Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee Head Ronnie Floyd Resigns Amid Dispute Over Abuse Investigation

Ronnie Floyd, a former megachurch pastor, has resigned as president and CEO of the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, the denomination’s Nashville-based agency. Floyd released a letter Thursday night announcing his resignation. One report places the resignation in mid-October, while the other describes the letter as released that Thursday night, after the committee’s early-October vote described below.

The resignation came amid a third-party investigation into claims that the Executive Committee mishandled allegations of sexual abuse for more than two decades. Floyd had been involved in weeks of bitter debate over how Baptist leaders treated survivors of sexual abuse. Examining how such allegations were handled bears on protecting the vulnerable (Mark 9:42).

On Tuesday afternoon, October 5, the Executive Committee voted to waive attorney-client privilege during the investigation. Floyd said the vote placed the missionary enterprise into “uncertain, unknown, unprecedented and uncharted waters.” He also said a transparent investigation could have been completed without creating potential risks to the convention’s liability. At least ten Executive Committee members resigned either immediately before or just after the vote, according to one report.

The two reports differ on the reasons for Floyd’s departure. One report says Floyd blamed the transparency decision for putting members’ private careers in jeopardy. The other says his departure was over how much access investigators would have access to records of past conversations and other communications, and that it was not a matter of personal blame. In his letter, Floyd said that further association with the committee put “personal integrity, reputation, and leadership” at risk.

Floyd said he will serve through the end of October. He had served as the denomination’s day-to-day leader since 2019.

One report places the resignation within a longer run of leadership losses. It says that since 2018 the Southern Baptist Convention has lost a series of high-profile leaders whose tenures ended because of controversy or misconduct. It also says Paige Patterson was fired for mishandling a sexual assault at a seminary he led.

The same report says the convention has lost more than 2 million members since 2006, and that baptisms have declined for years. It also cites a 2019 Houston Chronicle report that documented hundreds of cases of abuse at Southern Baptist churches.