NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RNS) In a hotly contested election decided by just over 500 votes, Alabama pastor Ed Litton was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention. In 2022 a third-party investigation into the handling of sexual abuse allegations by the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention found gross mishandling of more than 700 cases from 2000 to 2021. Ronnie Floyd, an Arkansas megachurch pastor and former Southern Baptist Convention president, has been elected to head the denomination's Executive Committee. Get all latest content delivered to your email a few times a month. About 300 churches joined the new group. She was reaping the rewards of the hard work of many missionaries who had been there before. Littons family was changed by a Southern Baptist pastor. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. This article was updated and adapted by TAB Media from a 2014 Baptist Press article compiled by Andy Beachum and Rebecca Wolford. The Southern Baptist Convention Pastors' Conference A Little History Failed to subscribe, please contact admin. Amid charges of sermon plagiarism, newly elected Southern Baptist Convention President Ed Litton is facing calls for his resignation. As Russell Moore (no relation) put it in this withering paragraph: Who cannot now see the rot in a culture that mobilizes to exile churches that call a woman on staff a pastor or that invite a woman to speak from the pulpit on Mothers Day, but dismisses rape and molestation as distractions and efforts to address them as violations of cherished church autonomy? Three SBC presidents were former governors. ** Ordained minister who was not serving in a church or denominational role at the time of election. Seeing how God changed his father set the course for Littons life, leading him to eventually pursue a call to ministry. Browns haunting phrasesoul murderis what happened within the SBC, and its only the latest in a string of recent scandals that have rocked the evangelical world. This marked the beginning of the conservative revolution and a marked return of the convention to historical orthodoxy. In 1925 the Southern Baptist Convention made some major changes in how it approached the work of the organization.