Southern Baptists form a core part of the white evangelical Christian bloc that has reliably and overwhelmingly voted Republican in recent elections, and is expected to again in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Southern Baptists are weighing their options in the GOP presidential primary field \u2014 some already lining up behind\u00a0Donald Trump, others wary of the former president, whom most evangelical voters supported in previous elections despite his vulgar language, serial marriages and sexual bravado. Some are looking at what Florida Gov.\u00a0Ron DeSantis\u00a0or other candidates might offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But even critics of many Baptist voters\u2019 embrace of hard-right politics have little doubt where this is headed in November 2024 \u2014 support for whichever candidate emerges from the GOP nomination process. The only question is the extent of the fervor they bring to the polls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to\u00a0Trump and DeSantis, other GOP candidates have made a point of proclaiming their Christian convictions, including former U.N. Ambassador\u00a0Nikki Haley, former Vice President\u00a0Mike Pence\u00a0and South Carolina Sen.\u00a0Tim Scott. Pence spoke to the SBC annual meeting in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere is a segment of the white evangelical populace, they\u2019re looking for a way to distance themselves with the deal with the devil they made in 2016\u201d in supporting Trump, said the Rev. Joel Bowman Sr. of Louisville, Kentucky, who was among several Black pastors who\u00a0left the SBC in 2021\u00a0in dismay over what they saw as a racial backlash in a denomination that had once formally repented of its forebears\u2019 racism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhether that\u2019s Ron DeSantis or Mike Pence, one thing you can be assured of is most of the white evangelical populace is going to be in alignment with some GOP candidate, whoever that might be,\u201d said Bowman, pastor of Temple of Faith Baptist Church, which maintains ties to SBC churches on the state and local level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Albert Mohler \u2014 longtime president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary also in Louisville, and one of the denomination\u2019s most prominent leaders \u2014 said he hopes \u201cthe Republican Party nominee will be someone not named Donald Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mohler said opposition to abortion is non-negotiable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s unclear where Donald Trump is placing himself vis a vis that issue,\u201d Mohler said. He\u2019s looking for someone \u201csharper on the issues and carrying less baggage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s the latest turn in Mohler\u2019s response to Trump. In 2016, he said evangelicals\u2019 support for Trump undermined their credibility. But he later said he was pleased with Trump\u2019s actions in office, particularly in appointing the Supreme Court justices who provided the tipping point needed to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Trump has since said the\u00a0abortion issue\u00a0should be decided by the states, drawing criticism from some seeking a federal ban.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mohler acknowledged that Democrats have benefited politically from the backlash to the Supreme Court decision. He\u2019s looking for candidates who can navigate that political reality without compromising. \u201cI\u2019m not going to support any candidate who is not prolife in conviction and with an honest and straightforward strategy to lead a prolife effort,\u201d he said, and noted that the GOP has a \u201cgood number of attractive candidates,\u201d putting DeSantis at the top of that list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But if Trump becomes the nominee, \u201cI\u2019ll revisit that question\u201d of whom to vote for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DeSantis formally entered the race last month and is the leading alternative to Trump, who remains the dominant force in GOP politics at the moment. But if the Florida governor were to ultimately capture the Republican nomination and face Joe Biden, two Catholic major-party presidential candidates would face off for the first time in U.S. history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of Trump\u2019s staunchest supporters in this and past elections is Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen Trump first announced his re-election bid last November I predicted that some evangelicals would \u2018kick the tires\u2019 of other candidates but would eventually coalesce around Trump as they did in 2016,\u201d Jeffress said via email. \u201cHowever, \u2018eventually\u2019 happened even more quickly than even I expected.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jeffress, who began backing Trump during the 2016 primary season, said evangelicals are concluding that only Trump can defeat Biden. Jeffress cited issues traditionally important to evangelicals in calling Trump \u201cthe most pro-life, pro-religious liberty, and pro-Israel president in history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The political season is heating up even as Southern Baptists head to their mid-June annual meeting roiled by\u00a0internal conflicts\u00a0and scandals over the mishandling of\u00a0sexual abuse\u00a0\u2014 the subject of a\u00a0Department of Justice investigation. While theological debates will be prominent \u2014 particularly over whether to uphold the ouster of churches with female pastors \u2014 many proposed resolutions in recent years have reflected debates in secular politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A key question is how much energy and fervor Southern Baptists will be able to muster for the GOP presidential primary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The denomination continues to experience long-term declines in membership and other measures of spiritual vitality, such as baptisms, according to its own statistics. Like other religious groups, it has struggled to regain pre-pandemic attendance levels. And like many historically white Protestant denominations, Southern Baptists are graying, with the average age at 55, according to the 2020 Cooperative Election Study. All this would affect any get-out-the-vote campaign among a flock that is smaller than in previous elections and that has its hands full of challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And Southern Baptists are experiencing the same media fragmentation that the nation is as a whole. Whereas the denominational press and state Baptist newspapers once wielded strong influence, members now get competing views and news from a wide array of social media and niche sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pastor Mike Stone of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Blackshear, Georgia \u2014 a candidate for SBC president from its more conservative wing \u2014 said he doesn\u2019t use the pulpit to endorse candidates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But as a pastor, \u201cI unapologetically address issues that Christians should consider in making their own personal choices,\u201d he said. \u201cThese include the sanctity of human life, Biblical marriage and issues of sexual morality, and a Scriptural understanding of the role of government\u201d to punish evil and promote good, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cChristians should prefer righteous men and women for public office,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause no perfect candidate exists, that often means voting for the better or best of the available options.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SBC President\u00a0Bart Barber\u00a0declined to comment for this story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the local church level, pastors navigate pressure from members who want them either to be more political from the pulpit \u2014 or less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese days it\u2019s almost impossible to avoid it, more than it used to,\u201d said Eric Costanzo, pastor of South Tulsa Baptist Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. \u201cWe\u2019ve had to cross those lines in different ways because of the issues we\u2019re involved in,\u201d such as advocating for immigrants or for reforms in how Southern Baptists deal with issues of abuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDuring COVID it was tricky, and after Jan. 6 it was tricky,\u201d he said. \u201cI try to lead by example by not endorsing or not disparaging by name. Sometimes we have to dig into issues that have no choice but to have political implications.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Bowman, efforts by many in Republican and Southern Baptist circles to focus on criticizing \u201cwokeness\u201d have served to distract attention from realities of systemic racism, as well as the SBC\u2019s own internal conflicts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf the SBC attaches itself again with the GOP and continues to focus on wedge issues and culture wars, there will begin to be an exodus from the SBC on the part of white members who would be considered more moderate or centrist,\u201d he said. \u201cThe SBC is in many ways backing itself in to the corner. It is not going to help its professed cause to bring people to Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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