Not really.
Having lost 40,000 members last year, America's second biggest religious body was described as "dwindling" by a Washington Post headline, which other media echoed.
In contrast to Mainline Protestant denominations like Episcopalians and Presbyterians, the SBC is overwhelmingly conservative. During the 1980s, conservative Baptists, derided as "fundamentalists" by critics, were alarmed by liberal inroads and solidified their governance of church agencies and seminaries. Southern Baptist and other evangelical churches have enjoyed almost unfettered growth in recent decades (esp.among minorities), while the once dominant Mainline denominations are now in their fifth decade of decline.
Read it all.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
The Dwindling of the Baptists?
