“Most Southern Baptist churches have financial ties to the denomination that forbid them from leaving it.”
I’ve never been in an SBC church that had any financial ties to the SBC. I’ve moved around a lot, but I’ve never heard of a church that had financial ties to the denomination.
Our Church put the proposition of affiliating with the SBC to a vote a couple years ago and one of the selling points was the assistance it could provide in resources and finances for training promising candidates for future pastors in the seminary and resources for missionaries. The Church rejected the proposal. Before making a decision I researched the SBC. My conclusions was that their statement of faith and theology was rock solid and orthodox. BUT - it was Russel Moore and the things he promoted that convinced me to vote NO. Also the fact that there have been a lot more churches leaving the SBC over the past few years than joining it. I figured there has to be a reason for that.