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SBC 2025 Highlights, the Fastest-Growing Religion, and the Mennonites
Highlights from this year’s Southern Baptist Convention, a study on the global growth of religions between 2010 and 2020, the history of the Mennonites, and more.
Anthony Langer
June 14, 2025
It’s Saturday, June 14, 2025.
Today’s edition covers highlights from this year’s Southern Baptist Convention, a study on the global growth of religions between 2010 and 2020, the history of the Mennonites, and more.
“Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.” (Proverbs 3:3-4)
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Of Christian Concern
SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION HIGHLIGHTS
SBC President Clint Pressley (left) leads the SBC 2025 annual meeting, attended by Barry McCarty (right), the SBC’s chief parliamentarian of many years.
The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S., held its 2025 annual meeting this week in Dallas, Texas. As goes this denomination, so goes much of American Protestantism. In light of that fact, here are some highlights from the meeting.
The convention celebrated its 100th anniversary, emphasizing its “Cooperative Program,” the denomination’s financial plan to collectively fund mission work via church donations.
Delegates from SBC churches (called “messengers”) failed to amend the SBC Constitution to limit membership to churches that affirm, appoint, or employ “only men as any kind of pastor.” The so-called “Sanchez/Law amendment” got 60 percent of the vote, but required a two-thirds majority for two years in a row. See pastor and seminary professor Denny Burk’s analysis here.
Messengers voted not to abolish the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC). To understand the calls for its abolition, read this article by Christian journalist Megan Basham.
Pastor Tom Buck made a motion for the Executive Committee to issue an investigation into its treatment of former chairman Mike Stone during an incident that allegedly may have cost him the loss of the convention presidential race in 2021. The motion failed.
Messengers voted down an amendment calling for “990 transparency”—that is, for “entities to disclose financial information disclosed on the IRS form 990.” To understand the calls for greater financial transparency, see this website.
Messengers voted in favor of several resolutions, including:
Calling for the overturn of gay marriage
Calling for the ban of pornography
Calling for the Food and Drug Administration to revoke its approval of the abortion pill mifepristone and for Congress to ban chemical abortion
For an explainer on how “the last three SBC presidents purposely moved the Convention to the left,” see here.
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Also Noteworthy
Muslims in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. (Photo: Haydan As-soendawy)
→ Islam was the fastest-growing religion in the world between 2010 and 2020, having increased by 347 million—more “than all non-Muslim religions combined (248 million),” Pew Research reports. The study considered “201 countries and territories that are home to 99.98% of the world’s population,” and estimates that Muslims were 25.6% of the world's population in 2020, while Christians were 28.8%. That's a closing gap from 2010, when “Muslims made up 23.9% of the world’s population and Christians accounted for 30.6%.”
→ The name of Israel’s operation against Iran, “Operation Rising Lion” was inspired by the Bible verse Numbers 23:24, the Christian Post reports.
→ The city council of Ventura, California, whose mayor interrupted local mother Tarin Swain’s prayer during a city council meeting in March, has backtracked and invited Swain to return and offer a prayer at the next council meeting. See Project 18:15’s coverage of the initial censorship here (article) and here (video).
→ Persecution of Christians in Africa is escalating, according to a new report by International Christian Concern, “particularly in countries with large Christian populations, such as Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Kenya.” The report highlights “specific incidents of attacks on Christians that have occurred during the first quarter of 2025.”
→ The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled “that Wisconsin discriminated against a Catholic nonprofit by prohibiting it from receiving a tax exemption normally provided for religious organizations,” World News Group reports.
→ Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, introduced a resolution to declare June as “Life Month” in remembrance of Roe v. Wade’s overturn on June 24, 2022. For context, this overturn did not defend life by ending abortion but instead allowed states to make their own laws about it—and no state has yet legally ended abortion.
→ Police in Brussels, Belgium, arrested a pair of activists protesting transgender ideology and puberty blockers for minors. Carrying signs that read, “Children are never born in the wrong body,” and “Children cannot consent to puberty blockers,” Lois McLatchie Miller and Chris Elston (also known as Billboard Chris) called the police after what they describe as being harassed by a mob. The police arrested them instead.
Content Catch-Up
Recent, notable content of Christian interest.*
My reaction to N.T. Wright’s abortion comments
→ Faith News Brief videos you may have missed:
→ Abolitionism Spreading: In an article posted Wednesday, a pro-abortion writer bemoans that the movement to abolish abortion is making headway in the culture. As evidence of the movement’s spread “in newspapers and state houses,” she cites “a Kentucky ‘abolitionist’” who “published an op-ed in The Courier Journal.” She’s referring to me (Anthony Langer), and you can read the op-ed here.
→ Israel vs. Iran: Ryan from NeedGod.net offers four recommendations for how Christians should respond to the news of Israel’s attack on Iran. (Video Short)
*Not necessarily an endorsement
Church History Tidbit
Mennonite Origins
A Mennonite couple at a public sale in Lititz, Pennsylvania, 1942. (Public Domain)
The Mennonite movement began in the 16th century during the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It was founded by Menno Simons (1496–1561), a peasant born in Witmarsum, Friesland (modern Netherlands) who was educated in a monastic school and ordained as a Catholic priest in 1524. Initially, he served in Pingjum, performing duties mechanically while privately questioning Catholic doctrines like transubstantiation.
By 1531, influenced by Protestant Reformation ideas and the execution of Anabaptist Sicke Freerks for rebaptism, Menno began studying Scripture intensely. He rejected infant baptism, embracing believer’s baptism, a core Anabaptist tenet. In 1535, the violent Münster Rebellion, led by radical Anabaptists, further shaped his commitment to nonviolence. In 1536, he renounced Catholicism, left the priesthood, and joined the Anabaptists, becoming a hunted figure due to persecution.
Menno’s leadership focused on unifying scattered, peaceful Anabaptist groups. He traveled extensively across the Netherlands and northern Germany, preaching, baptizing, and organizing congregations. His writings, like Foundation of Christian Doctrine (1539), emphasized adult baptism, pacifism, and disciplined Christian living. Despite bounties on his life, he evaded capture, often hiding in safe houses.
In 1542, he married Geertruydt, with whom he had at least three children. Later, he settled in Holstein (modern Germany), where he died in 1561.
Mennonites faced persecution for their beliefs, leading many to flee to rural areas in Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands. By the 17th century, they spread to North America, particularly Pennsylvania, seeking religious freedom. Their commitment to simplicity, community, and nonviolence shaped their lifestyle, often expressed through plain dress and agrarian living.
Over time, Mennonites diversified, with some groups maintaining traditional practices while others embraced modern technology and urban life. Their traditional emphases include adult baptism after a conscious choice of faith; nonviolence and objection to military service; avoiding political engagement; simplicity in lifestyle, dress, and worship; and close-knit congregational life and mutual aid.
Today, Mennonites number over 1.5 million globally, with significant communities in the U.S., Canada, Africa, and Asia. They remain known for their peacebuilding efforts, humanitarian work, and strong communal bonds, while navigating tensions between tradition and adaptation in a changing world.
Written with Grok.
Bible Trivia Question
Besides Hebrew and Greek, what original language is the Bible written in?
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