UNITED STATES
The Guardian (UK)
Associated Press in Nashville, Tennessee
theguardian.com, Tuesday 10 June 2014
An Arkansas mega-church pastor was elected Tuesday to lead the country’s Southern Baptists as the conservative denomination tries to turn around declining membership, church attendance and baptisms and faces increasing conflict with mainstream culture, especially over its conviction that gay sex is immoral.
Later on Tuesday, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination is scheduled to consider a resolution opposing the idea that gender identity can be different from a person’s biological sex. And a motion made from the floor by one Southern Baptist Convention delegate asks the group to discipline a Southern California church that has stopped preaching against homosexuality.
In nominating the Rev Ronnie Floyd for president, the powerful head of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, the Rev Albert Mohler, told the crowd of 5,000 meeting in Baltimore, “The nation is embracing a horrifying moral rebellion that is transforming our culture before our very eyes.”
He warned of “direct challenges to our religious freedoms and churches” and said Floyd is the person who can “convey our message in the midst of the most trying times.”
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