Evangelical Christians

[Satchel 6938]

Now it’s Tony Evan’s’ time in the barrel. He’s stepping “away”because of “sin.”

https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/dallas-county/oak-cliff-bible-fellowship-church-senior-pastor-tony-evans-stepping-away/287-2a83f54a-870c-4df3-acda-045cfd2c54e1

 

DALLAS — Tony Evans, who has served as the senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship Church for nearly 50 years, announced at services on Sunday he would be stepping away from his duties. 

In a statement, the church said this decision was made after multiple meetings between Evans and the church elders. 
 

The elder board is obligated to govern the church in accordance with the scriptures," the statement reads. "Dr. Evans and the elders agree that when any elder or pastor falls short of the high standards of scripture, the elders are responsible for providing accountability and maintaining integrity in the church."

In a written statement to the church, Evans said the foundation of the church has been its commitment to the word of God as the absolute supreme standard of truth to which they are to conform their lives.

"When we fall short of that standard due to sin, we are required to repent and restore our relationship with God," Evans wrote. "A number of years ago, I fell short of that standard."

Evans said that, while he hadn't committed any crime, he hadn't used righteous judgment in his actions. 

Evans added that Pastor Bobby Gibson and church leadership would keep its members informed on how things will continue moving forward. 

"I have never loved you more than I love you right now, and I’m trusting God to walk me through this valley," Evans concluded. "Thank you for your love, prayers, support, and forgiveness as I continue my spiritual healing journey."

 

 

[Gatorubet 30214]

3 hours ago, BeardIP said:

Could mean anything, right? "Not illegal, but sinful". That's literally anything and a weird vague "confession".

“ That Rascal Satan found a toe hold in my faith, and the next thing I knew I was fapping to old wonder woman episodes while dressed like Barbara Bush…with the window blinds open and the children’s choir able to see me.   Let this be a lesson to you, never watch Harry Potter movies! God Bless.”

[Satchel 6938]

6 hours ago, BeardIP said:

Could mean anything, right? "Not illegal, but sinful". That's literally anything and a weird vague "confession".

He’s either under some serious conviction to come clean, or he’s trying to get ahead of a breaking story in order to control the narrative. His church is known for publicly sin shaming recalcitrant congregants who can’t follow church imposed correction and discipline. The irony is thick here.

[atomheartbevo 89652]

This matches what I’ve seen in my wife’s former church, and I can flip on their Sunday morning livestreams and see that attendance has been declining for years.  We still receive a few free publications from various Baptist groups and they’ve turned to trying to fundraise a lot more, which correlates with a declining population - gotta get more money out of the remain memebrs,

In 2016, the Southern Baptists:

• Baptized 271K folks
• Lost 33K members

In 2022:

• Baptized 180K folks
• Lost 457K members

In 2023:

1. Baptized 227K folks
2. Lost 241K members

Since 2019:

• Lost 1.8 million members
• Baptized 921K

[NameAlreadyInUse 5112]

These numbers make me very happy, having grown up a southern Baptist.  Love seeing people join my club.  Hopefully they aren't losing their members to the crazier parts of Christianity and this is indicative of people coming to their senses.

[bolverk 29668]

Curious how many of those lost members were from deaths by Covid.

[MissingInAction 25041]

1 minute ago, bolverk said:

Curious how many of those lost members were from deaths by Covid.

Would love to see those stats.

My uncle from the SB side of the family died of heart failure in his 60s. He refused all treatment stating God had a plan for him, as he would stuff his maw with fried chicken and cheese.

Well you're dead now, so shut up.

[Ted Lange 16084]

My wife's uncle was the same way, 86'd by Covid that he thought was fake.

[Dahobbs 17534]

I did not realize that Southern Baptist churches could not have women pastors. It is insane that such thought it is still prevalent. 

[LCHorn 2616]

2 minutes ago, Dahobbs said:

I did not realize that Southern Baptist churches could not have women pastors. It is insane that such thought it is still prevalent. 

I guess…let’s be honest, that’s probably not top five, for me at least, in weird practices among the Baptists.  

[Dahobbs 17534]

6 minutes ago, LCHorn said:

I guess…let’s be honest, that’s probably not top five, for me at least, in weird practices among the Baptists.  

I also know next to nothing about Baptists apparently. 

