I remember them back in the 1980’s and they were on the up and up. What happened? When did they “go south” if you get my gist?
“I remember them back in the 1980’s and they were on the up and up. What happened?”
SBC is very cyclical. Decade good, then a decade bad; wash, rinse repeat.
Bailey Smith was probably the last conservative to head the SBC. He famously created controversy saying that God doesn’t hear the prayers of Jews. Smith was famous for how many souls he saved and Southern Baptist churches focused on amassing startling statistics in that vein. So a church service would have a short sermon then a blistering alter call. It was like McNamara and his body count in Vietnam. Smith created an inflexible evangelical machine that didn’t do a great job of maturing the babies. It was also very inflexible in theology as in God doesn’t hear the prayer of Jews. But they were pandering to our grandparents and putting butts in pews.