Thousands will gather in Indianapolis Tuesday and Wednesday for the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. The meeting comes at a fraught time in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. Messengers — as voting delegates are known — will vote on whether to establish a constitutional ban on churches with women pastors. They’ll hear a report — and get outside criticism — of their handling of sexual abuse among their clergy. With membership in steady decline, they’ll hear a report on how an earlier effort to reverse that trend fell short. And they’ll vote for a new president from among six candidates. Speaking of presidential candidates, an outside group is inviting attendees to a virtual speech by former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, at an off-site event. Proposed resolutions deal with topics ranging from Gaza to abortion and in vitro fertilization. Here’s some of what’s facing the SBC: – What’s the latest with the sexual abuse crisis? – The convention has struggled to respond to sexual abuse in its churches since a 2019 report by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News, saying that roughly 380 Southern Baptist church leaders and volunteers faced allegations of sexual misconduct in the previous two decades. A subsequent consultant’s report said...Read more