The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), alternatively the Great Commission Baptists (GCB), is a Baptist Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination, and the largest Protestant and second-largest Christian denomination in the United States. In 1845 the Southern Baptists separated from the Triennial Convention in order to support slavery, which the southern churches regarded as "an institution of heaven". During the 19th and most of the 20th century, it played a central role in Southern racial attitudes, supporting racial segregation and the Lost Cause of the Confederacy while opposing interracial marriage. In 1995, the organization apologized for its history. Since the 1940s, it has spread across the United States, having member churches across the country and 41 affiliated state conventions.
Martin Luther King Sr. was an African-American Baptist pastor, missionary, and an early figure in the Civil Rights Movement. He was the father and namesake of the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. He was the senior pastor of Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church from 1931 to 1975.
Herman Cain was an American businessman and Tea Party movement activist in the Republican Party. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Cain grew up in Georgia and graduated from Morehouse College with a bachelor's degree in mathematics. He then earned a master's degree in computer science at Purdue University while also working full-time for the U.S. Department of the Navy. In 1977, he joined the Pillsbury Company where he later became vice president. During the 1980s, Cain's success as a business executive at Burger King prompted Pillsbury to appoint him as chairman and CEO of Godfather's Pizza, in which capacity he served from 1986 to 1996.
Eddie Lee Long was an American pastor who served as the senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, a megachurch in unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, from 1987 until his death in 2017.
Michael S. Piazza is a prolific spiritual author and social justice advocate who currently serves as pastor of Broadway United Church of Christ in New York City. Previously, he was interim pastor of First Presbyterian Church in New Canaan, CT. Before that, he served as senior pastor of Virginia Highland Church, a congregation dually affiliated with the Alliance of Baptists and the United Church of Christ.
First Baptist Church of Atlanta is a Baptist megachurch located in Dunwoody, Georgia, a northern suburb of Atlanta. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. Originally located in Atlanta city limits, First Baptist Atlanta moved to the suburb of Dunwoody, Georgia. The senior pastor is Anthony George, succeeding Charles Stanley who pastored there for 49 years.
Johnny M. Hunt is an American evangelical Christian pastor, author, and former president of the Southern Baptist Convention. He was also formerly senior pastor of First Baptist Church Woodstock, in Woodstock, Georgia. He was the first Native American president of the SBC. He previously served as the Senior Vice President of the Evangelism & Leadership division of the North American Mission Board—the church planting and domestic evangelism arm of the SBC—speaking nationally to church leaders and congregants about sharing the Christian Gospel.
Religion in Atlanta, while historically centered on Protestant Christianity, now involves many faiths as a result of the city and metro area's increasingly international population. While Protestant Christianity still maintains a strong presence in the city, in recent decades Catholic Christians have gained a strong foothold due to migration patterns. Atlanta also has a considerable number of ethnic Christian congregations, such as Korean Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian Churches, the Tamil Church Atlanta, Telugu Church, Hindi Church, Malayalam Church, Ethiopian, Chinese, and many more traditional ethnic religious groups. Large non-Christian faiths are present in the form of Buddhism, Judaism and Hinduism. Overall, there are over 1,000 places of worship within Atlanta.
Since 1937, the United States presidential inauguration has included one or more prayers given by members of the clergy. Since 1933 an associated prayer service either public or private attended by the president-elect has often taken place on the morning of the day. At times a major public or broadcast prayer service takes place after the main ceremony most recently on the next day.
Leonard Gaston Broughton was a fundamentalist Baptist minister, medical doctor, founder of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia and of Tabernacle Infirmary, which later became Georgia Baptist Hospital.
First Baptist Dallas is a Baptist megachurch located in Dallas, Texas. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. It was established in 1868 and, as of 2018, has a congregation of about 13,000. In 2017, weekly attendance for worship services was reported around 3,700 and online attendance was over 10,000 The church, considered influential among evangelical Christians in the United States, also owns and operates a school, several radio stations, and Dallas Life, a mission for the homeless on the southern edge of Downtown Dallas. The current pastor is Dr. Robert Jeffress, with previous pastors of the church including Dr. WA Criswell and George W. Truett.
Jamal Harrison Bryant is an American minister, author and former political candidate. He is the senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church.
Peachtree Presbyterian Church is a megachurch located in Atlanta, Georgia, and a member of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Peachtree averages about 3200 in weekly worship at two venues on both sides of Roswell Road in the Buckhead district of Atlanta, and is one of the largest Presbyterian congregations in the United States of America.
English Avenue and Vine City are two adjacent and closely linked neighborhoods of Atlanta, Georgia. Together the neighborhoods make up neighborhood planning unit L. The two neighborhoods are frequently cited together in reference to shared problems and to shared redevelopment schemes and revitalization plans.
Cameron M. Alexander was an American Baptist minister. He was the leader of the 12,000-member Antioch Baptist Church North and community leader in the English Avenue neighborhood in Atlanta.
First Baptist Church Woodstock is a Baptist megachurch in the northwestern Atlanta suburb of Woodstock, Georgia. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. The lead pastor is Jeremy Morton.
Ebenezer Baptist Church is a Baptist megachurch located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, affiliated with the Progressive National Baptist Convention and American Baptist Churches USA. It was the church where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was co-pastor from 1960 until his assassination in 1968, the location of the funerals of both Dr. King and, in it's later expanded sanctuary, congressman John Lewis, and the church for which United States Senator Raphael Warnock has been pastor since 2005. Its historic church building and expanded sanctuary building are located in the historic area now designated as the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park.
Highland Park Presbyterian Church is a Presbyterian church in University Park, Texas, with a Dallas post office address. In 2013, HP Pres voted to change its affiliation from Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians.
Raphael Gamaliel Warnock is an American Baptist pastor and politician serving as the junior United States senator from Georgia since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, Warnock has been the senior pastor of Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church since 2005.
