Significant Decreases in Funds Resulting From Political Involvement with Trump Cult Threaten Southern Baptists' Venerable 'Cooperative Program'

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Decreased Offerings Cause Baptist State Conventions to Cut Giving to National Causes

The Increasing Intrusion of Right Wing Extremism into Conservative Evangelical, Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches is the Major Cause of Severe Membership and Attendance Decline

It's been a little over nine years since Trump came down the escalator in his New York office building and announced he would be a candidate for President of the United States in 2016.  That same period of time happens to coincide with a staggering decline in the membership and attendance within the churches of the nation's largest Evangelical denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention.  Is there a correlation?  Of course there is.  And similar drops in membership and attendance are occurring in other segments of the broader spectrum of conservative Evangelicalism that are overwhelmingly white, and overwhelmingly influenced by right wing political extremism. 

Southern Baptist leadership has, until recently, been very tight lipped about the decline of their membership.  Membership plateaued at 16.2 million around 2000, and remained there, with tiny annual increases until 2008, when a drop of about 38,000 members was recorded.  The decline continued at about the same rate, just under 50,000 annually, until 2016, when a loss of just over 200,000 was reported.  The membership dropped by 240,000 in 2017, and 280,000 in 2018 before a sharp drop of 435,000 happened in 2019.  Then, from 2019 to 2022, the annual losses exceeded 450,000 until the decline slowed in 2023, with a reported loss of 241,000 brought the total down to under 13 million for the first time since the 1960's.  

Altogether, since 2006, the Southern Baptist Convention has lost 3,324,156 members, Average weekly attendance has dropped, over the same period of time, by more than 2.2 million.  That is a loss of 38% of its total average weekly attendance, and over 20% of its total membership, most of that occurring in the last decade, and the steepest declines occurring since 2016.  Only someone blind to reality would insist that the intrusion of the very worldly, immoral, corrupt style of right wing extremism into the churches of this denomination, in which over 75% of its members are self-identified Trump voters, didn't have anything to do with the decline. 

Of course it did.  

The author of this article is one of those 3.2 million members, and 2.2 million weekly attenders, who can be subtracted from the ranks of those who belonged to a Southern Baptist church at its peak in 2006.  In 1996, after some major, personal deconstruction of doctrine and theology resulting from the surge of conservative fundamentalism in the denomination that started in 1979, I joined a congregation that, while still affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, had distanced itself by joining a new group of more moderate, more historically Baptist, less fundamentalist churches that had formed out of years of battling over things like whether women could be ordained, and over the emphasis placed on the values in the practice and ministry of the church, with less emphasis on doctrinal conformity.  

In 2008, along with the more than 1,200 other members of this congregation, we voted virtually unanimously to sever our ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, subtracting 1,226 members and about 850 in weekly attendance average from their numbers, along with a substantial amount of money we gave each year in support of the denomination.  We were one of more than 100 such churches to do the same thing in 2008.  Political extremism intruding into conservative Evangelicalism was one of several factors causing membership losses even back then, along with fundamentalist doctrine that had turned churches into legalistic cults.  Being a Bush voter was one of their requirements for being a true Christian, in their perspective.  

Of course, when Trump came along, accepting his brand of right wing extremism meant having to deny core values of Christian practice.  Lying, adultery, fraud and financial and business corruption had to be normalized and as a consequence of that, people who still followed the Christian gospel, and saw the practice of Christianity as a lifestyle reflecting its values found congregations full of Trump supporters intolerable.  Many of them headed for the exits.  It was happening not only in the Southern Baptist Convention, but all across the spectrum of conservative American Evangelicalism, more than a dozen denominations have either reported membership and attendance losses in excess of 30%, or they stopped reporting membership figures.  

