News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
A local pastor returned from this week’s Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville.
Stevens Street Baptist Church Senior Pastor Scott Parkinson said his biggest takeaway–Baptists are passionate about spreading the word of God.
“There were issues related to critical race theory that a lot of messengers had questions about,” Parkinson said. “There were some issues about how Southern Baptists should address any sexual abuse that has ever happened. There was an extremely strong stance against any type of sexual abuse or condoning or hiding any type of sexual abuse.”
More than 15 thousand attended the convention.
Parkinson said the main purpose of the convention is to make sure Southern Baptists are maintaining their organization structurally and financially.
“There were ten resolutions that were voted by the 15 thousand messengers that represented the opinion of that convention,” Parkinson said. “Some of them were on racial reconciliation, some of them were voicing our opposition to the Equality Act which is making its way through Congress right now. We make statements about things that we believe and our opinions that we believe.”
SBC also elected a new president, Alabama Pastor Ed Litton. Parkinson said that while there were questions from messengers about the candidates, he believes that every candidate at SBC has Baptist distinctives in what they believe.
At the end of the day, Parkinson said that even if it looks like the group is fighting, they are a family of Baptists acting on their passion for spreading the Gospel.
“And behind that passion, its really the same,” Parkinson said. “It’s the same desire. Even though we have disagreements, it’s the same desire. We want to reach the nations for Jesus.”
