“Willy Rice’s election proves that there is an appetite in the SBC for real conservative reform and renewal,” William Wolfe told RNS in an interview. “We believe his victory is a major vindication of the issues we have addressed and fought for over the last few years in the SBC.”

ORLANDO, Fla. (RNS)—Willy Rice, senior pastor of Calvary Church in Clearwater, Florida, was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention on Tuesday (June 9).

He received 5,217 votes—57% of the votes cast. His opponent, Josh Powell, lead pastor of Taylors First Baptist Church in South Carolina, received 3,821 votes, or 42%.

Rice’s election is a triumph for critics who claim the denomination has lost its way in recent years. He has alleged that the SBC’s sexual abuse crisis was more hoax than reality and said the denomination’s leaders had followed the culture more than the Bible.

The two candidates were similar. Both are conservative. Both are in favor of a ban on churches with women pastors. Both are fans of missionary work and are lifelong Southern Baptists. Both claimed that concerns that the SBC had a sexual abuse crisis were overblown.

But they offered disparate views of the state of the convention during a lunchtime forum, held a few hours before the election, during the SBC’s gathering at Orange County Convention Center in Orlando this week.

“I’m afraid, you know, if we are not careful, we’re going to hug ourselves to death,” Rice told the audience at the forum, hosted by Baptist21, a group of younger pastors. “All we are going to do is talk about how great we are. We are going to wake up one day and be Kodak or Blockbuster.”

Rice told attendees that Southern Baptist leaders were led astray by what he called a “cultural riptide” on issues of race, social justice and politics. That led to what he said were bad decisions that have undermined trust in the SBC’s leadership.

He defended those who say the SBC has lost its way.

“Look, if you look at the last 10 years and say, ‘I think it’s been great, we haven’t had any drift.…We weren’t caught in any kind of riptide,’ well, then I don’t know that I could say anything here today that would make you change your mind,” he said. “To me, it was obvious.”

Rice also faced questions about some of his supporters. He has had close ties to the Center for Baptist Leadership, a group that claims that the SBC has become liberal. That group is led by former Trump administration staffer William Wolfe, known for his controversial social media posts.

Texas pastor Juan Sanchez, one of the panel speakers, said some of Rice’s supporters “say pretty intense stuff online” and asked what role those supporters might have if he became president.

“We can play that game all day long,” Rice said, adding that people with all kinds of viewpoints say controversial things online. Rice said he wants to listen to everyone and that sometimes people who say harsh things online have a point.

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