Attendees pray during a worship service at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in Anaheim, California, on June 14, 2022.
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A scholar writes about how the Southern Baptist Convention’s views on abortion changed during the 1980s, when a more conservative wing seized control of the denomination.
A woman describes being abused sexually by a Southern Baptist minister, outside the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in June 2019, in Birmingham, Ala.
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Accused men were protected by the SBC while the women who dared to speak up were called sluts, adulteresses, Jezebels and even agents of Satan. A scholar of evangelicalism writes about this culture.
Each local congregation of the Southern Baptist Convention is autonomous and self-governing. Disagreements take place frequently.
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Baptists believe that each person can have a personal relationship with God. This theology, a scholar writes, has also contributed to disagreements within the denomination since the 17th century.
Some Christians interpret Biblical teachings to say that women are essentially equal to men, but should be submissive to male leaders in the church and home.
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Complementarianism is the view – held by some Australian churches – that men and women have separate and divinely ordained roles: men are ‘spiritual leaders’ while women are ‘helpmeets’.