Southern Baptist Convention conservative resurgence

Beginning in 1979, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) experienced an intense struggle for control of the organization. Its initiators called it the conservative resurgence^[1] while its detractors labeled it the fundamentalist takeover.^[2] It was launched with the charge that the seminaries and denominational agencies were dominated by liberals. The movement was primarily aimed at reorienting the denomination away from a liberal trajectory.^[2]

It was achieved by the systematic election, beginning in 1979, of conservative individuals to lead the SBC. Theologically moderate and liberal leaders were voted out of office. Though some senior employees were fired from their jobs, most were replaced through attrition. Conversely, moderate and liberal presidents, professors, and department heads of Southern Baptist seminaries, mission groups and other convention-owned institutions were replaced with conservatives.^[3]

The resurgence is said by some to be the most serious controversy ever to occur within the SBC, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States.^[2] Albert Mohler later described it as a "reformation ... achieved at an incredibly high cost."^[4] A part of that cost was the departure of 1,900 churches from the convention, which broke away in 1990 to form the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a moderate Baptist group which affirms women in ordained ministry and emphasizes the Baptist principles of the autonomy of the local church, the priesthood of all believers, and soul liberty.