Southern Baptist Convention elects Ed Litton as next president

(Image credit: AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

published 16 June 2021

The Southern Baptist Convention elected Ed Litton as its new president on Tuesday, with the Alabama pastor receiving 52 percent of the vote.

Litton, considered one of the more moderate candidates, defeated Mike Stone, a pastor from Georgia. Stone is a member of the Conservative Baptist Network, which contends that the denomination is moving too far to the left. Litton will serve as president for one year.

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Litton has a history of promoting racial reconciliation, and was the top candidate for many young and non-white Southern Baptists, The Wall Street Journal reports. Roughly 90 percent of the Southern Baptist Convention's members are white, and prior to the election, Litton said it was important for their "brothers in the African American community, our sisters — we need them to be able to reach this nation. I am concerned about that."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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