Southern Baptist Vote Signals Further Fractures in American Evangelicalism

The establishment narrowly headed off a takeover attempt by a hard-right movement. Some backers of the losing candidate are now considering leaving altogether.

NASHVILLE — Southern Baptists agree that the Bible is divinely inspired and without error, that belief in Jesus is the only way to Heaven, that women may not serve as head pastors, and that true marriage is between one man and one woman. But fears of liberal drift are embedded almost as deeply in the denomination’s roots. This week at the Southern Baptist Convention’s first meeting in two years, establishment conservatives narrowly headed off an aggressive takeover attempt by an ascendant hard-right movement. But rather than calm a turbulent debate, the votes in Nashville — for a new president and on a series of hot-button cultural issues — only underscored the sharp divisions within the denomination and portended further fractures within American evangelicalism.