SBC leaders move right as Christian nationalists push influence

At the Southern Baptist Convention’s Orlando meeting, the Center for Baptist Leadership helped set a sharper course—voting to codify a ban on women pastors, affirming immigration enforcement, and elevating a newly elected president, Florida pastor Willy Rice—w

For years. the Southern Baptist Convention has carried itself like a giant in American religious life—12.7 million members across some 46. 000 churches. running six of the nation’s 10 largest theological seminaries. and shaping how many pastors are trained. Its sheer scale has long translated into political weight, one that even its critics say can’t be ignored.

That influence came into sharper focus at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual conference in Orlando earlier this month. where tens of thousands of representatives from SBC churches gathered. The Center for Baptist Leadership—created by Florida pastor and longtime political operative Willy Rice’s allies—pushed the denomination toward a more hard-edged conservatism. and the votes provided a map of where they want the SBC to go next.

Among the most consequential actions was a move in favor of codifying an official ban on women pastors. even though most SBC churches already allow only male pastors. Delegates also affirmed robust immigration enforcement. And they acknowledged the United States’ history of “sins such as slavery, racism, abortion, injustice, and sexual immorality.”.

The meeting also crowned a new leader: Florida pastor Willy Rice. a figure described by his supporters as both theologically and politically conservative. who has railed against critical race theory and decried what he calls the “woke riptide” in the denomination. The Center for Baptist Leadership endorsed Rice for SBC president. After the convention. the group’s president. William Wolfe. hailed Rice’s victory as “the end of the SBC being steered by weaponized empathy.” Rice has also appeared on Center for Baptist Leadership podcasts and at events hosted by the group.

The Center for Baptist Leadership itself came together in early 2024. with Wolfe and other SBC conservatives viewing the denomination’s recent direction as a departure from values they say have defined the SBC since its founding: traditional family structures. clearly defined gender roles. and a belief in the infallibility of the Bible. In their telling. over the last decade the SBC moved toward the center. influenced by social justice movements including Black Lives Matter and the broader push to expose sexual abuse and harassment.

Wolfe’s group opposes SBC leaders it describes as caught up in “the spirit of the worldly ‘MeToo’ movement. DEI ideology. and social justice signaling. ” according to the Center for Baptist Leadership’s website. The group argues those aims have produced a list of problems. including women pastors. financial secrecy. and an obsession with blaming the SBC as a whole for sex abuse scandals in individual churches—claims the group says bring “perverse. anti-Christian standards of justice to judge claims of abuse.”.

But the center’s ambitions don’t end at the church door. Wolfe, the group’s founder, has built a resume that runs directly through American politics. He served in the first Trump administration as the deputy assistant secretary of defense and as director of House affairs at the Department of State. He is also an alumnus of Heritage Action. a sister organization of the Heritage Foundation—an arch-conservative think tank whose chief architect. Russell Vought. posted on X that he was “proud to work with @William_E_Wolfe on scoping out a sound Christian Nationalism.”.

A few months later. the Bucks County Beacon uncovered what it described as a lengthy online manifesto spelling out goals of Christian nationalists. The document listed Wolfe and Joel Webbon as contributing editors and Oklahoma Sen. Dusty Deevers as a co-author. It called for “civil magistrates” to usher in “the establishment of the Ten Commandments as the foundational law of the nation.”.

Wolfe told MISRYOUM in a phone call that he believes SBC members largely agree with those ideas. “It’s something Baptists historically believe. that we should be involved in politics and we should be unashamed about bringing our Christian beliefs and presuppositions into the political square. ” he said. He also said he could imagine a version of a Christian America where people of other faiths held office. while noting that some Baptist founders “thought that only Christians should be able to hold elected office.”.

On the question of women voting, Wolfe declined to weigh in beyond stating, “I think that the 19th amendment was duly enacted and is the law of the land.”

His social media record has gone further than most of what the SBC debates are used to hearing. On X. where Wolfe has 96. 000 followers. he argues against religious tolerance and multiculturalism. writing last week. “The idea that ‘all religions deserve equal respect’ is one of the most disastrous lies of the modern age.” On another tweet the same day. he wrote. “Mass migration is biological warfare waged by secular globalist elites against the native Christian peoples of the West.”.

