Tagged: Rev. Fred Luter

The nation's largest Protestant denomination is set to take its biggest step yet toward resolving its troubled racial past.

On Tuesday, the Southern Baptist Convention plans to vote on whether to elect an African-American president for the first time in the denomination's 167-year history. The Rev. Fred Luter Jr. is so-far unopposed for the position.

Seventeen years ago, Luter was one of the authors of an SBC resolution that apologized to African-Americans for perpetuating racism and resolved to strive for racial reconciliation.

The pastor of the Franklin Avenue Baptist Church is poised this week to become the first African-American president of the Southern Baptist Convention. His career as a church pastor was not something he imagined as a child.