[atomheartbevo 89652]

18 minutes ago, Dahobbs said:

I did not realize that Southern Baptist churches could not have women pastors. It is insane that such thought it is still prevalent. 

14 minutes ago, LCHorn said:

I guess…let’s be honest, that’s probably not top five, for me at least, in weird practices among the Baptists.  

I liked the old pastor at my wife’s old church - solid education, spoke multiple languages, etc., but they ruined the children’s programs, and they even had a guest pastor who went on about child sex trafficking that was the final straw for some, because there kids in the service and parents were hauling them out of there as quickly as possible,

[bolverk 29668]

13 minutes ago, Dahobbs said:

I also know next to nothing about Baptists apparently. 

Conversation has picked back up in the Christ Followers thread. Just read the last page or so. You can start here.

[SydneyCarton 48079]

28 minutes ago, Dahobbs said:

I did not realize that Southern Baptist churches could not have women pastors. It is insane that such thought it is still prevalent. 

Not only is it prevalent, but they're fighting tooth and nail to keep it that way. Think they're voting on it this week. 

[LCHorn 2616]

1 minute ago, atomheartbevo said:

I liked the old pastor at my wife’s old church - solid education, spoke multiple languages, etc., but they ruined the children’s programs, and they even had a guest pastor who went on about child sex trafficking that was the final straw for some, because there kids in the service and parents were hauling them out of there as quickly as possible,

I grew up in a small town and probably 75% of everyone I knew was Baptist or non-denominational but in congregation that had broken off from a more traditional Baptist church.  
 

There was definitely good people and pastors that cared, so I don’t want to paint with an overly broad brush.  That said, talking in tongues, proposing that the rapture is imminent, anti-Christ lives among us now, etc., it’s all just bananas.  Plus my experience was 20-30 years ago and the world should have (by their predictions) should have ended 5 or 6 times by now.  
 

I’m mostly just amazed that it’s taken this long for membership to fall because membership amongst pretty much ALL organized groups have declined over the past 20 years, and it’s at least correlated with the increase of online activity.  

[mooseoutfront 3643]

My maternal grandfather gave me two pieces of advice when I was young. Never trust a Baptist minister, and it’s not wrong to kill someone who needs to be killed. 
 

Kinda thought the two were related, but he died before I could confirm. 

[atomheartbevo 89652]

8 hours ago, LCHorn said:

I’m mostly just amazed that it’s taken this long for membership to fall because membership amongst pretty much ALL organized groups have declined over the past 20 years, and it’s at least correlated with the increase of online activity.  

It's a whole lot of white hairs and young MAGA family types who probably watch that trad wife shit on YouTube.

[troph 24783]

18 hours ago, NameAlreadyInUse said:

These numbers make me very happy, having grown up a southern Baptist.  Love seeing people join my club.  Hopefully they aren't losing their members to the crazier parts of Christianity and this is indicative of people coming to their senses.

It’s probably a combo of leaving all together, some olds dying including COVID and further radicalization. Unfortunately my way out was to go deeper into the cult first before coming out (pun intended). And before that’s dismissed as a LGBTQ phenomenon, there were hundreds of former SBC members (presumably straight/cisgender) in the charismatic / Pentecostal movement when I was in it. So I think it’s an all of the above situation here. 

[RPM 26318]

18 hours ago, NameAlreadyInUse said:

These numbers make me very happy, having grown up a southern Baptist.  Love seeing people join my club.  Hopefully they aren't losing their members to the crazier parts of Christianity and this is indicative of people coming to their senses.

I bet it's a 3 way split: Came to their senses / went full blown cult (Cowboy Church, etc.)/ went prosperity preacher.

[Bozo_Casanova 26444]

18 hours ago, MissingInAction said:

Would love to see those stats.

My uncle from the SB side of the family died of heart failure in his 60s. He refused all treatment stating God had a plan for him, as he would stuff his maw with fried chicken and cheese.

Well you're dead now, so shut up.

 

[WhatTheBuck 28776]

18 hours ago, bolverk said:

Curious how many of those lost members were from deaths by Covid.

Not enough.  }:-)>

Edited June 13 by WhatTheBuck

[Gatorubet 30214]

18 hours ago, MissingInAction said:

Would love to see those stats.

My uncle from the SB side of the family died of heart failure in his 60s. He refused all treatment stating God had a plan for him, as he would stuff his maw with fried chicken and cheese.

