‘BIDEN BAPTISTS’

Hard Right Defeated as Southern Baptists Elect ‘Compassionate’ Pastor to Lead Them

Ed Litton, a “compassionate” pastor promising racial reconciliation, takes over as president of the nation’s biggest Protestant denomination.

An Alabama pastor preaching racial reconciliation has been elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Ed Litton’s election at the convention's annual meeting in Nashville was reported by the Washington Post, which described it as “a defeat for the hard-right within the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.” Litton was nominated by Fred Luter, the only Black pastor to have headed the SBC, who told the convention that Litton would bring “a compassionate and shepherding heart.” Litton defeated rival Mike Stone by 52 to 48 percent in a run-off vote after other candidates were eliminated. The Post said that Stone was backed by the hard-right Conservative Baptist Network, which held its own meeting at a Nashville hotel where speakers complained about “woke” ideologies and delegates wore stickers reading “Beat the Biden Baptists.”