Southern Baptists Look To Alabama For Next Leader

By Dave Dieter / The Huntsville Times
Religion News Service

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (RNS) Alabama has a two-out-of-three chance of being home to the next president of the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's second largest Christian denomination.

The last Alabama pastor to head the 16-million-member convention served in the late 1800s, according to The Alabama Baptist, a newspaper owned by Southern Baptists.

Jimmy Jackson, senior pastor of Huntsville's Whitesburg Baptist Church and currently president of the Alabama Baptist Convention, will be nominated along with Ted Traylor, a native of Pisgah, Ala., who is now pastor of Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fla.

The third nominee will be Bryant Wright, pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church of Marietta, Ga.

The annual convention is June 15-16 in Orlando.

Jackson served as first vice president of the SBC from 2006-2007 and has been an assistant parliamentarian at the SBC's annual meetings for nearly 25 years, according to The Alabama Baptist. For eight years he also served on the SBC's executive committee.

Jackson has been pastor of Whitesburg for 31 years, shepherding the congregation from fewer than 3,000 members in 1978 to more than 7,000 today.

Traylor is a trustee of the North American Mission Board of the SBC and a member of the SBC's Great Commission Resurgence Task Force.

He was president of the Florida Baptist Convention from 1995-6, first vice president of the SBC in 2000 and president of the Southern Baptist Pastors' Conference in 2004.

Wright was a businessman before becoming a minister. He has been pastor of Johnson Ferry since 1981.

Wright is founder and chair of Right from the Heart Ministries, which distributes short inspirational messages via secular media.

Comments

[DevonTexas]

09:04 AM on 05/10/2010

No matter who they elect, the SBC will remain out of touch with America and Christianity

[SilentSolidarity]

01:56 AM on 05/10/2010

Hmmmm so they are not searching for a person who's non-white or liberal or part ofthe LGBT community.

[LMPE]

10:06 PM on 05/09/2010

How long before the selected person turns out to be a closeted gay?

[larry278]

08:45 PM on 05/09/2010

OK, the Christers have a lucrative franchise & many supporters. Bear in mind that the USSR made extraordinary, concerted efforts to destroy Christianity in their territory from 1917 to 1990. They failed abjectly & completly. The USA hasn't the desire or the money to destroy Christianity. If Christianiaty is ever destroyed, the Christians, themselves, will do it.

[chandran007]

07:04 PM on 05/09/2010

This is what these Southern Baptists and Pento buggers do in my country

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dmwTuhmfEA

I H_ate them with all my heart!

[Xarnego]

09:17 PM on 05/09/2010

If George W Bu$h and $arah Palin are not goodwill ambasadors from that parallel universe of Talibangelicalism, I don't know what is...

[Clevelandinwi]

06:14 AM on 05/10/2010

Nicely said ....

[LMPE]

10:05 PM on 05/09/2010

Religion is the biggest and most exploitative corporation of all.

[Xarnego]

01:34 AM on 05/10/2010

Tax free ponzi scheme...

[chandran007]

06:33 PM on 05/09/2010

Southern Baptists are cult members! This organization should be banned.

[WonderfulLife]

04:09 AM on 05/09/2010

I understand Baptist Minister George Reker has offered to cure any gays in the Baptist Church with a laying on of the hands. And the gay person gets to travel to exotic vacation spots with George as long as they are willing to "lift his bags" and pack him every day.
Of course the laying on of hands will be in the form of a massage that George receives but George has promised to preach the gospel while he is being stimulated.

[Xarnego]

08:07 AM on 05/09/2010

Once they get to europe they will also try "speaking in tongues" as part of their therapy...

Of course, word salad will not help George and the Rentboys he "saves" much in getting around or checking into a hotel in europe and neither will repeating commands slower and louder in english, which seems to be the extent of Reker's gift in the art of tongues. Of course, he may attempt a laying of hands if he doesen't get his way, in which case rentboys may prove useful, if only to assist in Reker's ministry once he arrives at a european jail...

I really think there is nobody better to lead the GOP's spiritual front group than their leading "anti-gay" crusader George Reker...

[rf dude]

11:35 PM on 05/08/2010

The new Grand Poobah can buy his wand and cape at Cinderella's Castle Giftshop...
:::

[mommadona]

01:58 PM on 05/08/2010

I don't know...why dont they just wear KKK vestments and get this over with ~ at least they'd be out in the open about just WHO they 'pray to' .

ORGANIZED religion is the bane of civilization ~ biggest male comfy club ever developed.

[Edward Hara]

01:37 PM on 05/09/2010

Let's see: the "organized religion" of the Catholic Church ended human sacrifice, changed civilizations from warfare to peace, started hospitals, orphanages, and asylums for the lepers, fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and took care of those who are poor. Several popes wrote about the evils of Capitalism and how it starves the poor, and in those encyclicals, they insisted that men be given a decent working wage and safe working conditions.

The atheism of Mao and Stalin murdered 150 million people. Yet liberals continue to ignore this little fact and declare that it is "organized religion" that is the danger to the world.

What is it that you are smoking? I might like a little of it, please!!

[mommadona]

03:03 PM on 05/09/2010

Most of those entities are run by the women (the second class citizens) of the catholic church, and truthfully, using THAT organized group of male dominated 'do as I say, not as I do' wont help that argument.

Organized religion ~ only as good as its weakest link.

They talk big, but then walk that 'other' path when convenient.

I let my argument stand.

More humans have been killed in the name of religion than for any other reason.

[DAVROS1]

03:09 PM on 05/09/2010

You're being serious and that is truly the frightening thing. Changed civilization from warfare to peace? I think you need to be in one of those asylums. Ever hear of the crusades? Ever hear of the inquisition? Ever hear of Adolf Hitler? Ever hear of George Bush?

Yeah the Catholic church has done some good things for humanity, but the horrific things done in the name of the church and in the name of an imaginary creator far outweigh the good.

Mao? Stalin? Sure, bad people. It wasn't atheism that killed 150million people, it was madmen and fanaticism. There have been plenty of madmen in the church over its 1700 yr history.

[Carlos Manuel]

12:18 PM on 05/08/2010

Can they bring back George?

[Xarnego]

09:51 PM on 05/07/2010

I nominate George Reekers...

He's doing a heck of a job "saving" those Rentboys...

That's what I call "compassionate conservatism"...

He's better than all those other "think they're better than you preachers"...

[monstermash9]

01:21 AM on 05/09/2010

I'll bet they did a lot of "praying" in front of each other.

[Xarnego]

08:08 AM on 05/09/2010

I heard they tried speaking in tongues too...