Non-denominational, independent churches are experiencing the same thing, including those whose doctrine identifies them as Pentecostal or Charismatic.  These are some of the more extremist, far to the far right groups, whose leaders come up with some of the most ridiculous, and dangerous, predictions and false prophecies.  There's a lot of brainwashing, and emotional imprisonment in many of these churches, but people are seeing how hypocritical it is to give political support to someone who openly denies what they consider valuable spirituality.   

The Financial Decline is Also Significant

Both of the linked articles have to do with the long term financial future of the Southern Baptist Convention.  It would take much more space than I have here to explain the layers of this denomination's organizational structure, but administration of the resources given for denominational ministry work by 45,000 churches is complicated.  The Southern Baptist Convention, at its national level, is a relatively tight organization.  It is supported by 41 "state conventions" who receive their contributions directly from the churches, and then allocate a percentage of that income to the national denominational body, led by an executive committee headquartered in Nashville.   

That money supports two mission boards and somewhere around 5,500 missionaries around the world, six theological seminaries that train most pastors and church staff, the executive committee, which meets four times a year, and a convention annual meeting once each June, the political arm of the denomination, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, and the largest Christian publishing house in the United States, Lifeway Christian Resources.  Lifeway is self-supporting, from the sale of its books and literature.   

Up to this point, the state conventions have protected the national denomination from financial disaster by cutting their own budgets, as contributions from the churches decline, mainly to preserve funding for the two mission boards.  But most of the state bodies have cut to the bone.  Some are selling off property, including extravagant, under-used office buildings, or giving up their interest in, and control of the colleges and universities affiliated with them. The decline in actual attendance, which includes the majority of those who are financial contributors to their churches, has been about 30%, not including what they lost that hasn't returned from the pandemic.  So church offering plates are coming up short, and that means the amount of money they contribute to each state organization is less. 

Even Lifeway, which markets its products well beyond the parameters of the Southern Baptist Convention, has seen a significant drop in product sales and is in the process of a second downsizing that includes selling off its second business location in Nashville and relocating to leased space.   

These budget cuts, as can be seen from the reports, are significantly affecting the operation of Southern Baptists.  

Will They Ever Wake Up to Reality?

There's been a pattern to this whole looming disaster that is typical of the response of this particular denomination, and common to most Evangelicals.  It's called "denial."  

Southern Baptists get their membership and attendance data directly from churches which report them every year.  So when the numbers plateaued around 2000, it was attributed to churches that failed to send in their reports.  But the number of churches reporting their data each year has been very consistent. And when a church doesn't report in any specific year, the previous year's data is included in the total.  

Research on membership and attendance trends, and on what's going on within the denomination and churches is done in house, at Lifeway publishers, which provides analysis of the annual data.  Trust me when I say that a straight answer about what's causing this sudden, rapid decline in membership and attendance is not forthcoming.  The largest declines in membership have all taken place since 2015, directly correlating with the intrusion of the more invasive brand of extremist politics associated with Trumpism, which is completely incompatible with the Christian gospel, in every way.  

There may be some other underlying causes for a loss of some members, though nothing that corresponds directly with the intrusion of Trumpism into the churches.  A sexual abuse scandal, primarily involving pastors, church staff members and mission personnel, which is a reflection of the manner in which women are viewed in these fundamentalist churches, is likely one reason for some membership losses.  

The denomination's credentials committee has removed several churches for having women in positions designated as "pastor."  The most notable one of these was Saddleback Valley Community Church of Mission Viejo, California, the largest church by membership in the denomination, whose former pastor, Rick Warren, is author of The Purpose Driven Church and The Purpose Driven Life.  The church, and its 40,000 members on multiple campuses, were excluded from the denomination last year for having three women designated as "pastor."  They were followed by several other megachurches in short order, leaving on their own as a result of this action.  

Don't expect that they will ever acknowledge Trump politics or its intrusion as a cause for the staggering loss of membership and attendance, and the budget woes they are now experiencing.  They will disband as a denomination before they will blame the corrupt, immoral, anti-Christian politician for anything.  He's their declared savior now, they've thrown Jesus under the bus and they've bid him goodbye.