The Southern Baptist Convention elected its new president this week, the Rev. Johnny Hunt of Woodstock, Ga.
Southern Baptists, with 16.2 million members, are the second largest religious group in the United States, after Catholics. But last year, they reported a drop in membership.
"It's the first decline in a decade ... that was the big discussion at this year's meeting," says Ted Olsen, news director and online managing editor of Christianity Today. Between 2006 and 2007, the denomination lost some 40,000 members. Attendance at the convention itself was also down significantly, he notes.
Is the decline in membership a result of the church's adherence to hard-line fundamentalism? Not necessarily, says Olsen, who notes that although Hunt represents the sect's religiously conservative wing, so did the other five candidates running for the post this year. The more conservative Southern Baptists believe in, among other things, Biblical inerrancy, or the doctrine that the Bible should be interpreted literally.
In fact, Olsen says that there are many in the church who would actually like to see a drop in membership, because they feel that many followers are only casual adherents. "Sixteen million people are supposedly members," he notes, "but only 6 million regularly attend church."
If there were a decline in membership, but an increase in the number of baptisms, says Olsen, that would indicate that Southern Baptists would actually be signing up new members who would most likely be more enthusiastic.
But battles still rage within the church, over everything from biblical interpretation to the forms of church services. Some dispute the use of electric guitars or modern translations of the Bible, Olsen says.
"There's kind of an agreement," says Olsen, "that Southern Baptists are known more for what they're against than what they're for."
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. 9(MDYwMzgxODUyMDE2MzQ1Nzg1MTRlNTA2Yg000))