Well you're dead now, so shut up.

Well, he wasn’t wrong. 

[SimonBolivar 10958]

18 hours ago, LCHorn said:

I’m mostly just amazed that it’s taken this long for membership to fall because membership amongst pretty much ALL organized groups have declined over the past 20 years, and it’s at least correlated with the increase of online activity.  

It has been falling for 20 years.

 

Edited June 13 by SimonBolivar

[TeeDubya 3362]

You were saying?

 

https://apple.news/A9KjfvFirSd2WEpOcOuqFeg

The Southern Baptist Convention on Wednesday approved a measure opposing in vitro fertilization as “dehumanizing” and asking “the government to restrain” the practice, a sign of the broadening effort by conservative evangelicals and the antiabortion movement since the fall of Roe v. Wade.

Spoiler

Southern Baptist Convention votes to oppose in vitro fertilization

Earlier, representatives narrowly rejected a ban on women in pastoral roles. It gained 61% of the vote but needed two-thirds approval.

The Southern Baptist Convention on Wednesday approved a measure opposing in vitro fertilization as “dehumanizing” and asking “the government to restrain” the practice, a sign of the broadening effort by conservative evangelicals and the antiabortion movement since the fall of Roe v. Wade.

The vote thrust the denomination into a national dispute over a medical procedure that is immensely popular among Americans and has already played a role in an intense election season. An Alabama court ruling earlier this year that a frozen embryo is a person afforded a full range of rights set off massive backlash, prompting widespread Democratic criticism, and driving Republicans, including presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump, to speak in favor of protecting IVF.

Within a few weeks, the state’s Republican Gov. Kay Ivey signed a bill into law aimed at protecting IVF patients and providers from legal liability. Democrats have nonetheless cast the procedure as threatened, part of their broadside against Republicans as too extreme on reproductive issues. (Trump on Monday addressed a coalition of Southern Baptist groups in Indianapolis who oppose abortion in every case, pledging to walk “side by side” with them.)

The SBC vote came after several “messengers” — or attendees — testified emotionally about the impact of IVF in their own lives. They pushed for amendments to narrow the measure and make its condemnation more specific, but those efforts failed.

“I have a son because of IVF. I have another son, 20 weeks in my wife’s womb because of IVF and I have 10 embryos I love and with every bit of my being hope we will see born into a Christian family,” Zach Sahadak, a church member from Ohio, said into the microphone as his voice broke.

“I am for the sanctity of life and the sanctity of embryos. I am against the idea that this technology is so wicked that it cannot be employed.” He cited Christian couples who use IVF “to grow their family, to grow the church and all of it trusting in God’s sovereignty to give or take away life.”

Earlier Wednesday, representatives of the 14 million-member network narrowly rejected a constitutional amendment barring women from all pastoral positions, though a majority supported it. The move would have affected hundreds of churches where women serve in positions such as women’s pastor or children’s pastor, especially minority congregations where having women in official leadership positions is more common.

Constitutional amendments require two-thirds approval to pass, and the motion saying the SBC cooperates only with “churches that do not affirm, appoint, or employ a woman as a pastor of any kind” garnered 61 percent of votes, to 38 percent who rejected it.

The IVF resolution was believed to be the first-ever stand-alone measure on the topic, one that historian of U.S. religion Daniel Williams called a “testing of the waters” not unlike discussions in the 1970s and 1980s as the denomination started to become more and more strictly opposed to abortion.

“Republicans would prefer not to talk about this at all. But any resolution that receives a majority vote of 13 million people is something people will notice,” Williams said.

Williams, of Ashland University, said the votes this week reflect a continuation toward “a firm conservatism but not something that would necessarily appease the far-right wing of the convention.”

The voice vote on “On the Ethical Realities of Reproductive Technologies and the Dignity of the Human Embryo” was one of a raft of resolutions, which are understood as statements of Southern Baptist belief; they are not rules that come with enforcement mandates.

“This isn’t a bottom-up change,” said Mary Ziegler, a law professor and historian of the antiabortion movement. “It aligns with the Southern Baptist Convention trying to figure out how ultraconservative it’s going to be on personhood,” she said of the Christian movement that sees embryos and fertilized eggs as human beings with legal rights.

