Conservative Baptist Network Calls For SBC President’s Resignation

The Conservative Baptist Network, a subset of theologically conservative Southern Baptist churches, has called on newly-elected SBC president Ed Litton to resign among a wave of videos and evidence demonstrating Litton has plagiarized dozens if not hundreds of sermons during his time as pastor of Redemption Church in Saraland, Alabama.

Litton was considered to be the “moderate” or even “woke” candidate running for SBC president and has taken positions out of step with the Conservative Baptist Network, including allowing his wife to co-preach and emphasizing social justice as an essential part of the gospel. Litton narrowly defeated CBN-endorsed candidate Mike Stone in a run-off election by a few hundred votes.

From the Conservative Baptist Network’s statement:

Recent weeks have brought to light evidence of repeated plagiarism of multiple sources on the part of Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) President Ed Litton. This sinful behavior and the lack of forthrightness when exposed is inconsistent with the character and integrity Southern Baptists rightfully expect from their president (Ex. 20:15, Prov. 28:6, 1 Tim. 3:2).

Litton was exposed in dozens of videos taking sermon material point-for-point and sometimes word-for-word from outgoing SBC President JD Greear, and had even stolen his church’s doctrinal statement from another Baptist church – a statement that contained a heretical statement about the nature of God – that God exists in three parts instead of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit each being fully God.

While the CBN did not express concern over the heretical statement of faith (which has now been replaced), they noted that Litton has yet to apologize or repent in any way for his behavior:

The Conservative Baptist Network delayed commenting on this matter publicly in the hope that personal conversations and counsel with President Litton would lead him to acknowledge his error and repent (James 1:19, Gal. 6:1). Sadly, this has not occurred.  As further evidence of what appears to be serial plagiarism continues to surface in at least six videos from a variety of named sources, the Conservative Baptist Network calls on the leaders of the SBC to address this matter promptly and biblically. For the sake of the gospel, it is best for President Litton to step down from office and focus on his personal spiritual development with his local church.

Christian discernment ministries including Protestia, Reformation Charlotte, Capstone Report, Justin Peters Ministries, and many others continued to expose Litton’s plagiarism, and their research led them to discover that many big-name evangelical pastors have been using professional research groups to prepare sermons – a job that is supposed to be done by local church pastors.

In a lengthy and researched expose, a team of discernment ministers exposed research firm The Docent Group as a major source of sermon material being used by large church pastors all over the country. Montana pastor JD Hall wrote and published this expose demonstrating that the source of sermon material in many supposedly conservative churches was actually coming from nameless, faceless liberals working at Docent.

While a growing list of theologically conservative churches and Southern Baptist church members are calling for Litton to go, SBC Seminary presidents and entity heads have remained entirely silent on the issue. Mainstream media including the New York Times, Washington Post, Fox News, Breitbart, and many others have published pieces on the scandal, but as of this writing Litton remains the president of the Southern Baptist Convention and most SBC leaders have yet to address the growing scandal.