In Quick Reversal, Southern Baptists Denounce White Nationalists

Delegates of the Southern Baptist Convention, an evangelical church fellowship with about 15 million members across the United States, condemned white supremacists and the “alt-right” in a resolution on Wednesday, one day after the delegates provoked a backlash by turning down a more harshly worded resolution.

The denomination’s annual meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday in Phoenix attracted about 5,000 delegates and pastors from across the country.

While the convention tends to lean conservative on many issues — one resolution that was approved called for defunding Planned Parenthood — Russell Moore, who is in charge of public policy for the convention, said in an interview on Thursday that the resolution against the alt-right had to do with Southern Baptist values, not politics.

“I heard no objections, privately or publicly, to this resolution,” he said. “None.”

The original resolution denouncing white supremacy was submitted by Dwight McKissic, a black Southern Baptist pastor in Texas. It called alt-right — a far-right, white nationalist movement — and white supremacists groups a “toxic menace.”