The First Baptist Church of Greenville, one of the founders of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1845, voted 500-47 to defect from the denomination.
The convention’s declaration that women should “submit graciously” to their husbands caused a struggle within the Greenville church, adding to years of frustration that had already caused the church to stop making contributions to the convention in 1993. First Baptist leaders cited in particular their concern over academic freedom in convention-controlled seminaries.
The Southern Baptist Convention allocates money for missionary projects, prints religious education materials and controls its seminaries, but has no direct control over churches in its membership.
