A day after overruling the Resolutions Committee, messengers to the 2021 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting adopted a resolution June 16 calling for “abolishing abortion immediately, without exception or compromise.”

The Resolutions Committee had declined the resolution, reasoning that while “messengers would agree with some aspects of this resolution,” the issue of abortion was addressed in another resolution condemning the repeal of the Hyde Amendment, which prevents federal funding of abortion.

But after one of the resolution’s nine co-authors spoke to the motion June 15, messengers brought it to the floor with a two-thirds vote. It was adopted after an amendment softening its language.

Building on the momentum of the SBC measures to prevent sex abuse in churches and protect vulnerable populations, messengers approved a resolution encouraging churches to permanently disqualify sex abusers from serving as pastors. The resolution also asks churches to apply the standard to all positions of church leadership.

Committee member Nathan Finn said the resolution supports other measures the SBC has taken to prevent sexual abuse in churches, including an amendment to Article III of the SBC Constitution supporting the disfellowshiping of churches that don’t act to prevent sexual abuse.

“It is very obvious that the will of the convention is that we do a better job of addressing this issue,” said vice chairman Finn, a member of Mountain Creek Baptist Church in Greenville, S.C., who is provost of North Greenville University. “We felt like this is a way that we can come alongside all the positive momentum that says our first instinct needs to be to care for those who have been abused, more than protecting our own reputation.”

— Diana Chandler is senior writer at Baptist Press.