Criticism on the Southern Baptist Church

An essay for History of Christianity

Southern Baptist theology is technically based on only what the Bible preaches. The specific Southern moniker was added during the Civil War period as it differentiated the north, who condemned slavery, and the south, which advocated for keeping African Americans slaves. This group created an organization known as the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), which was dedicated to organizing and upholding the specific values of the denomination. As time went on, the church discarded much of the racism that defined their denomination and renounced those ideas in 1995.

In recent years, the SBC and the culture of the church have gone hand in hand. In my time attending First Baptist Church of Alpharetta (now First City Church), the values have been ingrained in my mind and body. This picture represents the un-Biblical legalism found in the Southern Baptist church. This includes being weighed down by trying to find personal connection with God that doesn’t go outside the barriers of the rules and standards that the church has set up, either officially or culturally. Whether that is suppressing a call to lead as a woman in ministry or picking what to wear, the SBC holds firm to how Christian culture is supposed to look.

In my research, I found a lot of criticism on the SBC and their lack of nuance when interpreting the Bible. In one article by Casey McCall, he criticizes the SBC’s lack of nuance, pragmaticism, and their view of their mission. The Southern Baptists have a one-way-fits-all of doing missions which neglects the idea that various cultures have different, but valid ways of worshipping God. This goes back to the initial missions movement we saw in the 1800’s to ‘whitewash’ Christianity, causing rigidness in worship, attire, and behavior considered acceptable for church.

This picture depicts the struggles of balancing the expectations, particularly of women, in the church with having a real relationship with God.