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.
More than 13,000 people are at the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting, and this year there have been serious discussions on race, sexual abuse, and politics. The convention is also reckoning with how involved it should be in conservative politics, with Litton arguing that this connection is keeping some people away.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
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."
-
The 7 best police procedurals of all timeThe Week Recommends There’s more to cops and robbers than just nabbing the bad guy at the end of the show
-
Shutdown stalemate nears key pain pointsSpeed Read A federal employee union called for the Democrats to to stand down four weeks into the government standoff
-
Navy jet, helicopter crash half-hour apart off carrierSpeed Read A US Navy helicopter and a fighter jet both crashed in the same half-hour during separate operations
-
Pope Leo canonizes first millennial saintSpeed Read Two young Italians, Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati, were elevated to sainthood
-
Southern Baptists endorse gay marriage banSpeed Read The largest US Protestant denomination voted to ban same-sex marriage and pornography at their national meeting
-
Prevost elected first US pope, becomes Leo XIVspeed read Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost is a Chicago native who spent decades living in Peru
-
Pope Francis dies at 88Speed Read 'How much contempt is stirred up at times toward the vulnerable, the marginalized and migrants,' Pope Francis wrote in his final living message
-
Pope returns to Vatican after long hospital staySpeed Read Pope Francis entered the hospital on Feb. 14 and battled double pneumonia
-
Texas megachurch founder charged with sex crimesSpeed Read Robert Morris, former spiritual adviser to President Donald Trump, is accused of sexually abusing a child
-
Pope Francis suffers setback with respiratory episodesSpeed Read The 88-year-old pope continues to battle pneumonia
-
US Christianity's long decline has halted, Pew findsSpeed Read 62% of Americans call themselves Christian, a population that has been 'relatively stable' for the past five years
