The church I attend is part of the Southern Baptist Convention.
That's neat, I don't consider myself religious at all, but I know the Southern Baptist Convention is the world's largest Baptist denomination with more than 15 million members.
Yes, it is a large organization.  I don't know much about it's history.  Do you know when it was founded?
Yes it started in 1845 when the Baptists in the southern US split from the northern Baptists over the issue of slavery.
Wow, so I take it that the Southern Baptists supported slavery?  That is just crazy.
I would assume so, since the specific issue they were arguing about was whether southern slave owners could serve as missionaries.
I did not know that.  I wonder when they chose to change their stance on slavery.  I wonder how many slave owners actually wanted to be missionaries.
Well I believe since the 1940s the Southern Baptist Convention has tried to shift from some of its regional and historical identification, so I think they were fairly late to change their opinions.
That is really nuts.  I know that during the civil rights era, the Southern Baptists were pretty split on the issues of the day.
That's unfortunate they still hold those views, I know the issue of slavery caused the formation of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which split from the SBC.