Southern Baptist Growth Stops

The Southern Baptist Convention, embroiled in a bitter internal struggle for control of the 14.7 million-member denomination, saw its growth grind to a virtual halt last year, according to figures made public today.

Membership in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination reached a new total of 14,727,770, an increase of 0.7% and the smallest growth since 1936. The Baptists have been wracked since 1979 by a bitter feud as fundamentalists, seeking to impose a theologically rigid view of biblical literalism and a conservative political agenda on the denomination, have slowly wrested control from moderates at the church’s boards, agencies and seminaries.