AUGUSTA, Ga. — Southern Baptist Convention President Bart Barber announced Tuesday that he will be leaving X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, after its recent clarification of its policy regarding adult content.
“I’m staying on X through the end of the SBC Annual Meeting,” Barber posted on the platform, “but with the recent pornography announcement, as well as with a need for a more quiet life for me for at least a while, I’ll be stepping back from this platform starting June 12.”
As XBIZ reported, X updated its adult content rules over the weekend, aiming to clarify how NSFW content may be posted and viewed.
The new policy states that users “may share consensually produced and distributed adult nudity or sexual behavior, provided it’s properly labeled and not prominently displayed.”
The policy also establishes a specific “Adult Content” warning, instead of the generic “Sensitive Media” label.
“We believe that users should be able to create, distribute, and consume material related to sexual themes as long as it is consensually produced and distributed,” the policy statement explains. “Sexual expression, whether visual or written, can be a legitimate form of artistic expression. We believe in the autonomy of adults to engage with and create content that reflects their own beliefs, desires, and experiences, including those related to sexuality.”
Barber did not clarify which of these statements or policies he objects to, but the Southern Baptist Church — the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. — has been consistently vocal about its opposition to free sexual expression.
Although Mormons and conservative Catholics have stepped to the forefront of the War of Porn since 2015, the role of Protestant groups like the Southern Baptist Church and diverse evangelical allies has been central in influencing political opposition to adult content in the U.S. and the world.
Southern Baptist leaders have compared the current War on Porn — and particularly the Exodus Cry-driven attack on Pornhub — to the early church’s fight against “pagan culture.” SBC leaders have called for state censorship of all pornography, labeling the adult industry’s constitutionally protected exercise of free speech “an individual private indulgence” that combines “sexual abuse and trafficking.”
One of the church’s main publications has theorized that “one in five youth pastors — and one in seven senior pastors — use porn on a regular basis,” and suggested that “those who recruit young adults to student ministry say porn addictions make many feel unworthy to answer the call to ministry.”
A Church Mired in Sexual Scandals
As XBIZ reported, in 2020 two church leaders advised Southern Baptists to spend more time “fighting pornography” rather than debating church doctrine, the SBC’s history of white supremacy or cases of sexual abuse by clergy.
In 2023, Barber had to ask public forgiveness after agreeing to file a controversial friend-of-the-court brief the previous year in a sexual abuse case in Kentucky.
Although Barber blamed a disgraced staffer for drafting the memo he authorized, he also acknowledged that a lot of people were disappointed with him and angry.
“I’m talking about friends I’ve had for two decades,” he added. “I’m talking about survivors of sexual abuse for whom I have wanted to be an advocate.”
“A lot of people — a lot of friends and allies — are really disappointed with me today,” he added. “I don’t have words to express how I feel about that.”