Religion and Politics

Christian Leaders Wrestle with Atlanta Shooting Suspect’s Southern Baptist Ties

The Washington Post‘s Sarah Pulliam Bailey reports, “Years before being suspected of killing eight people in a suburb of Atlanta, including six Asian women, Robert Aaron Long was active in his Southern Baptist congregation, his youth pastor said Wednesday.” Pulliam Bailey spoke to Brett Cottrell, Long’s former youth pastor at Crabapple First Baptist Church, who said, “I don’t recall any sermons dealing specifically with racism, but the general tenor was to welcome and to be as inclusive as possible.” Pulliam Bailey reports, “Long’s church is part of a group in the SBC called Founders Ministries that has pushed the convention in a more conservative direction in recent years. The group has described ‘white fragility’ as ‘racism’ and called critical race theory ‘godless and materialistic ideologies.'”

Read at The Washington Post

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