Community Corner

Wright Re-Elected to Lead Southern Baptists

Johnson Ferry pastor presides over meeting brimming with cultural issues.

pastor Bryant Wright will serve another term as the president of the Southern Baptist Convention. 

It's a denomination that remains immersed in cultural as well as moral issues, both from within its ranks and beyond. 

In his message at Tuesday's SBC annual meeting in Phoenix, Wright urged his fellow Baptists to reject materialism and hedonism.

Find out what's happening in East Cobbwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The SBC, following the urging of Wright and other leadership, elected its first African-American to high church office. Fred Luter, head pastor of a New Orleans church, is the SBC's new vice president, the No. 2 official behind Wright. 

The SBC, formed before the Civil War in part on a slavery-related matter, now has 3,400 black denominations. It did not act until 1999 to declare racism a sin. Said Wright

Find out what's happening in East Cobbwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"The Southern Baptist Convention was founded on two key issues -- one was good and one was bad. We were founded in defense of slavery. We finally apologized, but it was 150 years late. The good thing was the spread of the Gospel. The Great Commission is the reason we were formed as a convention of churches."

The largest group for African-American Baptists is the Nashville-based National Baptist Convention, which was formed in 1880.

Also on Tuessday, the SBC was protested by gay organizations claiming the church's teachings amount to abuse of sexual minorities. 

In his address, Wright said that Baptists face a number of challenges that keep them from properly following and understanding Christ, including an obsession with technology:

“Some of you are so addicted to your cell phones, you haven’t made it 10 minutes into this message without checking your messages or your tweets or whatever it may be – two or three times. As if that is more important than hearing from the Word of God.” 

Also at the meeting, longtime SBC icon Richard Land predicted that Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that made abortion legal, will be overturned. He also called for Congress to repeal "Obama Care," the federal health care law passed last year.

In perhaps the most highly charged development at the meeting, the Rev. Albert Mohler, another leading SBC figure, expressed his "Christian love" for New York Congressman Anthony Weiner, who has been embroiled in a social media sex scandal. 

Mohler urged Weiner, who has taken a leave of absence and is getting counseling, to seek instead "atonement, found only in Jesus Christ."

Weiner is Jewish. 


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from East Cobb