Diversity of the SBC, Lifeway Campers Donation & New Legislation to Support Pregnant Women

The growing diversity of the Southern Baptist Convention was highlighted in reports given by SBC Executive Committee staff to the trustees Sept. 20 in Nashville.

Charles Grant, associate vice president of African American relations and mobilization at the EC, noted that the SBC is now 22.3 percent racially and ethnically diverse, and even during the pandemic, 62 percent of new Southern Baptist church plants were racially and ethnically diverse.

Currently, there are 4,000 African, African American and Caribbean Island congregations in the SBC, 3,200 Hispanic congregations and 2,000 Asian churches.
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A missions offering given by campers this summer is making an impact on mission work in the US and around the world. Ben Mandrell, the president of Lifeway Resources, announced this week that campers gave more than $540,000 this summer at camp.

Earlier this week in Nashville he presented checks to the International Mission Board and the North American Mission Board on behalf of the campers.
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New legislation to help support pregnant women, young mothers and their children in a post-Roe America has gained congressional introduction.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, introduced a legislative package titled the Providing for Life Act Sept. 15 in each member’s respective house of Congress.

The legislation’s proposals include expansion of the Child Tax Credit, increased tax relief for adoptive parents, authorization of new parents to pull forward their Social Security benefits for paid parental leave, incentives for states to require fathers to pay half of a mother’s medical costs during pregnancy, protection of the rights of pregnant college students and permission for pregnancy resource centers to receive federal funding.

The legislative package followed in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 24 ruling in a Mississippi case that reversed Roe v. Wade, a 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide. The high court’s opinion returned abortion policy to the states. Some states have outlawed most or all abortions, while others have promoted themselves as abortion destinations.