Ziegler said many leaders in the SBC and in the broader antiabortion movement have long opposed IVF, seeing it as a process that separates conception from the act of heterosexual sex and is disrespectful of human life. Church leaders have in the past downplayed that view in public, however, given IVF’s broad popularity. Seventy percent of Americans in April told Pew Research they think IVF is a “good thing,” including 63 percent of White evangelicals, who line up ideologically in general with Southern Baptists.

The SBC resolution cited the “searing pain” of infertility for some, and emphasized its long-standing policies about “the sanctity of human life.” It also noted IVF “routinely creates more embryos than can be implanted” — which has led opponents to argue that discarding those embryos is akin to murder.

R. Albert Mohler Jr., co-author of the IVF resolution and president of the flagship Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, said the measure is “a starting point for future discussion.” The Alabama ruling and the end of Roe v. Wade opened the door to deeper discussions about IVF, he said.

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“This is an awakening,” he said. “I find IVF morally problematic in any form, but it’s also clear there are more and less destructive and dangerous forms of IVF.”

Opponents of the amendment on women’s roles noted that there are only a few hundred SBC churches with women in any type of pastoral position — typically assistant pastors or pastors to women or children — out of 47,000 SBC churches, and that the issue should be handled on a case-by-case basis. They pointed to an overwhelming Tuesday vote that ruled an Alexandria, Va., church out of “cooperation” after the staff said they would be comfortable hiring a woman as lead pastor.

The convention, the country’s second-largest faith group, has been shifting to the right since a conservative insurgency in the 1980s. Until the 1960s, there were as many women in Southern Baptist seminaries as there were in liberal seminaries.

Rev. Mike Law, the Arlington, Va., pastor who proposed the amendment, told representatives Wednesday that the issue is about following scripture. He said the number of women serving as some kind of pastor is small but has ticked up in recent decades.

“Let’s be exceptionally clear: We gladly celebrate the myriad of women who serve the church in many ways, and we are so grateful,” he said. “This is not about women in ministry. It’s about women in the pastoral office.”

The results felt like a sharp rebuke to the outspoken hard-right in the SBC.

“Devastating,” tweeted the William Wolfe, a former Trump official who leads a group aimed at reforming the SBC. “This issue is not over. Not by a long shot.”

Last year the representatives voted overwhelmingly to expel churches that had women in top leadership pastoral roles — including the Rev. Rick Warren’s massive Saddleback Church, one of the biggest in the SBC. Supporters of this year’s amendment said it was needed for clarity.

The vote Tuesday about the First Baptist Church of Alexandria, in Virginia, said it was “not in friendly cooperation” with the SBC because it has a “pastor for women and children.”

First Baptist Pastor for Children and Women Kim Eskridge told The Post on Wednesday that her church was reported to the SBC by nearby pastor Law, of Arlington Baptist Church.

“My contention has always been that this is something we can agree to disagree on and keep the main thing the main thing, which is sharing the message with the Lord,” said Eskridge, whose church predates the existence of the SBC and has typical Sunday attendance of around 800.

J.D. Greear, a North Carolina pastor and former SBC president, called the measure “tragic — in a time when I feel we ought to be celebrating women as leaders and seeing better pathways for them, we just keep tightening this thing.”

Southern Baptists have been debating the role of women leaders since the late 1800s. But in the 1980s the topic became a focus as conservatives took charge of the convention and began to pass various measures to limit the formal roles of women.

In 2000, it amended the Faith and Message statement to say “the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.”

Baptist Women in Ministry, an advocacy group, in a statement Wednesday said they were grateful that the amendment failed but still “grieved” that so many voted for it.

“In the conflict surrounding this action for a stricter enforcement of oppressive theology, women have been further harmed. Millions of women have heard as the incorrect message that they do not have equal value to God and the church,” said a statement by Meredith Stone, the executive director. Stone said women in ministry were being “used as props for the display of extreme conservatism in order to advance the power of a faction within the SBC.”

Michelle Boorstein has been a religion reporter since 2006. She has covered the shifting blend of religion and politics under four U.S. presidents, chronicled the rise of secularism in the United States, and broken financial and sexual scandals from the synagogue down the street to the Mormon Church in Utah to the Vatican.

Democracy Dies in Darkness

© 1996-2024 The Washington Post

 

[Longhorn_Fan68 33869]

40 minutes ago, SimonBolivar said:

It has been falling for 20 years.

