The Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Protestant denomination with deep roots throughout Tennessee and Maury County, has elected a new president with a clear ideological mission. Florida pastor Willy Rice won 58 percent of the vote on Tuesday, defeating South Carolina pastor Josh Powell at the annual convention.
Rice, senior pastor of Calvary Church in Clearwater, has made his priorities clear. He has criticized what he calls a "decline and drift" within the denomination and has called on Southern Baptists to abandon what he terms the "mushy evangelical middle ground" in favor of uncompromising conservative positions on doctrine, theology, and cultural issues.
Rice's election reflects a broader movement within the convention to move further to the right. His supporters include advocacy groups that have argued SBC leadership had gone too far in acknowledging social issues. He has also challenged denomination initiatives on sexual abuse prevention, and has called for additions to the Baptist Faith and Message, the denomination's foundational statement of belief, that would declare gender to be biologically determined and unchangeable.
The Southern Baptist Convention will vote Wednesday on a proposed constitutional amendment that would formally ban churches with women pastors, an action Rice has publicly supported. With more than 11,000 delegates registered at the convention, these decisions will shape the direction of a denomination with significant presence in churches throughout Maury County.
Rice previously led unsuccessful efforts to abolish the denomination's public policy arm, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, citing criticisms that it had failed to heed member concerns.