(RNS) \u2014 Earlier this month, the Southern Baptist Convention adopted resolutions opposing amnesty for undocumented immigrants and women in pastoral leadership roles.<\/p>\n
The latest resolutions follow a decades-long trend toward conservatism. A new analysis by Boston University sociologist Nancy Ammerman found that Christian nationalist ideas have become the \u201clingua franca\u201d of the denomination.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ammerman, a BU professor emerita of sociology of religion, analyzed 91 SBC resolutions that were adopted primarily during U.S. presidential elections from 1972 to 2024, noting that \u201cthey often get more discussion on the floor than any other item of business.\u201d Ammerman\u2019s review found the nation\u2019s largest Protestant denomination underwent a transformation from a \u201cmoderately progressive\u201d organization to an increasingly conservative one.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe evidence that the resolutions provide is very clear in terms of the kind of endorsement of the ideas of Christian nationalism that are present in the denomination,\u201d said Ammerman, who wrote a chapter, \u201cSouthern Baptists and the Evolution of White Evangelical Politics\u201d in a recently published book, \u201cUnderstanding Christian Nationalism: Perspectives on the Political Religion of Trump\u2019s America,\u201d \u201cand the way those ideas have come to be simply the lingua franca, if you will, the way the culture of this denomination has been shaped over the last generation.\u201d<\/p>\n
RELATED<\/strong>: Southern Baptists oppose amnesty, political violence, women pastors at annual meeting<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n In 1972, during the Vietnam War, one resolution recognized that \u201c(b)oth conscientious participation and conscientious objections are undertaken as Christian attitudes in good conscience.\u201d Another resolution that year called for welfare reform, citing \u201cthe dignity and worth of even the least and poorest.\u201d Both urged Southern Baptists to seek action on those issues from the legislative and executive branches of the U.S. government.<\/p>\n As conservatives\u2019 control of the SBC solidified in the 1980s and 1990s, Ammerman wrote, anti-abortion and anti-homosexuality stances became the norm, and \u201c(q)uestions of world peace, hunger, poverty, and civil rights simply dropped out of sight.\u201d<\/p>\n Election-related resolutions shifted from a 2004 resolution asking Christians to vote, after studying candidates\u2019 platforms, \u201cin accordance with biblical values,\u201d to, in 2016, saying the Baptists \u201cprayerfully urge all candidates for political office to endorse the biblical values upon which society should rest.\u201d<\/p>\n In response to a series of questions from RNS about Ammerman\u2019s analysis, new SBC President Willy Rice provided a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cThe term Christian Nationalism has often been used as a pejorative term to intimidate Christians into silence on all moral and political matters,\u201d said Rice, who was elected on June 9. \u201cSouthern Baptists have longstanding convictions on the role of righteous government in the pursuit of justice and truth. There is nothing new about seeking to influence government policy or even promoting representatives for public office who share our same convictions in matters of church and state.\u201d<\/p>\n Ammerman said the resolutions also trace a change in the SBC\u2019s previously long-held affirmation of church-state separation. In 2021, the Baptists adopted a resolution that came from the convention floor rather than the resolutions committee. After using language similar to previous resolutions about abortion, this one \u201cgoes on to declare that \u2018God establishes all governing authorities as His avenging servants,\u2019 and they should only be obeyed if they are obeying God\u2019s higher law and not \u2018iniquitous decisions.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Southern Baptist Convention President Willy Rice speaks at a press conference, June 10, 2026, in Orlando. (RNS photo\/Bob Smietana)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n In an interview, Ammerman said previous resolutions spoke of organizing and advocating about their anti-abortion stance, but she said that cause, with the 2021 resolution, \u201cgets transformed into advocating for the government itself to be an instrument of religious enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n The SBC also became increasingly supportive of more conservative legislation, Ammerman found.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n At a 1993 gathering, the Baptists hailed the passage of that year\u2019s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which had been a bipartisan and interfaith cause, describing it as restoring \u201cthe careful balancing test for weighing claims of religious liberty infringement against a compelling government interest, using the least restrictive means.\u201d At a 2021 meeting, Baptists opposed the Equality Act<\/a>, which would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to offer anti-discrimination protection for LGBTQ+ Americans, as a \u201cgovernmental punishment against faith-based charities for serving the common good according to their cherished beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n Ammerman wrote: \u201cAs Congresses came and went, Southern Baptists were often worried that the laws of the land would limit their ability to operate institutions, schools, and businesses according to their own moral conscience \u2014 even when serving a diverse public.\u201d<\/p>\n Ammerman said the change in some of the language used was striking.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery resolution basically has to have a listing of all of the evil forces in society that are being arrayed against them,\u201d she said in an interview.<\/p>\n Messengers vote during the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, Wednesday, June 10, 2026, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando. (RNS photo\/Bob Smietana)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The resolutions also lengthened with more Bible verses to back up the sentiments in the statements.<\/p>\n \u201cJustifications based on older \u2018Baptist principles\u2019 and appeals to common good were outnumbered by citations of \u2018biblical values,\u2019\u201d she wrote. \u201cEach \u2018whereas\u2019 and \u2018be it resolved\u2019 was accompanied by multiple citations of Bible verses to prove its point.\u201d<\/p>\n Ammerman notes, however, that there were attempts to address racial issues from a \u201cseemingly progressive\u201d perspective. One prominent example was the 1995 \u201cResolution on Racial Reconciliation on the 150th Anniversary of the Southern Baptist Convention\u201d in which the Baptists, whose denomination was founded in a defense of slavery, said at their gathering that year that \u201cwe recognize that the racism which yet plagues our culture today is inextricably tied to the past.\u201d But by 2021, a resolution subordinating critical race theory to Scripture passed, and the debate prompted some prominent Black pastors<\/a> to leave the denomination.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rice, who has called critical race theory \u201cdisturbing and concerning,\u201d said it is fitting that Southern Baptists have been outspoken on gender, marriage and other cultural issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSouthern Baptists haven\u2019t become more political; rather, political issues have become increasingly theological on matters we can\u2019t afford to remain silent on,\u201d Rice said. \u201cSouthern Baptists believe that the Bible is true and that God has spoken with clarity, love, and wisdom in each of those areas for our good and the good of all society.\u201d<\/p>\n RELATED<\/strong>: Willy Rice, Florida pastor and abuse crisis skeptic, elected SBC president<\/a><\/p>\n \n <\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-Willy-Rice1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-SBC-Orlando29-061026.jpg\")
<\/p>\n