Southern Baptists Losing Members

The Southern Baptist Convention is among the most anti-gay denominations around, with spokesman, Richard Land (at left), nearly foaming at the mouth at times during his denunciation of LGBT Americans. Thus, I find it ironic and a source of amusement that the SBC is losing membership at record rates. Could it just be that Americans are growing tired of a denomination which often seems to define itself by who it hates? Losses seem particularly high among the younger generations. For example, I know that the Baptist church the boyfriend's parents attend seems to have a far older congregation than my more progressive ELCA parish that has more younger couples and youth. An article in the Washington Post that looks at this phenomenon. Here are some highlights:

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After decades of growth, the nation's largest group of Protestants, the Southern Baptist Convention, is reporting losses (in church membership and recorded baptisms) for the third year in a row. Baptisms are at a 20-year low, a figure liable to put an eternity-conscious church into a severe depression.

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Cutbacks at Southern Baptist seminaries and agencies are even hitting the denomination's bold, new marketing strategy designed to spread the gospel (and increase the flock) to every soul in North America by 2020. The campaign, called "God's Plan for Sharing" (Yes, GPS), includes a new image media campaign, "We Are Southern Baptists."

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No doubt there are market forces behind the SBC's declining statistics.

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1. The product is less appealing. Southern Baptists still profess the belief in Christ is the only path to salvation. But a new Pew Forum analysis shows that a majority of all American Christians (52%) think at least some non-Christian faiths can lead to eternal life. More surprising, among evangelicals surveyed, 35 percent said Muslims can go to heaven, 33 percent said Hindus can, and 26 percent said atheists can.

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2. The brand is less appealing. After 30 years of theo-political warfare within the denomination and the culture, which has included the merciless purging of evangelical moderates and even conservatives from all Southern Baptist school and agencies, not to mention strong public support for the Republican Party and Administration, the words "Southern Baptist" carry more negatives than positives. The largest and most prominent Southern Baptist congregation in America -- Rick Warren's Saddleback Church -- doesn't even use the word Baptist in its name.

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3. The market is changing. Nearly all predominantly white Christian denominations (Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Episcopal) in America are seeing a slow but steady decline in membership, a decline that reflects changing U.S. demographics. "This is not about orthodoxy or unorthodoxy or failed methods," Baptist historian Bill Leonard, dean of the Wake Forest School of Divinity in North Carolina, told Peter Smith of the (Louisville) Courier-Journal. "This is about demographics and sociology."

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Just a thought, but perhaps if the SBC had a more loving message and did not condemn the majority of the human race most of the time, it might make the SBC brand an easier sell. Jettisoning bigots like Richard Land might be a positive first step in the process.