A Shift Among the Evangelicals
When the Southern Baptist Convention elected the Rev. Frank Page as the group’s president at its meeting this week in Greensboro, N.C., the news appeared on the back pages of most secular newspapers — or it didn’t appear at all.
But Page’s upset victory could be very significant, both to the nation’s religious life and to politics. He defeated candidates supported by the convention’s staunchly conservative establishment, which has dominated the organization since the mid-1980s. His triumph is one of many signs that new breezes are blowing through the broader evangelical Christian world.
Religious movements stay vibrant thanks to the complicated interaction of fidelity, reflection and reform. The evangelical world is going through a quiet evolution as believers reflect on the perils of partisanship and ideology and their reasons for being Christian.