Brad speaks again with journalist Jonathan Krohn who is covering the Southern Baptist Convention for the New Republic. Krohn takes Brad through all the major events at the convention:
From an SBC presidential candidate leaving a sexual abuse survivor and activist in tears to the war on CRT and the surprise victory of Ed Litton in the presidential election. While the Southern Baptist Convention is a niche topic, Brad argues that what is happening in the country's largest Protestant denomination is a window into the present and future of American Christianity and politics. The SBC is deeply divided. There are already rumors of schism. In many ways, the Southern Baptist Convention mirrors the American political landscape as it grapples (or doesn't) with issues related to race, gender, sexuality, history, and authority.
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Axis Mundy Axis Mundy You're listening to an Irreverent Podcast.
Visit irreverent.fm for more content from our amazing lineup of creators Hello, welcome to straight white American Jesus My name is Brad Onishi.
Our show is hosted in partnership with the Kapp Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Today is my second interview with Jonathan Krohn, who is reporting on the Southern Baptist Convention for the New Republic.
And so I'm catching up with Jonathan to talk about what happened this week.
I know many of you have been following it.
The contentious presidential election in the SBC, the ongoing discussion and controversy surrounding sexual abuse survivors trying to get the denomination to investigate, numerous—I mean, we're talking dozens, even hundreds—of sexual abuse claims, and the ongoing war against critical race theory.
I wanted to say at the top, I know that some of you are not interested in the Southern Baptist Convention per se.
It doesn't seem like it's relevant, and you're kind of wondering why I might be spending so much time on it.
And the reason is this.
The Southern Baptist Convention is the largest Protestant denomination in the country.
And we see here in this convention a kind of distillation of the issues that are plaguing American Protestantism and American Christianity and its relationship with politics.
We have this ongoing war against critical race theory.
So the idea is instead of confronting racism, I mean many of you know the Southern Baptist Convention started in the 1800s as the result of many Southern Baptists wanting to not only own slaves but condone slavery theologically.
So, instead of investigating the histories of racism, confronting those, there's a war on critical race theory.
We're seeing that all over the country in school board meetings, in state legislatures, and in other Christian denominations.
We also have sexual abuse survivors who are asking for responsibility, for accountability, and for transparency.
Again, we're seeing resistance to that within the SBC.
We're also seeing a far-right insurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention.
So Mike Stone was a candidate for president, and he represents a group that has really tried to double down in terms of conservative politics and fundamentalist theology in a denomination that is already far to the right of American Christianity.
To me this speaks of what is the future, right?
You know, in many ways it mirrors the presidential election.
As I talk about with Jonathan in the interview, you have on one side people who are hoping for some kind of reconciliation, and on the other you have a far-right group trying to push the denomination even further to the right, theologically and politically.
In many ways, the SBC presidential election feels a little bit like Biden versus Trump.
I mean, Biden is by no means a radical.
He's by no means somebody who one might consider progressive.
He's a moderate Democrat.
And yet, he was facing Trump, an authoritarian whose second term may have led to the end of democracy in this country.
All that to say, I think the SBC is worth watching, not because I think the SBC is going to reform into some sort of progressive Christian denomination, not because they're on the verge of abandoning complementarian theology or they're going to affirm LGBTQ plus people.
That's just not on the docket.
My hope here is not to see an SBC denomination that is going to be politically progressive or anything else.
The reason I want to shed a light on the SBC convention is to shed a light on the inner workings of American Christianity, especially white American Christianity, especially white American evangelicalism, to see where we're headed and to see how it might all go down.
All of that to say, my interview with Jonathan Krohn is next.
I appreciate you all.
Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy our discussion.
All right, I am joined once again by Jonathan Crone, who is an essayist and writer whose work has appeared all over the place and who is on assignment with the New Republic at the Southern Baptist Convention.
The convention just wrapped and we're going to just basically get right into it.
So Jonathan, thanks for being here.
You're sending me dispatches here from the convention floor as people kind of wrap up their time there.
So thanks for taking the time.
Of course, glad to be here.
Just to kind of catch people up, the Southern Baptist Convention was this week.
There was a lot of eyes on the convention because of what's happening in the Southern Baptist denomination surrounding critical race theory, sexual abuse scandals, and a kind of insurgent group trying to take control in terms of leadership.
The election for president came down to two very different people.
Now, they're very similar.
They're both white men, which is to be nothing surprising there.
But one is Ed Linton, who is seen as a more moderate character, who has signaled his support for investigating sexual abuse issues and other things, who has a less-than-hardcore kind of approach to critical race theory and has not been one of the vocal opponents of it.
He defeated 52 to 48 percent.
Mike Stone, Mike Stone is part of the insurgent group that was trying to take the reins, and they are some of the most conservative people in the Southern Baptist Convention, which is already itself very conservative.
So Jonathan, I want to get into all of this with you, but the fireworks really started a couple nights ago in an exchange between Mike Stone and A sexual abuse survivor named Hannah Kate who was trying to discuss or have, you know, some sort of dialogue with him and he orchestrated something that left her in tears.
So I'm going to leave it to you.
You were there.
What happened?
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