During the phone call. Wolfe stressed that his tweets don’t necessarily reflect the work of the Center for Baptist Leadership. but he reaffirmed his statements on pluralism. calling religious pluralism a “recipe for disaster.” He also argued that “there are people who want to see native Christian Western populations diminished and negatively impacted by third-world migration.” He pointed to Hungary as a model for immigration policy. saying. “Hungary is a spiritually dead country in many ways. but it’s preserved its Christian heritage. ” and adding. “It’s preserved its people—they’ve not allowed their people to be replaced by millions of migrants.”.

Last year. the extremism watchdog group Right Wing Watch posted a video of Wolfe quoting a scripture passage about people being “to arms.” He said. “even the God of peace proclaims by his providence. ‘to arms!’” and argued that if American history has a moment to make that call. “I think we are getting close.” When asked what he meant by the statement about Christians being called to arms. Wolfe said it was “more general than specific. ” describing it as a reminder that “Christians have been in that situation before many times throughout the centuries. ” and saying. “Maybe we’ll find ourselves in a position like that again.”.

The Center for Baptist Leadership is not alone in connecting the SBC to the broader Christian right. Its fiscal sponsor is American Reformer, an online magazine founded by Josh Abbotoy. Abbotoy is also described as an entrepreneur who runs a venture capital firm aimed at building a Christian techno-utopian community in rural Appalachia. Abbotoy serves as a visiting scholar at the Center for Baptist Leadership. In an email. he said the SBC’s recent votes reflect a sea change in how Christians are beginning to relate to broader culture: “I think we are starting to see a shift toward a cultural insurgency model. ” he wrote. “in which evangelical leaders strategically adjust to the reality that broader society has become less amenable to Christian values.”.

Michael Clary. a Kentucky pastor and Christian nationalist who serves on the advisory board of the Center for Baptist Leadership. also argues the SBC needs a more forceful approach. In an email. Clary bemoaned what he called a modern. excessively passive Christian culture. saying it has fallen into a “loser theology” that demands the church “retreat into pietistic ghettos while we watch the world burn.” Instead. he wrote. Christians “should bring their convictions into public life. including their votes. their advocacy. and their cultural engagement.”.

Christian nationalist ties don’t appear confined to Wolfe’s organization. Consider Al Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky, who has served in that role since 1993. Mohler has been a key figure in the SBC’s fight over women pastors; he proposed the amendment that would officially ban women pastors. though that specific move has not been adopted yet. SBC leaders will hold the final vote at next year’s convention in Indianapolis.

Mohler has also appeared on a podcast hosted by Doug Wilson. a self-proclaimed Christian nationalist pastor who is not a member of the SBC. Wilson presides over a small fiefdom in Moscow, Idaho. On that podcast. Mohler said he was frustrated by what he called a misconception that Baptist forefathers were “some kind of strict separationist when it came to Christian morality and the society.” Mohler argued Baptists had “a lot in common with Christian nationalists like Wilson. ” and said. “I have been calling for maximum Christian influence in the public square my whole life.”.

Even inside the SBC, the Center for Baptist Leadership’s influence is seen as outsized for its size. Bob Smietana. a veteran religion reporter with Religion News Service. noted that the Center for Baptist Leadership’s contingent at the annual meeting “didn’t have huge numbers.” The group’s budget isn’t publicly available because it exists under the financial umbrella of American Reformer. though Wolfe told MISRYOUM the organization runs “on a shoestring.” Smietana said it has nevertheless influenced the “narrative and the public relations. ” through social media presence. podcasts. and the relationships its leaders have built with influential SBC members.

Nathan Finn. a religion professor who leads the Institute for Faith and Culture at North Greenville University—a Baptist college in South Carolina—said he was careful not to overstate the center’s influence on the denomination. But he acknowledged the Center for Baptist Leadership reflects a growing movement within the larger denomination toward a “populist distrust of institutions and elites.”.

For Wolfe, the Orlando meeting was a referendum that the center’s strategy is working. “Conservative reformers in the SBC aren’t the fringe,” he tweeted. “We are the representatives of what the broad base of grassroots Southern Baptists think & want. We are the center. Time to assume it and act accordingly.”.

In the SBC’s next chapter—one that culminates with a final vote on women pastors in Indianapolis—the question is no longer whether Christian nationalist-linked leaders can be heard inside the denomination. The delegates’ decisions in Orlando already suggest the louder question: whether the broader SBC is willing to follow them.

Southern Baptist Convention SBC Willy Rice William Wolfe Center for Baptist Leadership Christian nationalism Orlando convention women pastors immigration enforcement critical race theory Al Mohler