 

It seems that is a problematic graph without population context. Quick google says:

1950: 7.08/152.30=4.6%
1978: 13.2/222.6=5.9%
2006: 16.3/298.4=5.5%
2022: 13.2/333.3=4.0%

So they actually peaked in the late 70's, the pure number of congregants likely hid the true falling numbers.

[TeeDubya 3362]

All this said….

my wife and I were members of an SBC church in Fort Worth when we lived there. SBC until our church allowed our many gay couples to be pictured together in our church directory like our straight couples….  The SBC promptly booted our church out.  This became messy, since ANYONE on staff at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary had to be a member at an SBC church.  Nearly all of those affected by this quit the seminary, or retired to stay members of our church.

This church knows what ministry is.  Overnight shelter for homeless, feeding homeless, advocating for tenants on the verge of eviction, both in court and legislatively, and partners with neighborhood at-risk public schools to provide meals, clothing and school supplies.

The church is thriving, being the hands and feet of grace and love to so many powerless and disenfranchised in Fort Worth. 

There are good churches, but they go about things quietly, not begging to have the spotlight shining on them.  “…for they love to pray on the street corners to be seen by men….”

 

Edited June 13 by TeeDubya

[Saint Austin 745]

Southern Baptist numbers aren't dropping, they're just rebranding. So many are now just joining non-denominational churches that are Baptist in every way but their name.

[Longhorn_Fan68 33869]

so by definition their numbers are dropping. thanks for the confirmation.

[Sawbonz 27547]

38 minutes ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

so by definition their numbers are dropping. thanks for the confirmation.

I think he’s saying dropping SBC rolls doesn’t necessarily mean fewer loonies

[troph 24783]

wheat from the chaff and all of that provided the crusaders are dropped too, which they aren't.

[Longhorn_Fan68 33869]

8 minutes ago, Sawbonz said:

I think he’s saying dropping SBC rolls doesn’t necessarily mean fewer loonies

I know. I'm in a nitpicky mood today apparently.

[softlynow 1814]

The continued decentralization of Christianity is not a "good" thing from the perspective of the loony to non-loony ratio among believers. As the membership in mainline protestant churches decline, their power to prevent the proliferation of heresies such as Trump=messiah dissipates. It may not be long before even the social gospel churches have to turn to full-on fundamentalism to survive.

[Bozo_Casanova 26444]

39 minutes ago, Sawbonz said:

I think he’s saying dropping SBC rolls doesn’t necessarily mean fewer loonies

I wonder, what is the number of adherents who left the SBC because they thought it was too liberal, or “woke,” in the contemporary parlance?

[wildcat09 29349]

2 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

I wonder, what is the number of adherents who left the SBC because they thought it was too liberal, or “woke,” in the contemporary parlance?

I don't know, but we need to invest many billions of dollars into finding and sterilizing them for the good of humanity.

[Pato del Muerto 52489]

Who is the wheat and who is the chaff is a matter of perspective, I guess. 

[SimonBolivar 10958]

7 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

I wonder, what is the number of adherents who left the SBC because they thought it was too liberal, or “woke,” in the contemporary parlance?

Anecdotal, but my parents fall into the former SBC now non-denom camp and they didn't really move for any particular theological or political reason but rather they're in their 60s and all the people at the FBC are in their 80s and their friends go to/run non-denom pop ups now so they do too. There is no real difference outside of the structure of the SBC church missing, ironically.

[SydneyCarton 48079]

3 minutes ago, SimonBolivar said:

Anecdotal, but my parents fall into the former SBC now non-denom camp and they didn't really move for any particular theological or political reason but rather they're in their 60s and all the people at the FBC are in their 80s and their friends go to/run non-denom pop ups now so they do too. There is no real difference outside of the structure of the SBC church missing, ironically.

I'm sure with less structure even more kids are getting molested. 

[Bozo_Casanova 26444]

4 minutes ago, SimonBolivar said:

There is no real difference outside of the structure of the SBC church missing, ironically.

I feel like the pastor jeans are more sparkly

[SimonBolivar 10958]

1 minute ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

I feel like the pastor jeans are more sparkly

Their church has the gall to allow a couple as co-preachers. They'll probably end up in hell with a woman preaching to them every Sunday.

