The Southern Baptist Convention has elected a new president — Texas pastor Bart Barber
Pastor Bart Barber, a presidential candidate of the Southern Baptist Convention, speaks during its annual meeting in Anaheim, Calif., Tuesday, June 14, 2022. ANAHEIM, California — — Bart Barber is a staunch Southern Baptist conservative who would welcome bans on abortion, opposes critical race theory and believes only men should serve as pastors.
Barber also has expressed dismay at the mean-spirited behaviors attributed to some SBC officials in a recent investigative report that details how the denomination stonewalled sex abuse victims. “The work’s not done,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, but I think everybody in the survivor community that I’ve heard from has said reports are one thing, but we’ll see if this family of churches has the courage and resolve to take action.”approved Tuesday at the annual meeting,
Barber served as SBC first vice president from 2013 to 2014 and as a trustee over the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas from 2009 to 2019. During his tenure with the school, Paige Patterson, an architect of the SBC conservative takeover, was removed as seminary president for his response to rape allegations from students.