Florida Pastor Elected President of Southern Baptist Convention
Willy Rice, senior pastor of Calvary Church in Clearwater, Fla., has been elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention.
His election is a triumph for critics who claim that the denomination has lost its way in recent years, according to Religion News Service. He has alleged that the SBC’s sexual abuse crisis was more hoax than reality and said that the denomination’s leaders had followed the culture more than the Bible.
“Look, if you look at the last 10 years and say, ‘I think it’s been great, we haven’t had any drift, we weren’t caught in any kind of riptide,’ well, then I don’t know that I could say anything here today that would make you change your mind,” Rice said. “To me, it was obvious.”
A 2019 SBC panel on sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist churches contradicts Rice’s claims, however.
The “Sexual Abuse and the Southern Baptist Convention” panel warned that the SBC must move beyond words and take real action to protect abuse survivors and vulnerable church members. Panelists urged churches to listen to survivors, stop protecting institutional reputations, adopt stronger abuse-prevention safeguards and use resources such as Becoming a Church That Cares Well for the Abused and the Caring Well Challenge.
A 2022 SBC internal report also documented instances of abuse and called for action. But concerns about a liberal drift may outweigh institutional change dealing with abuse claims.
Since the pandemic, a group of critics known in the past as the “SBC pirates” has been concerned that the denomination has become too woke, mainly because they believed leaders had been too concerned about social justice and racism. William Wolfe, executive director of the Center for Baptist Leadership, said Rice’s election was a vindication for critics.
“Willy Rice’s election proves that there is an appetite in the SBC for real conservative reform and renewal,” he told Religion News Service. “We believe his victory is a major vindication of the issues we have addressed and fought for over the last few years in the SBC.”
Wolfe, who endorsed Rice and posted a number of interviews with the Florida pastor online, hopes the president-elect will help the SBC get past recent controversies.
“We pray that his leadership will successfully help Southern Baptists forge a brighter and better path out of a time of disagreement and decline, one built on the foundation of sound doctrine and increased accountability and empowering a courageous, conservative and biblical witness to the world,” he said.
After the election, said he hopes the SBC will enter “a season of reconciliation and renewal” after years of controversy.
“It is my hope to listen and to serve, and I ask for your prayers, your patience and your continued cooperation as we continue in the good work God has given us to do,” he posted on social media.
–Alan Goforth
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