The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the largest Protestant Christian denomination in the United States, has experienced a pivotal week as it took significant steps to the social and theological right during its annual gathering. This shift has been urged on by an upstart far-right movement that now appears to be in control. Delegates, known as messengers, gathered in Orlando, Florida, and elected a hardline conservative as president, advanced a prohibition on women serving as pastors, and debated an amendment to honor right-wing martyr Charlie Kirk as part of a resolution condemning political violence.
The Rise of Ultra-Conservative Faction
These developments represent triumphs for a rising faction within the SBC, which is already a very conservative evangelical denomination. The church can be broadly divided into a mainstream conservative majority, often referred to as moderate, and an insurgent ultra-conservative, anti-establishment movement that has gained support and influence since the start of the decade. This is partly a natural process, as Americans become less likely to affiliate with organized religion, leading liberal and progressive believers to leave while more ideologically conservative and theologically traditional individuals remain dominant.
However, a modern influence is playing a role: the online right. A bubbling ecosystem of far-right and conservative influencers, creators, commentators, and podcasters is repeatedly emerging as a dividing line within the convention. This phenomenon is not limited to the Southern Baptist church or evangelicals, as the internet increasingly seeps into theological debates across denominations.
The Role of Social Media Influencers
According to Ryan Burge, a former Baptist pastor and religious researcher, the SBC serves as a perfect test case of this trend. Hardliners are using social media to gin up a second conservative resurgence. The influencer campaigns mirror those in politics, with individual users scrutinizing speeches, seminary materials, and other content for evidence of liberalism, blaming it for the church's membership struggles.
Phil Williams, a Nashville-area TV reporter, has documented the slow rise of these influencers within the SBC in his Substack, Hate Comes to Main Street. He argues that white nationalist, nativist, and extremist rhetoric increasingly comes straight from online influencers, resulting in a union between dogmatic power seekers and characters whose controversial ideas were once seen as representing hate in America.
Central to this movement is William Wolfe, a podcaster and former Trump administration official who directs the Center for Baptist Leadership. Wolfe has boosted fringe accounts, spoken at far-right conferences, and shared ultra-conservative views on immigration, gender, and race, while pledging to defeat the mind virus of white guilt. Williams describes this as a political project to push America further to the right, with the SBC as a key vehicle.
Disputed Claims of Liberalization
Despite the rhetoric, Samuel Perry, a professor of sociology at the University of Oklahoma, disputes the claim that the SBC has moved left. He states that survey data shows no evidence of liberalization, and influencers like Wolfe are making it up. Nevertheless, the ultra-conservative cohort, though not a majority, has used social media cache and rabble-rousing energy to translate internet discourse into grassroots change, even when they lose votes.
The SBC has been shrinking rapidly, partly due to growing secularism, but also due to theological splits and disaffiliations by autonomous churches that find the denomination drifting too far right. A major sexual abuse crisis has also contributed. Burge's research shows that the four largest drops in SBC membership have occurred since 2020, with a nearly 400,000 drop in 2025. This results in a smaller, more purified church, a dynamic likely to continue due to the influencer-driven media landscape.
Broader Implications for American Christianity
The SBC case previews what may await other Christian denominations. Two broader trends are at play: the decline of institutional church membership and the democratization of religious discourse online. Just as the printing press aided Martin Luther, the internet enables voices challenging pastors and church leaders. Many of these voices sound like popular online content, such as a Christianized version of Andrew Tate's message.
Heidi Campbell, a professor at Texas A&M University, notes that new platforms like Substack and TikTok have allowed independent critics to rise alongside institutional promoters. In the post-pandemic era, these influencers wield tremendous influence outside mainstream religious institutions and can rival them. Campbell finds that pro- and anti-institutional voices are balanced, but Christian nationalist commentary gets disproportionate attention.
YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok are filled with pop theologians, vloggers, and pseudo-scholars explaining faith and offering guidance. Perry notes that institutional figures often hesitate to engage this universe, ceding influence to new voices. The effect is that pastors now need podcasts and online platforms to have a voice in evangelicalism.
Pushback and Future Trends
There has been pushback. The SBC reaffirmed that there is no place for nativism or racism, and the Presbyterian Church in America reprimanded a right-wing influencer. However, conversations within religions mirror those outside, and boundaries blur. Just as right-leaning evangelical churches face MAGA-era culture wars, mainline Protestant churches have splintered over inclusion. Social media has accelerated these trends, closing doors to turning back.
This holds serious implications: churches become smaller, lose cultural influence, and cede moral authority to figures using them for political goals. The rise of nondenominational churches, free from institutional weight but lacking reach, and unchurched evangelicals who pick beliefs aligning with their feeds, are signs. Burge concludes that society is now bottom-up, not top-down. While some young people join faith communities to escape online distractions, daily life on screens means the influence of platforms like TikTok will persist. Last week's convention is not the last example.
