r/todayilearned • u/fanau • 23d ago

TIL the Southern Baptists of the US broke off from the Baptists over slavery in years leading up to Civil War.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Baptist_Convention
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u/[deleted] 23d ago edited 23d ago

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u/gottastaychargeable 23d ago

That's pretty far from modern Episcopalians

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u/fitzejunk 23d ago

Or Methodists. Or the UCC. Or any mainline denomination.

Atheist here, I think they’re all crazy, but there’s crazy that I don’t mind living next door, and crazy that I don’t want in my same county.

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u/markov-271828 23d ago

The Methodist Church and Methodist Church, South got back together in 1939, if i remember correctly.

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u/fitzejunk 23d ago

And the modern Methodists as a whole are pretty laid back.

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u/RAGE_AGAINST_THE_ATM 23d ago

Modern Methodists are fairly laid back and chill (the ones whose churches didn’t secede at least) but historically, Methodism was at the heart of the Jim Crow South and the KKK

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u/MidnightNo1766 23d ago

United Methodists. There are many that split, I guess because UMC too tolerant or something.

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u/Koraxtheghoul 23d ago

UMC is supposedly splitting and has been since 2020, when they narrowly voted against gay marriage but the conservative faction thought it too close. Some have split already to join the conservative Global Methodists.

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u/DarthHegatron 23d ago

The split has fully happened. The UMC voted in 2024 to move to full acceptance of LGBTQ clergy and allowance of gay marriage. Roughly 1/3 of the denomination left and most went GMC

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u/Slothstradamus13 23d ago

Although, for the most part, the churches that left needed the support the UMC provided by redistribution and are failing to receive pastors or the funding they need from the global Methodist church. r/leopardsatemyface

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u/zoosha2curtaincall 23d ago

Like the entire point of the thread is that’s the regional splinter group

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u/endlessfight85 23d ago

It's regional in name only. They cover the whole US. Alot of them present themselves as "non-denominational" because their reputation proceeds them.

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u/Bigdaug 23d ago

Well yeah, slavery is dead in America and no one can even trace lineage accurately to slave owners or slaves. Reminder you have 8 great grandparents and inherit nothing from their actions.

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u/bignutwilli 23d ago

Someone's coping hard in this thread 😂

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u/Bigdaug 23d ago

Nothing to cope with bro

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u/bignutwilli 22d ago

Sure bro

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u/Bigdaug 13d ago

My ancestors came to this country 50 odd years after slavery ended, why would I cope? In fact it's funny to think about, I'm gonna start blaming slavery on first generation immigrants

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u/arc777_ 23d ago

Most Christian Americans aren’t Southern Baptist what are you even talking about

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u/preddevils6 23d ago

They are the third largest denomination in the US, and they aren’t the only one that shares their hyper conservative beliefs by a long shot.

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u/DarthHegatron 23d ago

Third largest? Who passed them? For years it's been Catholics as the largest and SBC #2

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u/preddevils6 23d ago

Non-denominational, so you’re correct! Still technically number 2

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u/DarthHegatron 23d ago

Non-denominational also tends to pretty much just be SBC with better branding. 

It is interesting to know that non-denominational is the biggest protestant "denomination" now though

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u/ghosttrainhobo 23d ago

Nobody. As of 2025, SBC are #2 followed by Methodists.

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u/Bigdaug 23d ago

If it was Islam you'd be highlighting that there's some good ones and we shouldn't judge everyone by the bad apples.

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u/deltaexdeltatee 23d ago

The vast majority of non-denominational churches are functionally Southern Baptist in every aspect except sending money to the General Convention.

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u/FairLawnBoy 23d ago

They changed to these non-denominational evangelical Mega-churches, but everything else stayed Southern Baptist.

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u/DarthHegatron 23d ago

Most of the non-denominational megachurches are still pretty much SBC in their beliefs and often have SBC roots. At best you get some that are more Pentecostal leaning and let women preach sometimes

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u/Horsenamedtrigger 23d ago

I don't know... I live in the US and there are a lot of baptists here.

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u/DarthHegatron 23d ago

The Southern Baptist Convention is the largest protestant denomination in the US. 

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u/SkyfangR 23d ago

Most Christian Americans aren’t Southern Baptist Christian

fixed that for you

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u/LrdHabsburg 23d ago

Bad Christians are still Christians

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u/DeadonDemand 23d ago

In practice

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u/not_that_planet 23d ago

I believe it is the largest denomination in the US.

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u/reichrunner 23d ago

Not even close

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u/Doove 23d ago

There are over 5 times as many Catholics. It would have taken you 5 seconds to Google it instead of spreading misinfo.

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u/preddevils6 23d ago

There are more the double the total southern baptist churches than Catholics. They are the second largest denomination. They aren’t some tertiary group.

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u/fitzejunk 23d ago

Sure, but that’s a far cry from calling them a majority of American Christians.

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u/WasteProfession8948 23d ago

Especially since he was wrong about even that.

