Harry Edward (Ed) Litton Jr. (born July 17, 1959) is an American evangelical pastor who was the 63rd president of the Southern Baptist Convention, elected in June 2021. He also serves as the senior pastor of Redemption Church in

Saraland, Alabama Saraland is a city in Mobile County, Alabama, United States, and a suburb of Mobile. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 16,171, up from 13,405 at the 2010 census. Saraland, part of the Mobile metropolitan area, is the third la ...

Early life and education

Litton was born at Kingsport, Tennessee's Holston Valley Community Hospital on July 17, 1959, to Harry and Sue Litton. He graduated from

Grand Canyon University Grand Canyon University (GCU) is a private for-profit Christian university in Phoenix, Arizona. Based on student enrollment, Grand Canyon University was the largest Christian university in the world in 2018, with 20,000 attending students on c ...

in 1983 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in religion and theater. He later received a Master of Divinity from

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary The Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is a Baptist theological institute in Fort Worth, Texas. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. It was established in 1908 and is one of the largest seminaries in the world. It ...

and a

Doctor of Ministry The Doctor of Ministry (abbreviated DMin or D.Min.) is a professional doctorate, often including a research component, that may be earned by a minister of religion while concurrently engaged in some form of ministry. It is categorized as an advance ...

degree from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Career

Litton began his career as a pastor at churches in

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

and

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

. Since 1994, he has served as the pastor of Redemption Church in

. He was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention in June 2021 on the second ballot with 52 percent of the vote and a margin of 556 votes. Litton has been described by news outlets as ideologically moderate, but identifies himself as both politically and theologically conservative. He is known for his work on race issues in the greater Mobile, Alabama, area and in the Southern Baptist Convention, and was nominated and endorsed for the SBC presidency by Fred Luter, the only black pastor to ever serve as the president of the convention. Following a May 2022 report detailing nearly two decades of SBC leadership stonewalling and disparaging clergy sex abuse survivors, Litton urged the organization "to take deliberate action to address these failures and chart a new course." Litton announced that he would not stand for re-election as SBC President at the 2022 Annual Meeting, choosing instead to focus on racial reconciliation.

Personal life

Litton's first wife, Tammy, was killed in a car accident in 2007. His current wife, Kathy (who was also widowed from her first marriage), was a director with the Southern Baptist Convention's

North American Mission Board The North American Mission Board (NAMB) is the domestic missions agency of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). It is involved in Southern Baptist church planting and revitalization, coordinating one of the United States's largest disaster relie ...

and the denomination's first woman registration secretary. He has three children from his first marriage. Litton has appeared in two Christian films, playing minor roles in each: * Courageous, as Pastor Rogers * I Still Believe, as the Dean of Students He also appeared in one episode of the religious documentary series ''Faith Nation'' being interviewed as SBC President.

Plagiarism allegations

In June 2021, Litton was accused of plagiarism after a YouTube user published a video showing him preaching a sermon that bloggers on social media described as strikingly similar to a sermon preached a year earlier by J. D. Greear. Further videos were released of sermons Litton preached on Romans 13 Romans 14, and the Book of Acts, all of which were compared to sermons preached by Greear. Some media outlets described the controversy as Sermongate. ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...

'' and ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' reported that Litton's church had removed videos of over 140 sermons from their website. Litton released a statement on his church website admitting to using Greear's words without proper attribution. Textbooks on sermon preparation and delivery generally discourage such practices. Further allegations have now been made against Litton's co-pastor, Taylor Anderson, who also appears to have plagiarized a sermon by Greear.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Litton, Ed 1959 births 20th-century American clergy 21st-century American clergy Grand Canyon University alumni Living people People from Mobile County, Alabama People involved in plagiarism controversies Southern Baptist Convention presidents Southern Baptist Theological Seminary alumni Southern Baptist ministers People from Kingsport, Tennessee