 

I did notice that when I was being raised, we were strictly a Sunday School and Sunday morning service family and that was it as far as our church lives. Now they're much more about small group meetings and skip out on Sundays. Maybe they're swingers for Jesus now or something? I try not to think about it.

[MissingInAction 25041]

22 hours ago, LCHorn said:

I guess…let’s be honest, that’s probably not top five, for me at least, in weird practices among the Baptists.  

At my grandmother's 80th birthday, which was held at the church, I gave her a birthday card.

It was one of those which played music as it was opened.

As soon as she opened it and the music played the Beatles Happy Birthday, one of her congregation snatched it up and threw it outside.

Only the gospel is to be sung.. Ever!

That and women aren't allowed to wear pants.

It is a truly fucked up segment of society. If any group needs to be rounded up and deported it's these lunatics.

[SimonBolivar 10958]

1 hour ago, Saint Austin said:

Southern Baptist numbers aren't dropping, they're just rebranding. So many are now just joining non-denominational churches that are Baptist in every way but their name.

100% but as a % of the overall population they are dropping as religious pluralism continues to grow in the US, which is annoying as it feels that they have more power than they've had in decades. 

 

[Macanudo 12976]

1 hour ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

I know. I'm in a nitpicky mood today apparently.

"Today" ?

[SimonBolivar 10958]

1 minute ago, BeardIP said:

Going to church once a week as a compulsory event to check the box, but then never reading the word or growing in your faith during the week, is the epitome of what is wrong with the culture of Christianity in America and has begat a lot of the "Christianity" that non-Christians and Christians alike find to be tragic and unacceptable and ultimately an abomination.

But yea, a whole generation was raised primarily with that type of programming. These people are honestly probably better off not even going that once a week out of obligation/legalism. Going to church doesn't save anyone, as they say.

They've upgraded to it being a potluck once a week as the obligation, which is better than your weekly Krispy Kreme or Shipley. Also I'm sure small group is probably shorter than sunday school + sermon, but you do lose the smug feeling at McAllister's/Luby's/Picadilly afterwards when you see people not in church clothes.

[tx 3 putt 76906]

Sex abuse = not an issue 

wokeness = a problem that must be eliminated 

fuck the sbc, double fuck sbc members, triple fuck anyone still giving the sbc $$$. May all sbc enablers be sexually abused by your pastor 

 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13511]

29 minutes ago, SimonBolivar said:

100% but as a % of the overall population they are dropping as religious pluralism continues to grow in the US, which is annoying as it feels that they have more power than they've had in decades. 

 

The media plays it up how evangelicals now blindly support Trump and have stopped caring about family values in their politicians. Perhaps that has always been the case with the remaining evangelicals but they've run off the more righteous believers who have left the church.

[Jiggy-Z 3432]

How is it that Norway, which has an actual state religion, has a population that does not give a shit about religion?

My family visited some friends of ours over there a couple of years ago. After a few hugs and greetings it was like: "So America, what the fuck are you guys doing?"

['stache 21802]

Dear leader has spoken. 

[NameAlreadyInUse 5112]

2 hours ago, BeardIP said:

Going to church once a week as a compulsory event to check the box, but then never reading the word or growing in your faith during the week, is the epitome of what is wrong with the culture of Christianity in America and has begat a lot of the "Christianity" that non-Christians and Christians alike find to be tragic and unacceptable and ultimately an abomination.

But yea, a whole generation was raised primarily with that type of programming. These people are honestly probably better off not even going that once a week out of obligation/legalism. Going to church doesn't save anyone, as they say.

This was me every sunday at 12:01, leaving my First Baptist Church.

 

 

[Sawbonz 27547]

3 hours ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

I wonder, what is the number of adherents who left the SBC because they thought it was too liberal, or “woke,” in the contemporary parlance?

[Tigersnake 670]

So, spent a fair amount of time growing up with half of my extended family attending rural SBC-type churches, another part of my youth spent around the Church of Christ etc. . So my question is, what happened to the major issue of demon-possessed music artists making music with subliminal devil messages that you can play backwards on a record player??? Like, the technology actually exists now where you could easily produce music with nefarious hidden messages, but you hear nothing about it. We used to play the Beatles and Blue Oyster Cult backwards and be like, "Holy shit, that's some spooky stuff!".   Record players (largely) went away, but still it seems like they could revive that one.