Southern Baptist Votes May Signal Direction on Christian Nationalism
ANALYSIS: Delegates to the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting will vote on resolutions on religious liberty, immigration, antisemitism, and political speech.
Will the conservative Southern Baptist Convention take a stand against Christian nationalism, against right-wing forces pushing a nativist agenda, against those using hateful rhetoric to cut down their enemies?
That test will come when messengers—in other words, delegates—representing the nation’s largest Protestant denomination gather for their annual meeting next week in Orlando and be asked to vote on a series of resolutions.
“The #SBC resolutions this year suggest that leadership is acutely aware of the dangers of the Dissident Right/’Christian Nationalism,’” wrote SBC thinker Neil Shenvi this week in a post on X.
One thing is clear: William Wolfe, the right-wing culture warrior trying to push the denomination’s 47,000 congregations and 13 million members farther to the right as part of his own Christian nationalist agenda, is not happy.
My series of essays this week on Wolfe—a first-term Trump administration official—has highlighted his associations with far-right extremists and his distinctly pro-White political agenda.
(More on Wolfe’s reactions to those essays can be found at the bottom of this post.)
“The Ghost of Russell Moore stalks many of the SBC resolutions this year,” declared Wolfe, who heads the so-called Center for Baptist Leadership.
Russell Moore is the former president of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission who angered conservatives when he opposed Donald Trump’s campaign for the GOP nomination in 2015.
Moore questioned not only Trump’s personal morality, he also expressed concerns about policies that Trump would implement.
Moore’s op-ed in the New York Times was headlined: “Have Evangelicals Who Support Trump Lost Their Values?”
“When evangelicals should be leading the way on racial reconciliation, as the Bible tells us to, are we really ready to trade unity with our black and brown brothers and sisters for this angry politician?” Moore asked.
Now, far-right figures like Wolfe—whose funding appears to come from outside the SBC as part of a broader right-wing political agenda—are focusing on hardcore immigration policies, racially divisive pro-White talking points, and the use of government power to impose their personal views of morality.
Which is why the upcoming votes on the SBC resolutions could provide a critical indicator about the direction of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Does Russell Moore’s vision of a kinder, gentler church still have any adherents, or has the reactionary William Wolfe wing now gained a foothold in the era of MAGA?
Below are the resolutions and key provisions some are watching:
Resolution on religious liberty
This resolution seeks to affirm longstanding Baptist embrace of the separation of church and state—based on the notion that faith cannot be coerced.
William Wolfe, on the other hand, has argued for a Christian Nationalist America where Protestant men like himself can impose their interpretation of Christian teachings.
“Yes, we are going to impose it on you,” Wolfe said earlier this year.
“If you don’t like it, I’m sorry, but this is good and right and just—if it lines up with God’s standards. And I am going to enforce my morality on you, inasmuch as our morality is God’s morality.”
Resolution on political violence and speech
Wolfe is notorious for his no-holds-barred battles on X where he routinely demonizes anyone who disagrees with him, hurls vicious insults their way and, generally, engages in dehumanizing behavior as part of his crusade.
“He went to seminary, got the grades, but missed the point of God’s redeeming love,” wrote conservative talk radio host Erick Erickson in a post earlier this year on X. “He is graceless, does not love his neighbor, and is also a humorless bully.”
(More on that later in this post, as well.)
This resolution argues that “dehumanizing rhetoric, reckless accusations, slander, and the normalization of hatred and contempt can harden consciences, inflame passions, and make violence more palatable in public life.”
It calls on “Southern Baptists to examine our own speech, online conduct, and public witness.”
Resolution on immigration
As part of his work with the Center for Baptist Leadership, Wolfe has become heavily focused on mass deportation, even embracing the concept of remigration, which suggests the possible denaturalization of people who may have been longtime citizens and shipping them back to their countries of origin.
As I have previously reported, remigration is a concept that was originally developed by a former European neo-Nazi as a euphemism for ethnic cleansing.
Wolfe appeared at an event in Texas that included a former neo-Nazi speaker who represents a group that wants to encourage non-White people, including Black Americans, to relocate to other countries.
The executive director of the Center on Baptist Leadership also follows that group, the White Papers Policy Institute, on X.
This proposed resolution supports efforts to enforce the nation’s immigration laws and rejects amnesty, but also rejects “nativism, racial or ethnic hostility, ethnonationalism, discrimination, and all ideologies or rhetoric that deny the equal worth and dignity of any people group regardless of immigration status.”
Resolution on antisemitism
An increasing number of people who identify as Christian nationalists—including some in Wolfe’s own orbit—have begun to embrace antisemitic notions, including ideas that Jews should be treated as second-class citizens in America because “this country belongs to Jesus.”
As far as I could determine, Wolfe has not publicly condemned or distanced himself from his Christian nationalist allies who have articulated such views.
This resolution declares that the SBC “unequivocally condemn[s] this new surge of antisemitism in all its forms, including violence, cultural hatred, and conspiracy theories of Jewish controlled cabals, as sinful, unchristian, and an assault on both biblical truth and basic human dignity.”
Wolfe’s reaction to my reporting
The executive director of the Center on Baptist Leadership never responded to my inquiries to give him a chance to comment before my posts this week, and he has not pointed to any inaccuracies in the three essays
Finally, on Thursday, he appeared to play the victim.
“I’ve been attacked all week by a failed fake news ‘journalist’ on his Substack because I don’t think that White people - or anyone - should be discriminated against because of the color of their skin,” Wolfe wrote.
“Because I oppose the inhumane and un-Christian anti-White ideology that leads to the death of young men like Henry Nowak. And this is supposed to make me look bad?”
Then, when I responded to his post, asking him about his extremist associations, he hid my reply and blocked me. That response is especially ironic given Wolfe’s push for greater transparency within the SBC.
Asked by an X user why he blocked me, Wolfe replied: “Because he’s a lying hack.”
Another account called out the Center for Baptist Leadership’s executive director for failing to respond to my requests for comment.
“What are you afraid of?” the person asked.
Wolfe replied, “Not afraid of him, just don’t take him seriously.”
Welcome to the culture wars of the Southern Baptist Convention.