s a member of the Conservative Baptist Network, led by Paige Patterson, the former SBC seminary president who was fired in 2018 for his handling of sexual abuse cases. 

On Tuesday SBC leaders passed a resolution that alluded to Critical Race Theory without mentioning it directly, asking members to “reject any theory or worldview that finds the ultimate identity of human beings in ethnicity or in any other group dynamic” and affirming the sufficiency of the Bible to heal racial tensions. Resolutions are non-binding but indicate the aims and desires of SBC members. Unlike the Catholic Church or other hierarchical denominations like Methodists or Lutherans, Baptist churches have historically remained independent of higher authorities. Local pastors are their own top official. But decisions at the SBC can cause churches to leave the denomination or join, and paying for SBC membership provides access to many church and Bible resources, including reduced tuition at Southern Baptist seminaries.

SBC Executive Committee Chairman Rolland Slade, who was re-elected this week and is the first Black chairman, told ReligionUnplugged that he is looking forward to working with Litton.

“Dr. Litton is great man,” Slade said. “He is a good listener, he has a pastor’s heart, and I am very optimistic because he is a listener and he cares.”

Prior to the convention Slade called for a third-party review of how Southern Baptist leaders have handled sexual abuse allegations. Slade, 63, is a pastor from San Diego, Ca. and became familiar with SBC in seminary and today “the bonds” he has developed are strong and go beyond race, he said.

“We want to work together to bring about unity, accountability and transparency,” Slade said. “As members of the executive community there is a review of us. We want to listen to the messengers.”

As the convention committee “messengers” delivered their reports, the SBC reported that Black pastors and churches are the fastest growing group in the convention. While the number of White congregations in SBC has dropped from 40,168 to 40,033 between 2005 to 2018, the number of Black congregations has increased during this same period from 3,038 congregations to 3,290 from 2005 to 2018.

In terms of individuals, the number of African Americans in the SBC has increased by more than 1 million members since 2005, and while White members make up the majority of the 14 million members, the convention has been overall losing members in the last 15 years.

There were 14 million Southern Baptists in 2020, according to a new report released May 20 by Lifeway Christian Resources, which compiles official denominational statistics for SBC. That number is down 435,632 members since 2019 and 2.3 million from 2006, when the Southern Baptist Convention reached 16.3 million members. The SBC reports weekly church attendance at 4.4 million, though that in-person worship count is affected by the pandemic.

Litton won in the second round of voting Tuesday after he defeated conservative Georgia pastor Mike Stone, a former SBC Executive Committee chair and favorite of the Conservative Baptist Network, which has been critical of SBC leadership.

Conservatives charge that the SBC has become too liberal and on Tuesday, SBC Executive Director Ronnie Floyd had to constantly stop convention delegates from yelling and speaking out of turn as they debated resolutions that included the SBC position on Critical Race Theory.

But in the end Floyd and Litton told the “messengers” that they had to be guided by the Bible and not political rhetoric.

“We’ve lost sight of what Jesus told us would drive the Great Commission, and that’s to love one another, ” Litton said in a press conference after he was elected that was released by SBN’s Baptist Press. He went on to say his goal for the convention is the same as Jesus’: “love God first, love each other.”

Litton’s election drew praise from “messengers” on the convention floor as well as critics of SBC who said by selecting him gives the Southern Baptists a big chance for racial reconciliation. 

Rev. Nathaniel Thomas, President of the African American Fellowship of the Baptist Convention of Maryland and Delaware, was seated six rows from the stage at the Music Center when the voting began but he headed back to his hotel before the results were known.

When Thomas learned that Litton won, he said loudly, “He won! That’s good. As an African American, we have worked hard for inclusion.” 

Rev Leslie Copeland-Tune, an ordained Baptist and CEO of the National Council of Churches, was also surprised at the SBC results.

Tune, who is Black, criticized the convention on their position not to ordain women, but in terms of electing Litton, she said, “More needs to be done, but this is good.”

Tune and a group of pastors held a church service and rally Tuesday night at the Mayflower Hotel because on Wednesday they plan to march and lobby Senate members to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights bill. She joined a group of African Methodist Episcopal pastors from Atlanta for the event.

During the Tuesday night gathering, Tune read from Ephesians 6:11 in the New Testament: “Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

Senior contributor Hamil Harris is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland College Park and has been a lecturer at Morgan State University. Harris is minister at the Glenarden Church of Christ and a police chaplain. A longtime reporter at The Washington Post, Harris was on the team of Post reporters that published the series “Being a Black Man.” He also was the reporter on the video project that accompanied the series that won two Emmy Awards, the Casey Medal and the Peabody Award. In addition to writing for ReligionUnplugged, Harris contributes to outlets such as The Washington Post, USA Today, The Christian Chronicle and the Washington Informer.