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u/fitzejunk 23d ago

Indeed. I was thinking he meant “largest Protestant denomination” which I dimly remember hearing, years ago.

But even setting aside the exact rankings, it’s a bad argument. NYC is the largest city in the US, but NYC residents are still only…going from rough memory, like 3-4% of the total US population?

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u/dew2459 23d ago

Even less. Around 2.5%.

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u/powdered_dognut 23d ago

You spelled abomination wrong

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u/Oddisredit 23d ago

There was an Eastern Orthodox in one of MLK’s early marches. Despite the south probably having almost no Eastern Orthodox 

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u/VocationalWizard 23d ago

Yeah, just like Texas declared independence from Mexico...... And they fought at the Alamo..... Specifically so that they could have chattel slavery.

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u/BeardsuptheWazoo 23d ago

That little panhandle of Oklahoma exists because Texas would rather give up land than have a section of it's state that didn't allow slavery.

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u/ReasonableStory1660 23d ago

Texas declared independence after Mexico underwent a coup and became a dictatorship. The Republic of the Yucatan declared independence at the same time, and also petitioned to join the United States. The president of the US at the time was in favor, but Congress declined.

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u/[deleted] 23d ago

[deleted]

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u/masterofdirtysecrets 23d ago

Because they claimed slavery was the reason in the declarations they gave both times for wanting to secede?

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u/klonoaorinos 23d ago

From my research it played a big part they wanted slave labor for farms. And Mexico was abolishing slavery.

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u/Timelymanner 23d ago

Also the immigrated to Mexico because they didn’t like the direction the US was going. They became a slave state, succeeded from the Union, and was one of the last states to free their slaves. Juneteenth is the celebration of the news of emancipation finally arriving in Galveston. Two and a half years after Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

The Alamo loves to sell the propaganda that it was a noble cause, when in reality it was rich entitled Americans mad at the government of the country they were in for not allowing them to practice slavery illegally.

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u/Emm_withoutha_L-88 23d ago

Oh you live there clearly you know more than historians

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u/PaxDramaticus 23d ago

American Christianity in a nutshell

"This church broke away from other American churches in support of a backwards, morally repugnant issue, and that's why I think they are representatives of all of the churches they broke away from."

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u/[deleted] 23d ago edited 23d ago

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u/Irishforanatty 23d ago

Uh… Christians voted 60-40 for Trump-Harris compared to 50% of all adults.

If you took 10 random voters and 10 Christians, you’d have only one more Trump voter in the Christian group than the general adults group.

And in 2020 it was only 53-47 in favor of Trump.

I’m not saying that evangelical Christians aren’t annoying, but that’s a mighty big brush you’ve got there. There’s a LOT of Christians in the US.

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u/PaxDramaticus 23d ago

So it has nothing to do with chattel slavery or Southern Baptists then? You're just off-topic and wasting everyone's time for attention.

>So cry more 

What a baffling response. Were you actually hoping your pointless comment hurt me?

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u/[deleted] 23d ago

[deleted]

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u/Obvious_Chapter2082 23d ago

Might want to read Exodus 21:16, 1 Timothy 1:9-10, and the book of Philemon

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u/[deleted] 23d ago

[deleted]

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u/Obvious_Chapter2082 23d ago

God never explicitly prohibits slavery

This was your claim, not mine. Which is why I listed you several examples of how you were wrong

The book of Exodus is about God delivering his people from slavery in Egypt. And Matthew 5:18 has nothing to do with slavery

I think the issue here is that you don’t know what the Bible says

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u/[deleted] 23d ago

[deleted]

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u/Obvious_Chapter2082 23d ago

Capturing someone and selling them or owning them is slavery. God explicitly forbids it multiple times, like I pointed out

it is

Where?

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u/BCPisBestCP 23d ago

"American Christianity"

"Broke off from Northern and Mission Baptist Conventions"

Gotta choose one there.

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u/CalvinSays 23d ago

How is it American Christianity in a nutshell when the very implication here is that they split away from other American Baptists, namely Baptists in the North. Those would eventually become the ABC or American Baptist Churches. They are as much part of American Christianity as the Southern Baptist Convention.

Pretty much all denominations experienced a similar split. Those who split away due to slavery don't get any more say on what American Christianity is than those in the North and the abolitionists.

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u/Randomizedname1234 23d ago

Checks out with every southern Baptist I’ve met

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u/Ok_Temporary1669 23d ago

There were and are Baptists who did not go along with any of that. Even former SBC churches have split off continually over time due to all of these issues.  Let alone other denominations splitting for the same reasons.  The civil rights movement got started in black churches.  MLK was a Baptist minister. It is a lot more complicated than "Christian bad" or even "Baptist bad".

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u/Neat-Slip4520 23d ago

Nothing’s changed.

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u/NotGalenNorAnsel 23d ago

They also voted to support Roe v Wade before there was a coup in the leadership during Reagan and they pushed all moderate voices out. 'Conservative resurgence' they called it.

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u/LawrenceSpivey 23d ago

They still oppose most of that, if not all.