Southern Baptists and Evangelical Dissent

Abstract

This chapter surveys the history of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) from its origins out of the slavery controversy in 1845, through various approaches to social and religious dissent that evolved within varying subgroups of America’s largest Protestant denomination. Particular attention is given to the nature of Southern Baptists’ understanding of evangelicalism, their own denominational approaches to and differences about that that subject, and the varying relationships that the SBC has developed or avoided with other Evangelicals in the US.